This Platinum Crown

by Capn_Chryssalid

Chapter Fifty Three : Explode

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(53)

Explode

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Vinyl Scratch gritted her teeth and bit back a growl as her nose brushed the surface of the floor. The up-and-coming DJ had the changeling looming behind her to thank for her current position, shoved down into a mockery of a formal bow. Nor was she alone in her misfortune.

An indignant yip to her left suggested that Octavia was enduring the same treatment. Neither musician was exactly the type to quietly take abuse, but they weren’t suicidal either. These changeling bugs weren’t screwing around. Vinyl had thought she’d interacted with the last of them when she’d foisted off her explanation on why Twilight Sparkle would be heading to the radio tower. The changelings seemed to have bought into the lie, only to suddenly pull the two mares away from the group and drag them downstairs an hour or two later.

“You will bow before Princess Exuvia, pony!” the changeling growled, forcing Vinyl’s nose to the floor.

“Now, now,” a mare’s voice gently admonished the gruff changeling. The changeling marehandling her was, Vinyl remembered, the same one that had threatened to put out her eye with a knife if she lied. Thank the Princess it still hadn’t caught on to the fact that she had done just that.

“I asked you to bring them down here gently, sister. Gently,” the new voice continued to say. “These are valuable ponies, after all. Please handle them with care.”

“As – as you say, Princess! My apologies!”

Vinyl felt the back of her head come free, the changeling’s grip instantly released. Looking up, she recognized where they had taken her: it was the record archive for the radio station. Thousands of black vinyl disks were stored here in library-like rows of shelves. There were changelings moving among them, undisguised and in their insect-like base forms, packing the records into wooden crates.

It occurred to Vinyl, right away, that these creatures were looting the place. But why? What would a bunch of shape-shifting alien bugs want with music records? It didn’t make sense.

“If they try anything foalish, feel free to jump in, but until then I think you can leave them be,” the mare’s tone of voice was light and casual, conversational even, but there was a tremor of unmistakable authority. The speaker could be casual and soft spoken because she knew she would be listened to… and obeyed.

The other changeling had called her a ‘Princess.’

Vinyl’s eyes narrowed behind her tinted sunglasses.

Standing taller than the other changeling bugs was a mare with a white coat the same shade as Vinyl’s own. Her mane was a wild, bright green with neon highlights, and her eyes were greenish-gold. Looking into those eyes, Vinyl could see the serpentine slit in the pupil that could only belong to a changeling. Further incrimination came in the form of the jagged black horn that erupted from this pony’s head. It – she – seemed to be a mix of changeling and pony, or maybe, just a changeling in partial-disguise.

Looking closer at the other changelings, Vinyl noticed that many still wore part of their pony disguise. One changeling worker had a pony tail. Another had pony-like eyes. Another had a pony’s horn instead of a changeling one. Quite a few sported distinctively equine manes or mane styles. One even had a t-shirt!

What was with these crazy bugs?

“Octavia Melody?” The tall, mismatched changeling offered a hoof to help the earth pony stand up. “It is a pleasure to meet you face to face. My name is Princess Exuvia. You aren’t hurt, are you?”

“N-no…” Octavia stammered, quickly regaining her composure and perfect poise. At the same time, she was clearly a little thrown by the sudden concern.

Exuvia smiled a warm, friendly, disarming smile. “Good! Don’t worry. I’ll reunite you with your friends and orchestra-mates as soon as I can. I already have all the others tucked away, safe and sound: Beauty Brass, Maestro Horseshoepin, Harpo and Lady Sousaphone. They’re all waiting for you, Miss Melody.”

Octavia’s expression brightened for a moment, only to darken. “You foalnapped them…?”

“I’m keeping them safe,” Exuvia insisted, still smiling and speaking kindly. “Right now, the city just isn’t safe for artists, now is it?”

Vinyl didn’t have to be a genius to see the well veiled threat in Exuvia’s words. She had all of Octavia’s friends, Princess-only-knows where. There was no need to even point that fact out as a means of compelling a pony’s good behavior. It was implicit. Octavia realized it, too, and her eyes lowered in defeat.

“No, it isn’t… safe,” she admitted.

“Don’t worry,” Exuvia said, patting her on the foreleg and then gently cupping her chin to force her to look up. “I won’t let anything happen to those wonderful hooves and legs of yours. Once you’re reunited with the rest of your orchestra, I hope you’ll play Beethoofen’s Symphony No. 9 for myself and Queen Chrysalis. And, of course, we’ll need you to teach changelings to play on your level. The classics must never be extinguished, am I right?”

Octavia slowly shook her head.

“Good. We understand each other, then!” Exuvia left Octavia and trotted over to Vinyl, still smiling amiably. “And Vinyl Scratch! I’m not a huge fan of remixes, but I am quite fond of the band Manticore.” Her magic floated over a record with the title of ‘Love at First Sting.’

“You’ve got better taste than Octy, at least,” Vinyl joked, and Octavia scoffed.

“You didn’t have to listen to that music twelve hours a day for four years.” Octavia pointed boldly at the changeling Princess. “She’d play the same annoying Pink Flank record over and over for hours!”

“You had your choice of roommates after freshman year,” Vinyl slipped back into their usual argument, regardless of the circumstances. “Why didn’t you move in with Miss Kissface that second year?”

“You know why!”

“And what about third year, when we rented that seedy joint owned by that Maremenian guy?”

“We only rented that place because you spent all your money on that sound system--”

“I still use it! That was a totally good deal!”

Exuvia glanced between the two bickering musicians, and gradually extended a hoof between them. “As amusing as this is, I brought you here to confirm a few things, not to hear you argue.”

Octavia stamped her hoof on the floor and turned up her nose with a huff.

“Oh, oh yeah,” Vinyl replied with a chuckle, lifting a hoof of her own to her chest. “Sorry. Sorry!”

Exuvia raised an eyebrow at the behavior of the two mares. “Ah, well… how to put this?” Her smile broadened until it touched on her green-gold eyes. “It’s just that I know you were lying to my subordinate earlier... and she promised to cut out your eyes.”

Vinyl was abruptly grabbed from behind by the changeling guard and forced down onto her stomach. She heard Octavia cry out in fear, but before she could think about her friend’s situation, a glinting edge intruded on her vision. It was the dark, organic-looking changeling knife from before. The tip of it slipped under her violet shades and slipped them off the bridge of her nose.

“I really don’t want to hurt you or anypony else of value,” Exuvia explained, and the knife paused. Vinyl gulped, trying to twist her face away from the blade, but the changeling behind her also had a grip on her horn.

“I’ve studied Equestrians and Equestrian magic all my life,” Exuvia went on to say, and Vinyl could see her hooves on the floor just in front of her. “I actually rather like ponies, and that is an attitude I’ve tried to cultivate in those who work under me. Unlike most other hives, we changelings of the Biscione have quite a few Princesses… Instar is the big one. She commands our Queen’s warriors. I am typically ranked second to Instar as I oversee the more delicate forms of infiltration. With the war on, our focus is now on the preservation of Equestrian art and culture during this period of transition…”

Exuvia ducked down, so she and Vinyl could be face to face and eye to eye.

“My intention is to keep safe all the artists, all the musicians, and all the creative energies of Equestria. It and you make up our great cultural inheritance. I’m telling you this, so you know how very reluctant I am to endanger that inheritance by hurting you. But…” Exuvia drew out the word, pausing for emphasis. “I will. I truly will hurt you… and your friend Octavia here… if I am put in a situation where I have no choice. You don’t want to put me in a position where I feel that way, do you?”

Vinyl very slowly and very carefully shook her head. No.

“You aren’t going to try and lie again, are you?” Exuvia asked with a concerned and amiable tone.

“No,” Vinyl answered.

“Good. Then we understand each other?”

“Yeah. We do.”

“Wonderful! Understanding is the first step towards building a better tomorrow!” Exuvia exclaimed, and gestured towards her guards. “Release her. I believe we’ve made our point. If she lies again… then, well--” The Princess shrugged. “--I hope she doesn’t, but you know what to do if she does?”

“I do,” the changeling brute answered, and Vinyl had to resist the urge to spin around and try and belt her one across the face.

“Twilight Sparkle is a unicorn of great power,” Exuvia reminded them all, though she also simply seemed to be running the scenario through her mind. “She’s been on a rather determined course towards this facility. You suggested to my sister behind you that she wants to imprint magic spells on records and distribute them. While that is plausible, I would propose another theory...”

“You sound like you’ve got it all figured out,” Vinyl interrupted, forcing herself back up, to stand on all four hooves. “Why do you need me at all?”

Exuvia paused before she could explain more, and her friendly smile returned.

“This way,” she commanded turning and trotting through the archive. “I need you to deliver an invitation. Certain things have happened elsewhere in the city. Twilight Sparkle and I need to talk. Tell me, would you like a cold drink?”

- - -

Despite being on an airship, where space was at a premium, both mares had plenty of room to primp and preen. The case was literal, in respect to the latter, as Beau Monde straightened out the ruffled feathers of her cornsilk white wings. She was hailed as a beauty, not simply because of her Celestia-like coat and feather coloration, but for her poise, grace, and impeccable breeding. With crystal blue eyes and a flaxen mane, she could have been a Blueblood – or a Blue Belle – herself.

“There you go again, drinking that potion,” Beau said, eyes on the other occupant of the bathroom.

“What? This little thing?” See Through asked, holding up the little black vial in a field of magic and giving it a tiny shake. She was a unicorn mare in the fashion and modeling business, with the lithe, svelte figure those sorts of mares always aspired to have, raspberry coat and wine-red mane. Both were a little tousled, and Beau Monde knew she had been in part responsible for it after a lively morning and afternoon in bed.

“It isn’t anything sinister, I assure you,” See Through said.

“Then what is it?” Beau asked, trotting over to the tall body mirror that dominated the room.

“Let’s just say that if this works, you just might be calling me Duchess before too long!” See Through giggled, replacing the cork on the vial and discreetly hiding it in a drawer beneath the piled-high white towels.

“A love potion?” Beau guessed, her fair features darkening in a frown, but the guilty look on See Through’s face provided another explanation. “A pregnancy potion?”

“A fertility aid!” the unicorn mare insisted, defensive.

“Idiot,” Beau huffed, shaking her head dismissively as she found her reflection in the mirror and started brushing her mane. “If that sort of thing worked, don’t you think somepony else would have hit the jackpot years ago?”

“Maybe, maybe not,” See Through argued, pouting angrily at the mirror. She started to slip on a pair of racy pantyhose to go with her garter, a task made much easier when one was a unicorn.

“Duchess See Through!” the unicorn mare preened, throwing a kiss at herself in the mirror. She posed one hoof up to her gently curling mane, pushing the hair up just enough to show everypony her necklace. It was gold and diamond with thin slivers of sparkling tourmaline.

“Just be glad he gave you that,” Beau Monde said, pointing with a feather towards the necklace. “It belonged to the late Duchess, didn’t it? You could probably sell it and retire for the rest of your life.”

“You’re probably right,” See Through replied, fixing Beau with a sly smile. “Not all of us can be as rich as you, my Lady.”

“I’m no Lady,” Beau reminded her and pursed her lips into a kiss. “Or else these lips of mine would be singing praises to the Princess, like a good girl’s would, instead of praising your flank, as mine have done.”

See Through blushed hotly and affixed on her reflection again. “Yes… well! We all have to get what we can before that horrible Rarity mare steals it all for herself. Until then, may the best mare win!”

“As long as it isn’t Candy.”

“Oh, Princesses, no. Not her.”

Suitably presentable, the two mares left the opulent bathroom and entered the bedroom where their partners waited. The blue and white sheets of the king-sized bed were already moving over a pair of giggling, chuckling bodies. They flew into the air a moment later, held aloft by gold-hued magic. The bedcovers settled onto the floor revealing first an earth pony mare with an amaranth-pink coat and smoky mane. This was Candy Wrapper, also known as ‘Candy Rapper,’ a rather well known ‘musical artist.’

Second, the covers revealed Prince Blueblood in all his glory.

“Ladies,” he announced, a charming smile lighting up his eyes with a faint green glow. He inched up towards the back of the bed and beckoned them forward. “I’m ready for round… what round were we up to again, Candy?”

“Round six, I think,” Candy Wrapper answered, pointing towards the two mares. “I’ll take Beau this time.”

“As the Lady wishes!” Blueblood declared.

Beau Monde and See Through exchanged looks… and jumped into bed.

-

Not a one of them loved ‘him,’ ‘Blueblood’ knew.

She also didn’t care.

A changeling could feed on all sorts of emotions, and there were many, many forms of love. These mares, ‘Blueblood’ knew, loved what she could do for them. One loved the jewels and the fortune that came from being one of the Prince’s lovers and mistresses. She imagined that it would just be the start of a long and sordid affair, and secretly dreamed that maybe it could even develop into some sort of political power. No matter how much of a long shot she knew it to be, she dreamed about being a Duchess, about being a Princess, with castles and servants and wealth that guaranteed she would never lack for any comfort she desired.

Another loved the supposed Prince for his fame… or infamy… depending on how one interpreted the emotions. The form the changeling had borrowed for this job was a desirable one to mares. There was nothing unusual about being loved and desired as an object. Art was valued, and it was an object, was it not? The changeling knew the Queen would approve of such thoughts. This mare’s desires were both simple and strangely complex, topped with condiments of confusion and insecurity. They were food, all the same.

The last mare loved him simply for his power. The changeling almost laughed. The foolish creature did not know what true power really was. But she did understand that it was the ultimate aphrodisiac. Pleasing her was simple enough, and the love she provided in return was a rosy, irreverent, fruity vintage.

This was the life of Prince Blueblood, and it was delectable indeed!

Combined with the love leeched from Lady Rarity, it was sustenance and more!

The greatest shame would be when it all came to an end. There was little chance the Queen would allow her servants to have more than three or four ponies each to satisfy their hunger. Gluttony and all. Hence, the days of replacing the Prince of Unicorns were soon to be at an end. The great slaughter to come on the battlefields below would usher in a new age… an age where changelings finally shed their disguises and assumed the mantle that was theirs by right!

Crawling away from the bed, letting the bedsheets fall away from her stolen body, the changeling that had once been Pixie Dust, that had once pretended to be Applejack – if only for a night’s quick snack – and that had finally replaced Blueblood, trotted up to a carved wooden table. She could still hear the giggles of Beau Monde and Candy Wrapper as they finished their little game of hide-and-seek with See Through.

Stretched out on the table was a map of Whitewillow Pass, the only way into the Duchy of Canterlot between the borders of the Everfree and Cantering Mountains. Pinned to the map were dozens of pony figurines in an assortment of colors, divided principally between red and blue. A dozen airships on long, tall pins hovered over the map, just as they did in the real world outside.

The blues held the pass, stretched out in lines to bar the way.

The reds were massed in orderly rows, hoping for entry.

“It will be a glorious slaughter,” Blueblood whispered in delight.

Not a slaughter of reds. Not a slaughter of blues. But a slaughter of ponies. The very same troublesome ones that were most likely to fight a changeling invasion instead of submit to their rightful yoke. The trained soldiers and the prickly nobles that led them… they would all die fighting one another while their cities and homes and families fell behind them.

Truly, the Queen was a genius to conceive of such a plan; such a magnificent coup!

A knock at the door to her chambers brought the changeling back to the present. The Queen’s plan was indeed brilliant, but it had not yet been executed. Twice, now, Yama had refused to rise to her – to the Prince’s – provocations. It seemed the Lord of Neighpon was perfectly content to pitch camp and wait, and wait, and wait and wait some more!

Yama had to imagine that, eventually, Princess Celestia herself would simply have to appear to settle the impasse. Yes. That would make sense. Yama would hand over his precious daughter Yumi for judgment, but only to the Princess herself, in the flesh, and not to anypony else. He thought to save face and play the waiting game. The old fool. If he insisted on being so bloody stubborn, his hoof would just have to be forced. Hard.

“Enter,” the changeling said in Blueblood’s voice.

“Oh!” “Eeee!” “He~ey, an audience!” came the three voices from three mares atop the Prince’s bed. All three lovely young mares quickly covered themselves up beneath the covers, glaring (or smiling in one case) as a pair of burly royal guards entered.

They brought with them the latest of Yama’s envoys: a stallion, this time.

“Would’ya look at this?” the stallion – almost certainly part of the second wave of couriers from Cloudsdale – asked with a smile, taking in the sights of the room. He winked at the girls in the Prince’s bed. “Looks like a party to me!”

“Indeed,” Blueblood said, floating a robe over but leaving the front open. It seemed like the sort of arrogant, shameless thing the real Prince would do. Certainly, not a single pony had questioned any of her behavior so far in her masquerade of the royal unicorn.

“I come bearing the seal of Cloudsdale and the Congress of Four Winds,” the stallion declared. He was a slim fellow, tall but unusually lean. It was not a particularly attractive combination by the standards of most mares, and Blueblood knew this because she – as a changeling – had impersonated a mare for most of her life. The courier wore a white cloak of peace over his metal gray coat, a symbol of the current truce between the two armies that disputed the pass into Canterlot’s Duchy.

A heavy wax and bronze amulet hung from around his neck, bearing the heraldry of the Four Winds: the cloud, the thunderbolt, three slashes for wind, and a raindrop.

“I wish to present to Your Grace, Lord Blueblood, a proposal from my Masters, the Lords and Ladies of the Four Winds, of Cloudsdale and the Alliance of Pegasus Settlements,” the envoy announced, bowing gracefully and presenting a sealed wax tube.

He didn’t sound very Neighponese… probably a mercenary then, from some Free Company. More importantly, the letter in his possession bore the Congress’ Official Seal. It was genuine. It was also the second such letter to fall into her hooves.

Blueblood scoffed under her breath.

No doubt it was another pathetic attempt to call for help and avert the bloodshed soon to commence here. The attack on Canterlot had to be in the final stages if Cloudsdale was able to call for help in this manner, despite the terror attacks launched to confound the leadership there. It was just further proof that things here were behind schedule. Canterlot itself had to be secured before Cloudsdale could properly rally the rest of Equestria. From the mountain city turned mountain fortress, the changelings would be unassailable. In the meantime, Equestria as a whole needed to be weakened as much as possible.

Holding the sealed letter, the fake-Prince considered what to do with this courier. Cloudsdale had sent one before this, and she had kept him imprisoned. It wouldn’t do for news of Cloudsdale’s emergency recall to reach the rank and file. Maybe it was time to step up and just execute them both? Yama’s envoys could join them. That would certainly send a message!

The changeling that was Blueblood sighed.

It was definitely time to end this farce. There would be no more parlay. Lord Yama clearly needed a swift kick in the rump to escalate tensions enough that the Prince could justify calling for an attack on his fellow Equestrians. Diplomatic insults alone had thus far failed.

“Another proposal from the Congress,” Blueblood said, raising his voice so all could hear. As if on cue, the three mares on his bed all nodded and giggled in agreement. The two guards were fellow changelings and, true to their role, simply stared forward, alert but humorless. “Ho-hum! I suppose I can humor you and at least skim through it.”

Blueblood seized the wax tube in her magic. The tearing sound prompted a few twitched ears, and the letter came free from the waterproof seal. The paper within bore, once more, the official seal of Cloudsdale’s leaders, but… but nothing after the first line made sense.

“To… Lord Yama of Garland, from the Congress of…?” the changeling read aloud. “Is this the wrong letter?”

“Yeah,” the courier groused, “it is, isn’t it?”

Gray wings snapped out, catching the two guards clean in the throat.

“W-wha?” Blueblood stammered, as the pony suddenly erupted into violence. The insane courier spun around, planting brutal hoof-strikes into the changelings disguised as guards. In seconds, they were on the floor.

“You do look like him,” the envoy stated, turning to face Blueblood. He sniffed the air, too, rudely and without hiding it. “Smell like him, too! But it looks like that bitch was right.”

He reached up to the clasp around his neck, ripping it loose.

“That bitch Antimony,” the stallion’s voice warbled as the bronze seal fell to the floor, turning higher in pitch even as his body expanded, becoming hers, but a large, muscular her. “Don’t you get how much I hate admitting she was right?!”

“Who are you?” Blueblood spluttered, backing away from the suddenly violent and suddenly very unrestrained pegasus mare. “W-what do you want…?”

His two royal guards had crumpled to the polished hardwood floor and the mare – an assassin, she had to be! – surged forward. The white mantle of peace she had worn fluttered behind her as her gray wings propelled her into the Prince, bowling him over. One of the mares in the Prince’s bed screamed, likely See Through, and another cursed and rolled out of bed, probably Candy.

“Guards! Guards! Guards!!” Blueblood bellowed, losing momentarily control of her voice. “HELP ME! SAVE ME!!”

“I’ll help you,” the huge mare said, looming over the fallen royal. “I’ll save you.” She had something – the seal of the Four Wings – cupped in her hoof for some reason. She’d held onto it, even as the rest of her outfit fell away.

“Get away from h--”

Candy Wrapper would’ve been wiser keeping silent before trying to hit the Prince’s assailant from behind with a chair. As it was, this huge beast of a pegasus mare hadn’t even turned around. Her foreleg just stuck out like a flash, struck Candy Wrapper on the nose, and let her fall, screaming, to the floor. See Through and Beau Monde were still on the bed, clutching the bedsheet covers in fear.

“My nrose! You brroke my nrose!” Candy Wrapper shrieked, holding her face in her hooves. Quite a few un-lady-like curses followed the declaration.

“You girls might wanna run,” the murderous courier told the remaining two mares. “Go tell everypony you meet that their Prince is about to die… and that if Ritterkreuz can’t have something, nopony can!”

See Through and Beau Monde didn’t waste any time fleeing the Prince’s chambers.

“A-about to d-die?” Blueblood whimpered as the pegasus mare brought her bloody hoof, and the seal she held it in, closer. “W-wait! Wait! Whatever Yama or the Congress is paying you, I can double it! Triple it!”

The wax seal in the mare’s hoof flipped around, revealing a brooch hidden on the reverse side. A pin snapped out, and the needle-end of it scraped painfully across the Blueblood changeling’s forehead. Her magic sputtered as she thought to try and magically remove the interloper, but the assassin had a hoof on her horn. Changeling or not, unicorn magic couldn’t be used unless the horn was free to cast.

Then the magic hit, along with the pain of the needle.

“No. Oh no! No no no!”

Blueblood yelped and struggled, and her voice turned to a hiss as her disguise started to flicker and fizzle. There was some sort of spell in that breastpin! The same one that had made this mare look like an unattractive stallion! Blueblood started to squirm to get away, but it was to no avail. Despite taking the form of a rather large stallion, she was still physically a changeling. She didn’t have nearly enough strength to overpower this brute of a mare!

“So you really are a fucking fake,” Ritterkreuz cursed.

She looked down on the partly-revealed prey with narrow, dangerous eyes. It was in that moment that Blueblood realized it: this mare really was going to kill her. Those were the eyes of a pony who had killed, killed monsters, and not only planned to do so again, she looked forward to it.

“You – you – you’ll never make it out of here alive!” Blueblood vowed. No matter what. This mare… and maybe even See Through and Beau Monde…not a one of them could be allowed to live, not after seeing what they had of this!

They all had to die.

“You’re a dead mare!” the changeling hissed. “Do you think you can attack me and just leave? Huh! Do you? We’re everywhere. We’ll hunt you to the ends of Equus!”

The gray mare still looked down on the pinned Prince, digesting the threat.

She smiled.

“Was that a threat… or a promise!?” A mad gleam in her eye elicited a whinny of fear in the changeling. What kind of demon was this pony?!

“Let’s show the world what it looks like when a Prince dies,” Ritterkreuz yelled. “All we need first is an audience.”

Her wings snapped out, and the luxury cabin vanished in a single explosive Galloping Grenadier.

- - -

“Look!”

“Up there!”

“The Prince was on that ship!”

Captain Star Breeze rushed to the edge of the ship’s railing, her eyes wide as saucers. Half the bridge crew had abandoned their posts to join her. Star Breeze was a Canterlot mare, from a Canterlot family, that had served the titled Dukes and Duchesses of the Blueblood line since the eighth century. When the current Duke called up his vassals to face off against the rebel Lord Yama, Star Breeze had rushed to answer the once-in-a-generation call. It was a golden opportunity to renew the old vows, to heap on plenty to one’s family honors, and to inject some excitement into an otherwise dull fashion season.

Now, all that crumbled apart before her own two eyes.

The Prince’s flagship yacht was gutted. The entire aft-bottom section had been blown apart, wreathed in debris and smoke. One thought repeated in her mind, over and over. The Prince had been in that ship; the Prince had been in that cabin! What had happened?

Was it the enemy?!

“Assassin! An assassin!” a pony cried out.

“Princess save His Grace!” another moaned. “What do we do now?!”

“Who was it?” another yelled. “Was it Yama? Is he attacking?!”

Star Breeze turned her head, looking out towards the orderly ranks of Neighponese down in the valley. They hadn’t made a move. Not even a twitch. If this was their doing, they had no plans to capitalize on it. It made no sense.

“It’s a pegasus!” a panicked flyer in navy-blues raced past the ship, yelling at the top of her lungs. “Ritterkreuz! One of the Prince’s ex-lovers! She’s killed the Prince! The Prince is dead!”

“Dead?”

‘The Prince was dead? And Ritterkreuz… wasn’t she a Wonderbolt? A bloody stunt flyer! What in Celestia’s name was going on?’

Already, scuttlebutt was making the rounds across the aft castle of the airship. Star Breeze could imagine it was racing like wildfire throughout the ship… throughout the very fleet. Pegasus ponies were flying away from ships and between the fleet and the army below like a swarm of bees. Some were moving to try and prop up the damaged airship the Prince had been on, but many were frantically relaying messages between captains and crews.

One thing was clear: Celestia’s nephew had been killed by a former paramour…

Madness.

It was madness.

- - -

Lady Yumi lowered the binoculars from her eyes. Sitting atop a bed of thorny rosebushes, the Neighponese earth pony and heiress took in the sight of the Canterlot Armada in full. Though it was impossible to distinguish the individual ships from one another so far away, it was clear they were in chaos. It was, indeed, the perfect time to attack. Neighpon already had the greater force on the ground and in the field. The unicorns could be swept aside.

That wasn’t the plan, however, nor had it ever been part of the plan.

The burning, smoking wreck of the Prince’s airship stuck in her head, even after the binoculars rested on the roses beside her. It looked like Ritterkreuz had done her job well. There would be no doubts now that the Prince was dead, and dead at the hooves of a vengeful former lover. It would even seem like an appropriate and ironic end in the minds of many.

Most importantly, it had been done publicly. If the Prince had been secretly eliminated, another changeling might have taken its place. Antimony had been right about that. Now, with Blueblood unequivocally dead, there were sure to be other changelings – maybe even ship captains – who would try and incite the fleet to war, but none would dare to replace the Prince.

And even if they did…

“The time is ripe,” she said softly to the pony below her. “You are free to go.”

“Lady Yumi, I must protest!” The sky-blue pegasus courier suffered a black eye on his face, courtesy of running afoul of the same mare that had just made her move amongst the fleet.

“Once again, the ponies of Neighpon regret your poor treatment,” Yumi replied with a haughty glance at the messenger. “Nonetheless, you will find your audience more receptive now than they were earlier today. The call of the Congress of Four Winds will be heeded.”

“What does that mean?” the real Cloudsdale courier asked, not truly grasping the situation. How could he?

Yumi did not reply, she simply sat on her rose throne, watching the distant air fleet of Canterlot.

“This is no game, my Lady,” the Cloudsdale courier objected, even as Yumi’s guards let him go. The vines around his torso also slackened, releasing his wings.

“You think this a game to me?” Yumi asked, oh so softly. From atop her bed of roses, the bushes prickled. Yet not a one cut her perfect white coat. The pegasus courier shrank away from the cool anger the aloof noblemare radiated.

“I--”

“Fly off and do your job before you vex me,” Yumi cut him off.

The courier didn’t waste any more words. Running a few meters, picking up the sealed document he had been captured with using his mouth, he took to the air and headed towards the confused Canterlot airfleet. Unlike the first courier, waylaid by Blueblood, this one would be able to spread news of the emergency in Canterlot directly to the ship captains. Once Blueblood’s former army and navy started making top speed towards their burning home city, the forces of Neighpon could do the same.

All thanks to the sacrifice of a single mare.

It was efficient. Just as Antimony always said things should be. Small wonder so many hated her. Yumi remained on her floral bed, symbolically raised above her attendants. Her thoughts again turned to the wreckage she had seen through her binoculars.

Ritterkreuz. That had been the coarse mare’s name. She was a traitor to the Wonderbolts and to Cloudsdale, yet she had volunteered to risk her life with a smile. Her only objection had been to the mare that brought them together: their mutual enemy, Antimony. Yet even Antimony had made common cause with Rarity, Fluttershy, Twilight Sparkle and the other mares from Ponyville. An old grudge, like an old scar, could always reopen, but did that mean it could eventually heal over, too?

‘Ritterkreuz... you said things changed for you in Ponyville. They did for me, as well.’

Yumi closed her eyes, remembering an apple farmer she had treated with little dignity, but whom she had come to an understanding with. She remembered laboring over the fields of apples to heal and enhance the trees, just as she had done for the Fuji Clan and many others back in Neighpon. Beyond even that, she remembered a terrified pegasus mare in the Everfree, risking everything to help a stranger in the most dire circumstances imaginable. Fluttershy was not fearless, but she was brave, putting aside her fear and overcoming it.

Fluttershy. Applejack. Even that Rarity… by all reports, she had treated Suzukaze, Yudachi, and Shiratsuyu with respect and kindness, even after their capture.

Honor, if nothing else, demanded a response in kind.

‘Both our lives changed in Ponyville, Ritterkreuz. We had that in common, at the very least. If you still live, somehow, I would be glad to see you again in Canterlot. There are ponies there with debts I think we both intend to repay.’

- - -

“There it is.”

The object of their search had actually become visible minutes earlier, the eiffelized lattice tower rising up above the tips of surrounding trees and the scarred roofs of nearby buildings, but was only now revealing itself in full. Canterlot was a city of thin, gleaming white towers, and the metallic tower that was the source of most of its radio signals stood in stark contrast to that aesthetic. It was an example of a new sort of magic: a fusion of earth pony ingenuity, unicorn mastery of the arcane, and pegasus electrical theory. It was just unfortunate that it looked like such an eyesore compared to the rest of Canterlot… hence why it had been sequestered away from the main part of town so ponies didn’t have to see where their radio signals were actually coming from.

Twilight Sparkle led her small group – Team Pinkie, technically – out from a short carriage tunnel and back into the light. A packed dirt and stone road stretched out before them, leading straight through a small wooded park and up to the front gate of the radio station. It was this first view that provided them with a look at the building proper and not just the tower. Sprawled out around the base of the metallic latticework spire were a cluster of small, ornate buildings in Canterlot-white. These squat buildings were accompanied by the usual Canterlot ostentation and motifs: iron filigree, gold-colored reliefs of hearts and ponies, together with artistic depictions of radio waves moving across the air like waves on the sea.

A sign nearby read within a cheery gold border: HM’s Wireless Magical Broadcasting Tower.

Aside from a carriage that had been driven off the road and wrecked, there was no sign of danger or of changeling activity. Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy took a moment to check the wreck, just in case a pony was trapped inside, but soon came back empty-hooved. Eunomie followed Twilight closely, saying nothing, and Twilight Velvet glanced around, as if looking for ambushers or some sort of sign.

“There,” Velvet spoke up, pointing up ahead.

“What?” Twilight asked, and then saw what her mother meant. There was something white up ahead on the side of the road. It was pony shaped, but these days that was no guarantee that it was a pony at all.

“Everypony! Heads up!” Twilight warned, trotting cautiously forward. Fluttershy quickly took the rear and Pinkie pronked left to right to keep from getting too far ahead. The white figure on the road soon saw them, too, and started walking in their direction to meet them half-way.

Seeing that, Twilight stopped entirely, and motioned for her friends and mother to do the same.

“We’ll wait here,” she said to them, keeping her voice low. “Keep your eyes and ears open.”

“Okey dokey!” Pinkie saluted and her eyes briefly bulged in their sockets. Fluttershy, already alert, merely nodded. Eunomie said nothing. Twilight Velvet also nodded, like Fluttershy, but instead kept her attention on the approaching pony.

“Hey! Twilight!” a familiar voice preceded the pony’s face, becoming clear enough to recognize. “That is you, right? Is that Pinkie, too?”

“Oh, hey!” Pinkie Pie started to run forward, only to be stopped short by Twilight’s magical hold on her tail. She fell forward with an ‘oomph’ but it didn’t put a damper on her happy smile. “Vinyl Scratch! What are you doing out here? Are you here for the wedding, too? Cause it was a total bust! I usually love party crashers, but this time they crashed the party WAY too hard!”

“You know this pony?” Twilight Velvet asked her daughter.

“She’s a DJ from Ponyville,” Twilight explained.

“Totally the best DJ in town!” Pinkie explained further.

“The only DJ in town, I think,” Twilight explained times three. Pinkie turned towards her with her lower lip stuck out in a pout. “Pinkie knows her better than I do,” the unicorn admitted.

“Of course I do, silly billy! I know everypony in Ponyville! No exceptions!” She tried to bounce away again, but her tail was still caught in Twilight’s magic. A magenta nail hammered the curly tail in place for good measure.

“She might be a changeling,” Twilight warned her friend. “Let her come to us.”

“Oh! Oh! I can totally tell if she’s a fake or not!” Pinkie rummaged a hoof around in her voluminous mane, procuring a pair of bright pink sunglasses which she promptly donned.

“You can?” Eunomie finally asked, intrigued. “How?”

“I know what color her eyes really are!” the party pony assured them, flipping up her glasses to reveal first rose-pink eyes, then maroon-red, and then raspberry-purple.

Eunomie fixed her with an unamused stare. “Please stop doing physically impossible things.”

“But they’re super fun!”

“I’ll just test her with my spell first,” Twilight said, interrupting the two mares.

“Awww!” Pinkie whined, taking off her glasses to reveal her normal baby-blues. Back in her mane they went until the next sunglasses emergency. Still pinned in place, Pinkie directed her moue-face at Eunomie. “You know, I totally need to introduce you to my sister Maud. She’d show you how to have some real fun!”

“I already have a sufficient level of fun,” Eunomie stated, deadpan. “I am having fun right this moment, in fact.”

“No you’re not!”

“I am, truly.”

“No you’re not! No you’re not!”

“Geez, Pinkie, I guess you’re the real deal at least,” Vinyl called out as she trotted towards them at a slow pace. “I don’t think there’s a bug out there that can copy you.”

“Why do I get the feeling you’re both making fun of me?” Pinkie grumbled, vibrated at high speed, and somehow slipped her tail out from Twilight’s magical nail. “Freedom!!”

She made another jump forward--

--only to have an even bigger magical nail hammer her tail in place against the ground. Pinkie Pie fell flat on her face for a second time, accompanied by a sound very much like a deflating balloon.

“Hold it right there, ‘Vinyl Scratch!’” Twilight yelled, holding up her hoof. “If that is your real name! Before you come a step closer, I’m going to have to make sure you are who you appear to be.”

“So you do have a spell that can reveal these bugs,” Vinyl stated and patted herself on the chest. “Okay, no problem. Fire away.”

Twilight didn’t waste any more time. The gender-swap spell was like second nature to her now, and casting it on a single pony was just a matter of a moment’s effort. The spellwork settled on the other unicorn, and Vinyl’s body began to expand. Her snout squared and filled out, and her neon-highlighted mane shortened at the front and lengthened at the back while remaining as spiky as always. Her legs put on muscle and her torso filled out.

“Wo-ho-hoa! So this is how you’ll do it!” Vinyl exclaimed, but blanched at her still feminine voice. “Oh, weak! My voice is the same! I totally wanna hear what I sound like as a guy! I bet I’m totally a stud.”

She cut a line in the air with her hoof and summoned a mirror with her magic.

“Yeah, yeah, not bad!” She openly admired herself in the mirror, examining her masculine features with a curious hoof. “I look kinda like Neon Lights. Octavia would totally dig this. I’ve got to learn this spell…”

“Funny, I remember asking my good friend Twilight Sparkle to cast that spell on me once so I could go to a stag party, and she said it was for serious emergencies only,” Pinkie grumbled, still pinned to the ground by her tail. “A party is always serious business!!”

“Okay, okay.” Twilight tried to steer things back on track. “You’re not a changeling, but as we’ve learned, that doesn’t mean you aren’t being mind-controlled--”

“Mind controlled? They can do that, too?” Vinyl dismissed the mirror and a second later her feminine form returned. “I thought it was just the identity theft thing?” She shook her head and grimaced. “Anyway, look, Twilight, Pinkie, other-ponies-I-don’t-know… Fluttershy…”

“Hi,” Fluttershy peeked out from behind Eunomie.

“Before you test whatever, however, let me just say what I was sent here to say,” Vinyl continued, cutting Twilight off before the lavender unicorn could object. The DJ pointed back at the Radio Tower. “It may not look it, but the radio station back there is full of bugs. They grabbed Octavia and all the rest, as hostages and stuff, and sent me out to talk to you.”

“Why you?” Eunomie asked, pointedly.

“All the others are in bands, but DJ Pon3 is a solo act!” Vinyl explained. “I guess that makes me more expendable. Besides, they’ve got Octy. So I’m kinda stuck.”

“What’d they send you to say?” Twilight narrowed her eyes suspiciously at the other unicorn mare.

“The big bug running things back there,” Vinyl answered with a sigh. “She wants to talk to you. I was told to remind you that there’ll be ‘drinks and snacks.’”

Twilight, Velvet, Eunomie and Fluttershy all exchanged wary looks.

Pinkie Pie, on the other hand…

“Oh, boy! Snacks! Tell her we’ll be there!”

- - -

“Twilight Sparkle,” Exuvia said, extending a delicate hoof to her guest. “Thank you very much for taking up my invitation.”

Twilight touched her hoof to the changeling Princess’s, if only briefly. “Princess… Exuvia, isn’t it?”

“Quite,” Exuvia replied, and gestured towards a folded towel on the grass, set up picnic-style. “Please. Have a seat. You must be tired from crossing the city, and I brought some snacks we can enjoy while we talk.”

Exuvia’s little picnic had been moved at Twilight’s request – just in case it was a set up to lure them into a trap – but on first glance, it looked pretty genuine. There were five platters with biscuits, cookies, crackers and candy, plus a variety of spreads in a rainbow of cheeses and vegetarian pâtés. Complementing the foodstuffs, Exuvia had a number of chilled drinks sitting in ice buckets.

All in all, it was a very tasty and very tempting spread, all the more out of place in the war zone Canterlot had become. It also sat in the cool, comfortable shade of Exuvia’s personal airship; an ever-present reminder of just what was going on and where they were. As if anypony could forget, after fighting through half the city to get where they were now.

“Ooooooo!” Pinkie boggled, already seated and reaching for the platter of sweets.

Twilight stopped her with a twinkle of magenta magic.

“How do we know any of this is even safe to eat?” she asked, watching Exuvia warily as the changeling Princess sat down, alone, opposite her. “I know there are poisons that will affect us but not you.”

“You have only my word, I’m afraid,” Exuvia answered, using her own sickly-green magic to spread some port wine cheese on a whole wheat cracker. “I could have a pony brought down as a taste-tester, if you like?”

“So you can bring in a quote-unquote ‘pony’ who is really a changeling prove that the food is safe to eat?”

“Having a frank discussion will be difficult without a basic level of trust, Lady Sparkle.”

“We’ve been ambushed time after time getting here. Obvious tricks won’t work on us!” Twilight boldly declared, tossing her mane and punctuating her declaration with a loud ‘hmf!’ She turned to her friends and family. “Don’t eat anything--”

“MMm?” Pinkie asked, mouth already stuffed nearly to the brim with a medley of potentially poisoned treats. “M-what?” she asked, mouth-full before gulping down her meal whole. “Were you saying something, Twilight?”

“--uh…” Twilight gaped, and her hoof slowly lowered to the ground. “Nevermind.”

“All right! I’m super hungry!” Pinkie exclaimed and went back to shamelessly sampling from every plate and platter. “Oh! Is that sweet tea? I love sweet tea! It’s great with a couple spoonfuls of sugar!”

“On the converse, your friend is rather trusting,” Exuvia stated, also a little dumbstruck by the pink pony.

“No… she’s just Pinkie Pie,” Twilight explained, deadpan.

She shook her head firmly. Fluttershy had already picked out an icy-cold orange-colored drink, examining it closely for any sign of maliciousness – as if any potential poison would manifest as a ferocious piranha and jump out of the drink at her. Eunomie was sitting still and proper, looking like a humorless statue. Twilight’s mother, meanwhile, had picked out a salt-cracker and started to nibble on it. Even Vinyl Scratch seemed to be at least tempted to taste the ice-cold tea in front of her.

Everypony seemed to have settled in, utterly in the face of common sense and caution.

“Thank you for the food… I guess,” Twilight felt compelled to say. It was just good manners, really, drummed into her over a foalhood.

“It was my pleasure,” Exuvia replied, polite as well. “If I did develop a reputation as a poisoner, who would share meals with me? We changelings don’t consume and digest food in exactly the same way you do, but that doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy a drink with our pony counterparts.”

“Fair enough, but why did you want to speak to me?” Twilight went on to ask. “What’s all this about? Why are you here?”

“I could ask you some of those same questions.” Exuvia sat with her back to the Broadcasting Tower, seemingly unconcerned by it or anything else. Past the changeling Princess, Twilight’s eyes scanned over the tower and the buildings below it. There didn’t look to be any changelings there, though there were several small groups flying nearby.

At least a dozen were on the airship, too, looking out over the railings. The ship was a typical looking sky yacht with a flight envelope in the form of a sleek tuna fish. It didn’t seem to have any cannons on it. It was, or would have appeared to be, just one of a hundred luxury yachts that came and went from Canterlot any day of the year. The fact that it lacked any really threatening features to match its posture over the radio station courtyard only gave Twilight the impression that there was more to it than met the eye. At this point, it could transform into a giant changeling to fight them and it wouldn’t be out of place.

These changelings, though… Exuvia’s underlings… they looked odd.

It was like they were a mix of changeling and Equestrian. Like many had been frozen in mid-transformation. Twilight doubted their unusual appearance made them any less dangerous, however, nor did she expect it to make them any more trustworthy.

Exuvia lifted a straw to her lips and slurped from her cool drink, some sort of icy-slush lemon beverage. She spoke again only after a lengthy pause. “To answer your concerns, in no particular order: I am here to safeguard the musical and cultural records contained within the building behind me. I was also sent here to stop you from reaching said building. I’m currently doing that… but by talking to you, rather than by trying to stop you physically.”

“So you’re just doing this to try and buy time?” Twilight asked, starting to tense again. If it came to a fight, she decided to first upend the picnic spread. The spray of food might blind the changeling Princess for a critical second or two.

“No,” Exuvia answered, holding up her hoof for emphasis. “I am buying time, yes, but that is only to comply with my mother’s orders. I wanted to talk to you because I want there to be peace between changelings and ponies.”

“Peace? Peace!” Twilight swept her hoof angrily towards the city below and around them. From the small bluff that supported the broadcast station, they could look down on much of Canterlot City as it sprawled out along the side of the mountain in tiers. Beneath the city shield, fires burned and ponies fought and died. Battles raged across streets and neighborhoods and skies. Ancient mage towers and libraries that had stood for hundreds of years were collapsed or damaged.

“I admit that all this is very regrettable,” Exuvia said with a soft sigh. “It isn’t how I would have done things, personally.”

“Regrettable, you call it!” Twilight snapped, and brought her hoof down into an outraged stamp. “Not how you would have done things? But you are doing them!” She bit back another, even angrier outburst, and calmed herself with a slow, steady breath.

“Princess,” Twilight used the title frostily, but not mockingly, “if you want to talk, you can begin by telling me why you changelings are doing this to us.” She pointed again to the warzone that surrounded them, juxtaposed with their pleasant shady picnic. “What has Equestria done to deserve this? Huh? Tell me that!”

Exuvia slurped from her frosty drink and slowly removed the straw from her lips with a gentle pop.

“You exist.”

“We exist?” Twilight repeated, incredulous. That was the reason?

“You exist,” Exuvia repeated. “Changelings are a parasitic species. I’m not proud to admit this, but it is simply the truth. We leech emotions, most importantly love, from other species in order to grow and reproduce. It is what defines us as a race. Changelings originate from an environment where the amount of love, and the availability of hosts, is a naturally limiting factor. We developed as tribal parasites preying on tribal hosts.”

Exuvia cradled her drink between her hooves, teasing the straw with her black tongue.

“Equestria is a country brimming with love, leading to a population explosion in the Hive of which I am a part. Additionally, the ideas of your country are infectious. It is by living among you, being influenced by you, that our mother – Queen Chrysalis – has come to believe in the idea of a changeling nation-state. For various reasons, she decided that this new state must replace the Equestrian one as a matter of survival. Her reasons are personal… but practical as well, given the size of our population at the moment. Where else would we set up our new home, and how else would we feed ourselves without incurring the ire of Equestria or her allies? Hence, the pre-emptive decapitation strike you see before you.”

Exuvia, having finished her explanation, recaptured the straw and resumed drinking. Twilight just stared at her. Exuvia did not sound particularly passionate about what she had described, but the easy, all-too-casual nature in which she had described the war… something about it struck an uncomfortable chord in Twilight’s thinking. It was like Exuvia was describing something from hundreds of years ago, something she had read in a book, rather than what was going on all around them. This wasn’t a history lecture. It was the here and now, and ponies were losing their lives because of it.

“What would you have done?” Twilight had a lot of questions to ask, but many predicated on how this changeling Princess responded to this single query. Pinkie Pie, meanwhile, continued to gobble up hoof-fulls of treats, even as everypony listened in.

Exuvia didn’t answer right away, preferring instead to sip at her drink for a few more seconds.

“Given time,” she finally replied, “I would have preferred we find a way to transition from parasitism to a more symbiotic relationship. The Aida-Weddo Hive already has a similar arrangement with their hosts, wherein they mimic the deceased for a year or two before moving on. Their example is proof that our feeding process can be adapted over the generations to be non-lethal. The difficulty is in population control and making the hard changes to ourselves as a species and as a culture.”

The changeling Princess pressed a hoof to her chest. “’It is easier to bend others to our will than to change or better ourselves.’ That is the sort of thinking most common among my sisters. My own views place me in something of a minority.”

“Then why are you participating at all!?” Twilight demanded to know. “You don’t have to do what Chrysalis says! She’s a monster!”

Exuvia stared at the lavender unicorn and tilted her head curiously. “I was under the impression you had existing intelligence on how our species works, but I see there are things you don’t know. Things Lady Eunomie over there had not told you.”

“Eunomie?” Twilight asked, glancing over at the quiet mare. “What does she mean?”

Eunomie, taciturn as always, spoke, “The Princess means she cannot disobey or dissent.”

“Huh?” Pinkie Pie chirped up, a half-dozen biscuits in her mouth.

Even Fluttershy felt the need to speak up. “Um, I know saying ‘no’ can be scary sometimes--”

“That isn’t it,” Exuvia interrupted and Fluttershy instantly shrank back and went back to nursing her orange frosty. The Princess looked around at the assembled ponies, lingering a moment on the silent Twilight Velvet, before returning to her daughter. Twilight Sparkle also looked confused.

“Lady Eunomie means exactly what she said,” Exuvia explained without fanfare. “Changelings cannot disobey or dissent under normal circumstances. Our ‘royalty’ is entirely biological and a product of physiology. The Queen is the changeling with the ability to produce royal jelly, and thus, to also produce sons. Small amounts of jelly are also doled out to produce fertile daughters, like myself. We can have daughters, but only sterile ones… drones, in other words, that can never become Queens themselves.”

“Do you see, now? Our reproductive cycle is tied intimately into our means of social organization,” she summarized, and though Fluttershy and Twilight seemed to be on the verge of understanding, Pinkie Pie and Vinyl Scratch were both staring at her like a lost and confused pair of puppies.

“Like a colony of bees or ants,” Exuvia said with a disgusted groan.

“OHH!” Pinkie cried. “Why didn’t you just say so!”

“Makes sense.” Vinyl nodded her head, forelegs crossed over her chest. “You guys are bugs.”

“It is a poor analogy and we are not insects.” Exuvia furrowed her brows, clearly rather upset by the comparison. “My point is: the Queen has control over all the reproduction in a given changeling hive, but this is not why we cannot defy or disobey her. We are biologically programmed to follow her orders.”

Before Twilight could object, Exuvia raised a hoof to cut her off.

“Take breathing, for example,” she said. “Anypony can hold his or her breath, some for more than a minute or two, but inevitably they run low on air and their body forces them to try and get more. It is impossible for a pony to hold their breath and suffocate themselves. Just the same, a changeling can ‘hold her breath’ and put off obeying the Queen for some time, but inevitably, she always has to do as she is told. According to my research, the mechanism behind this is the Queen’s pheromones produced by a fully functional royal jelly gland. If my mother told me to put my head in a manticore’s mouth, I could put off doing it for days, but eventually I would still find myself doing what she ordered me to do.”

“Your research?” Twilight zeroed in on that one phrase first and foremost. “You’re a…”

“A scholar of sorts, yes,” Exuvia answered with a proud smile. “I was created to study ponykind and determine what could be preserved once changelings took over and how. You may also have noticed that I take after my father, somewhat.” The Princess continued to smile, and her eyes fell on one pony in particular. “That makes us step-sisters, of a sort, doesn’t it … Eunomie?”

All eyes turned on the stoic unicorn mare, but Eunomie merely shook her head. “Nonsense. You are implying you possess Equestrian genetic material, when you have none.”

“Family isn’t simply genetic,” Exuvia pressed, leaning forward slightly. “I was brooded on your step-father’s lovemeal. They say that the source of the lovemeal affects the changeling even before it is born.”

Eunomie blinked slowly and glanced away. “Believe whatever you wish.”

“Wait!” Twilight finally understood the subtext being bandied about. She pointed to Eunomie, then to Exuvia. “Who… do you mean…? Alpha Brass was…?”

“His was the lovemeal that brooded me,” Exuvia answered with a hint of pride. “You could say he’s my father, and Queen Chrysalis is my mother.”

Twilight stared long and hard at the changeling Princess.

“I can see it,” she decided, after a moment.

“There is nothing to see,” Eunomie objected. Twilight Velvet chuckled, amused. Fluttershy and Pinkie stared, having heard it too.

“Are you angry?” Exuvia asked, returning her drink’s straw to between her lips. “How amusing. I was led to believe you were an emotionless golem, Eunomie Mosaic. Yet that’s an angry look if ever I saw one.”

Eunomie continued to look away, not responding to the bait.

“Well, then,” Princess Exuvia continued, barely missing a beat. “Twilight Sparkle, we understand each other a little better now, don’t we?”

“I think so,” Twilight agreed, shifting her seat on the towel beneath her. “I didn’t know… are you doing that now? Holding your breath?”

Exuvia slowly finished off her drink, sucking up the last of the icy slush from the very bottom. Only then did she release the straw from her lips with a soft ‘pop.’

“I am,” she answered, demurely putting the glass aside and back into the ice bucket to her side. She extended a welcoming hoof towards the lavender mare. “Twilight Sparkle, your best hope for peace is to come with me. Help me become Queen of the Changelings.”

The statement brought a long, tense silence to the picnic. It was not what anypony had expected, agreeing to this meeting. Threats would have been no surprise. A trick or a trap would have been par for the course. Twilight tried to get a read for Exuvia, but the changeling Princess was just as hard a read as her supposed ‘father.’ In fact, the more Twilight looked at her – her posture, her smile, the soft-spoken way she talked – the more it reminded her of Alpha Brass.

And her offer… could it really be taken seriously?

“Even if Chrysalis dies today,” Exuvia added, searching the expressions of the ponies sharing her table. “It won’t change anything. Instar will take over, and she is even more unforgiving and brutal than our mother. She cares far less for our potential hosts. She will execute captives by the hundreds just to break your resistance, rather than cocooning them as we do now. You and I, Twilight Sparkle, are the best chance there is to end this war… to create understanding and harmony between our races.”

“I…”

“I agree,” Twilight Velvet said, fixing her daughter with an intense stare. “Princess Exuvia is our best hope for peace. You should go with her, Twilight.”

You should go with her, Twilight.

“I should go with her,” Twilight murmured. More loudly, she told her friends, “I think I should go with her.”

“Whhhhaat?!” Pinkie gaped, spitting a veritable fountain of ice-cold drink clear across the picnic spread.

Fluttershy quickly joined her, twiddling her hooves nervously. “Oh, I, uh…”

Twilight Velvet grinned. “You should--”

“You should not,” Eunomie interrupted, her tone measured and emotionless. The crimson-maned mare didn’t even move more than her head, craning her neck just enough to face Twilight. “Have you forgotten your mission? Have you forgotten why we came all this way?”

“I…”

“Have you?” Twilight Velvet spoke up again, whirling on Eunomie. “Twilight came out here to help ponies. Reaching the tower was just a means to an end, not the end itself! If a better opportunity comes along, then why not take it?”

The older mare smirked, leaning towards the other unicorn.

“Unless you aren’t interested in peace at all!” Velvet declared, pointing accusingly at the reserved Mosaic sister. “That’s it, isn’t it? Why not just admit it? Just what do you think will end the fighting if not this?”

Eunomie blinked, unfazed by the tirade. “What will end the fighting?” she asked, and answered in the same breath, her horn already aglow with unformed magic, “Probably… destroying you. Won’t that do it?”

“How sad,” Exuvia stated, sighing. “I had so hoped we could put our differences aside and understand one another.”

“Did you hear that?” Twilight Velvet jumped up from her seat, turning to her daughter with a look of triumph, as if she had ferreted out some great secret. “You heard it, didn’t you, Twilight? All she cares about is causing more death and more fighting! Is that what you want, too?”

“N-no,” Twilight stammered, “but… but--”

“A war-monger like her won’t ever understand!” Twilight Velvet spat, but on the verge of saying more, of driving the point home, she winced in pain. “W-what…?”

“You make the assumption that only Twilight can undo your disguise,” Eunomie said, then, and Velvet turned slowly to face her, the illusion around her crackling and hissing. “You'll find my way of doing things is not as gentle as Twilight Sparkle’s.”

“What did you--”

Whatever else she wanted to say, Twilight Velvet didn’t get the chance. She arched her back and screamed, her changeling illusion forcefully ripping apart around her. At the same time, stolen magic blasted off of her horn in violent, multi-colored waves, searing and shearing the manicured grass beneath her. Velvet’s howl quickly turned into a wet gargle as she fell to the ground.

Still momentarily stunned, Twilight Sparkle’s eyes began to clear.

“What… the?” Twilight zeroed in on the changeling that had been her mother, her amethyst eyes widening in horror and shock as she began to realize what was happening and what she was seeing.

Twilight Velvet was--

A changeling?!

“Well done, sister,” Exuvia admitted with an appreciative nod. “Well done.” Without preamble, her horn lit up, a ball of roiling magical light forming at the tip. Green fire erupted without further warning from the orb, streaking towards the immobilized and magic-less unicorn mare.

Eunomie looked up at the incoming fire and braced herself--

“Yoink!” Pinkie tumbled mid-jump, plucking Eunomie out of harm’s way. The spear of green flame punched into and through the unicorn mare’s sitting towel, vaporizing a hole in it and into the ground below.

“Another, then!” Exuvia announced, as the second shot left her blazing horn-tip.

This one, Pinkie and Eunomie had no time to dodge. The latter tackled the former, rolling across the grass as licks of green fire blasted away from the impact point. Both escaped intact, but as Eunomie pushed Pinkie away and landed on her four hooves, there was a bloody scrape across her left foreleg.

“I won’t let you ruin what I’ve worked towards! That contract magic of yours is quite scary, but it also seems to be a double edged sword,” Exuvia observed, wings slowly flapping yet producing an alien buzz. A third blast was already lancing out from her horn. The green fire met a magenta shield and washed across it, tearing into the grass but leaving Pinkie and Eunomie both safe…

Safe behind an enraged Twilight Sparkle.

“Exuvia!” Twilight screamed, murder in her eyes. Magic rippled away from her horn, catching her mane in a magenta colored breeze. “All this time… my own MOTHER! You’d replaced MY OWN MOTHER!”

Princess Exuvia glanced over at the now powerless changeling that had once been Twilight Velvet. She was on her back, still alive, still breathing, but with wide dumbstruck eyes and drool collecting at the corner of her open mouth. Strange contract-marks etched onto her chest were glowing a deathly white, accompanied by a spiderweb of pale lines across most of the changeling’s body.

On the ground to her left, Vinyl Scratch appeared to be struggling with joining the fight, despite her friend being held hostage. Pinkie Pie and Eunomie were both safe behind Twilight Sparkle’s shield, and though the Mosaic mare was wounded, she remained a possible threat. The timid little pegasus, too, seemed to be steeling herself to help her friends. It was crystal clear to even the most simpleminded changeling that the situation had very quickly spiraled out of control, and not in a good way.

“It seems I erred,” Exuvia admitted, and vanished in a blink.

“Exuvia! It was all a lie, wasn’t it!” Twilight roared, looking around and quickly finding her quarry standing over the stunned changeling that had been posing as the unicorn’s mother. “All that talk about wanting peace! All that talk about understanding one another! It was all just another lie! It was all just another trap!”

“It wasn’t a lie,” Exuvia said, watching Twilight carefully but also sending her magic to envelop her now-powerless ex-infiltrator. “I do want peace between changelings and Equestrians. Clearly, relying on this one--” She poked the drooling changeling on the ground with her back hoof. “--to influence the issue in my favor was a mistake. But have you asked yourself, Twilight Sparkle, just what your new friends want? I guarantee it isn’t peace. Nor should you trust them any more than you trust me.”

“Twilight,” Eunomie said, heedless of the injury to her foreleg. She gave no command and made no suggestion, but her name alone seemed to incite Twilight Sparkle to action. Her horn began to glow red-hot.

But Exuvia had already teleported away, taking the fallen changeling with her.

“Where is she? Where did she go?” Twilight spun around, searching frantically for where her opponent had teleported to. It took three-hundred and sixty degrees and several seconds before it settled in that Exuvia had fled, not simply blinked away to attack from another angle.

“I won’t forget this!” Twilight vowed, turning her head upwards and at the airship. It was already starting to accelerate away, the fist-shaped shadow of it stretching out across the grass of the courtyard. A magenta beam streaked up to impale the ship… but deflected off of an algae-green barrier shield.

“I won’t ever forget this!!” Twilight roared, knowing she wouldn’t be heard, wishing she had taken the time to learn the Royal Canterlot Voice. The energy seemed to sap out of her all at once, leaving hollowness behind. “I won’t ever forget this…”

“Changelings can never be trusted.”

The voice was Eunomie’s. She limped forward, but injured or not, it hardly registered on her face. It seemed even pain was an emotion she had difficulty expressing. But then, from what Twilight had seen sharing the library with her, Eunomie Mosaic hardly felt disappointment or anger or frustration or helplessness or shame. In that moment, the lavender unicorn envied her. Her heart was strained by what she had seen, by what she had almost agreed to, and by what she now understood to be true.

Eunomie was right.

Changelings could never be trusted. There would never be peace.

“Her time will come,” Eunomie stated, simply. It was a promise. Twilight vowed to make it so.

“I’m so sorry, Twilight,” Fluttershy’s apology snapped her out of her dark thoughts.

“Fluttershy?”

“I knew she was…” her timid friend lowered her eyes and twiddled her hooves. “I suspected, and…”

“And she came to me with her suspicions,” Eunomie explained.

“Yeah, well, good thing, too,” Vinyl jumped in, grinning but clearly anxious by the sudden escalation and turn of events. She craned her neck to follow the departing airship. “Ah, shit. Octy was on that ship, too, but I guess she’s safe… ish.”

“And I didn’t get blasted!” Pinkie added, throwing a hoof-full of confetti into the air over her head. “For once!”

“Oh, girls, I… I can’t believe I was so stupid…” The light sputtered along Twilight’s horn. “Stupid, stupid, stupid…!” she punctuated every word with a hard knock to the side of her own head. “It was right in front of me this whole time! I almost… I almost--”

“Almost doesn’t matter,” Eunomie interrupted her, also watching the airship go. “One either succeeds or fails. They both failed. We are on the cusp of success.”

“Yeah, thanks to you guys!” Twilight said with a sigh of relief. She reached out to Fluttershy, who still seemed a bit unnerved by the brief firefight. “You girls saved my life!”

“And Pinkie Pie and you saved mine,” Eunomie added, a very faintly concerned look on her normally impassive features. She ducked her head and a white ripple passed over her body. To herself, she softly whispered, “Contract rescinded.”

“It wasn’t easy, but we did it,” Twilight said, breathily. She faced the Broadcasting Tower that was the end of her search. The changelings had abandoned it in their haste to retreat. “Finally,” she announced, smiling to her friends through thick and thin. “We did it!”

“Working together,” Twilight Sparkle declared, trotting towards the front door. “We did it!”

It was then that the Broadcast Tower, and all three adjoining buildings, exploded.

- - -

Twilight’s ears hurt.

Staggering onto her hooves, the first clear thought she had was that her ears hurt. They were ringing and there was no other sound, besides the steady drumbeat whine. Eyes open, she could almost be mistaken for thinking it was snowing. Black snow.

‘Ash,’ her rational mind told her. It was ash.

Belatedly trying to get her bearings and find her friends, she saw the source of the smoke and cinders. The Wireless Broadcasting Tower lay clear across the middle of the courtyard like a twisted metal skeleton, bent and broken into three jagged pieces. At what had once been the radio station’s base, the once ornate white buildings were aflame. Two had holes where their north-facing walls had been, revealing the collapsed-in floors within. Stinking black smoke billowed out from the rubble and ruins.

Twilight stumbled forward and her hooves brushed up against somepony’s desk.

She stared at it for a moment, dumbstruck. Somepony’s desk had been blown clear across the courtyard, over the iron security fence, and landed next to her, upside-down. Chairs, burning books, and pieces of random office furniture were strewn across the grass. There were no bodies – thank Celestia – but the overwhelming sense of where she was and what had just happened very nearly brought up a hint of vomit. The tower… the station… the equipment… it was all gone. Destroyed.

“Pinkie? Fluttershy!” Twilight called out, rubbing her eyes with the back of her foreleg. “Anypony?”

“Over here!” Pinkie’s cheery voice called to her like a beacon on a dark shore. “Twilight! Hey!”

Rounding a twisted part of the fallen tower proper, Twilight saw them.

Eunomie and Pinkie were helping Fluttershy and Vinyl get back onto their hooves. Both mares looked dazed but otherwise unhurt. Vinyl had her tongue stuck out like she was about to be sick and Fluttershy was nursing a bump on her forehead. Relief washed away all of Twilight’s other fears and worries. Her friends – they were still alive. They weren’t hurt.

“Somepony sure stored a lot of firecrackers in there!” Pinkie called out, and it was hard to tell if it was a joke or not. Not with her.

“Oh, okay. I think I puked a little,” Vinyl grumbled. “Just a little, though...”

“Thank Celestia everypony’s okay,” Twilight trotted towards them, still a little unsteady on her legs. Despite not wanting to dwell on it, she found herself staring at the ruined wireless station. It was all gone. There was no way anypony could salvage this.

Tears began to form in the corners of her eyes.

“It’s over…” she finally cried, close enough to her friends that they could hear her. “It’s over. She beat us after all.”

“Hey! It isn’t over!” Pinkie zipped over, stumbling as her hoof caught a piece of rubble, but still pressing forward to wrap her friend in a hug. “I’m sure there’s other big tower thingies out there!”

“There aren’t, Pinkie!” Twilight pushed her away, more tears running down her cheeks. “They already sabotaged the major ones, remember? There are a few smaller ones, but they won’t do – and, and… and what if we get there and they’ve been destroyed, too? This was all doomed from the start. My…” She grimaced and shook her head in despair. “My stupid fake mother… she told them where we were going and what I needed for my spell!”

“Twilight--”

“Don’t you get it?” Twilight yelled, falling onto her stomach and covering her face with her hooves. “It’s over! All this was for nothing!”

“No.”

Twilight felt a hoof part her forelegs. She looked up and saw Eunomie. The mare was still wounded, and the explosion had reopened the burn on her own foreleg. It oozed crimson, and the pale mare’s coat was streaked with ash and soot, but she paid it no mind.

“In case of an emergency like this, we prepared a backup for you,” Eunomie stated, and held out her hoof to help Twilight get back up.

“A backup?” Twilight asked, confused. “But… how? Where?”

“The Gardens.”

“Brass’s Hanging Gardens?” Twilight took Eunomie’s hoof and the other mare pulled her back up and onto all fours. She had never been there, but she knew what Eunomie was talking about. Still, it didn’t make sense. “You built a wireless tower on the gardens? But why? And what good will that do? We need a transmitter here, in Canterlot!”

“Wait a second, if you had a broadcasting tower all along--” Vinyl pointed at Eunomie, having overheard the conversation and quickly caught on to the topic. “--then why didn’t all of you go there, first?”

“Hey, yeah!” Pinkie agreed. “It was a fun tour of the city, but usually you do that before the war breaks out!”

“Oh! I get it! The gardens must be able to move, right!” Twilight guessed, a glimmer of hope lighting up her eyes. “You needed time to get them over the city?”

Eunomie blinked, slow to answer. “No. That isn’t it.”

“Then what--”

“The Hanging Gardens are not above Canterlot,” Eunomie explained, and lifted her hoof. Slowly, she angled it to point downwards. “The Hanging Gardens are beneath it.”

Author's Note:

I have a few new proofreaders who would like to thank for helping me clean up this chapter. I don't wear a hat, but if I did, I would tip it to them for their assistance.
Celelorien
Devas
Kyron the Wise

Comments

[Capn_Chryssalid]

4347737
As you've seen, there isn't. It is a focus at all because dragons are (apparently) greedy, selfish creatures. Or at least, very self-interested ones. Spike is, in TPC, still a dragon and I did not want him turning his back on his dragon heritage, both good and bad.

4351142
Certainly there are many who would do just as you say. Rarity, though, still aspires to bring out what she sees as the best in her new noble peers. It is not that she has sympathy for Sarai (she and the others didn't hold back in beating her), but that if something is distasteful to her, she simply has to point it out.
Sarai ended up getting dreamzoned by Luna anyway, so it all worked out. Right?

4351661
It was bad, but maybe, like the Power Glove, you have to love it because it is so bad.

4352177
I'm glad you find the changeling diversity interesting. I always sort of worried it might be overwhelming to reveal so much (and so worldbuilding as a result) in the final arc. There's some more to come in this new chapter today, too.

4360060
It was, I say without shame, a total DBZ callout. But after the show's season 4 finale, I don't feel bad about that.

4361949 4362110
Chryssy has thought a lot of the invasion through... but clearly not everything, and as others have pointed out, her arrogance and ego and pettiness can ruin even her own best laid plans.

As for Flash being a pegasus-version of Shining Armor, it isn't exactly accurate (Blueblood is hardly unbiased), but there's truth to it as well. Which does raise some uncomfortable notions of your taste in stallions, Twi.

[Capn_Chryssalid]

4363933
Aw, see, I don't want to turn any readers off with stuff like that... but like I said before, Chrysalis is gonna Chrysalis. That sort of thing is her delight, totally demonstrating to herself and everyone else the power she has over others, ponies especially.
I think I can say without spoilers that the damage done to her, and to the other changelings present at the blast, will not be going away anytime soon.

4382495
Triplet-Luna presents many opportunities for fun (and abuse) this is true.
I think we all just need to be glad that a certain other Princess doesn't also have this ability.

4389872
I still love that line, even, what? More than a year later.

4397039
Celestia: "Twilight, you did check the 'friskiness' setting on those golems, didn't you?"
Twilight: "The dial was set to '1' ... I'm sure of it!"
Celestia: (relieved) "Good. Good. Level One is just playful flirting."
Twilight: "Or... was it 1 and another 1, meaning 11?"
Celestia: "Oh dear."

[aduck]

I'll bet ten bits she did want peace. Alpha Brass wants all changelings dead. All of them. This also explains why Twilight Velvet wasn't ousted as a changeling before.

On the other hand, Alpha Brass planning this so far in advance has rather destroyed my suspension of disbelief.

[Reeve]

Don't you think this story is a bit impenetrable to new readers? I mean it's so long it's kind of off putting, You mention in your description that you're on the final 'arc', in which case why didn't you break up these arcs into separate stories to make the whole thing more approachable?

Saying that, with over a thousand likes you hardly need any new readers

[Xanderfox]

great googly moogly Exuvia! You've made such a HUGE mistake! Making Twilight sparkle mad at you? Crysalis is ganna get so freaking destroyed by Twi, and now you're ganna join her.

[Luna Secret Stallion]

4399732 Yes I am looking at this bad boy wondering if I got the time or well brain cells to even try it but it does look good though.

[Serifina]

I like Exuvia! She's made a horrible mistake, but I like her anyway.

The mistake was taking Octy. Vinyl needs to fetch her cannon now.

[RadicalDishonesty]

I was wondering what happened to Ritterkreuz, although there's still no evidence whether she's waiting execution or dead.

And Exavia... I think she really does want peace, but that she is still seeing this from a fairly alien perspective. She regrets she manipulated Twilight, but it seems a lot like it really did not cause her any real grief at betraying a potential ally. I'd say it's completely alien but... we've seen enough cutthroat ponies that have no concern for anyone but themselves and their goals that it's not really that alien, is it? How much of how changelings treat ponies is always in their nature to be deceptive, or how much is growing up in an environment where that is encouraged and normal, so even the changelings who want peace consider it trivial?

[H3lios]

I love it when villans are so sure of themselves. It makes it almost orgasmicly satisfying when they get cast down.

[Shogoki]

4399732

If anything I'll be easier to pick up for new readers, IMO.

Those of us following since the beginning may sometimes have problems remembering events that happened on chapters published months (years!) ago when they become relevant again, specially if it's in a subtle way.

New readers can go through the entire thing and get to the end with the rest of the story still fresh in their mind.

At least that's how I see it, i never had trouble following books with multitudes of characters like the Song of Ice and Fire series or 100 years of Solitude as long as one's committed to go through the entire thing without taking month long breaks in between (which is just procrastination if you really intend to finish reading it).

[Forderz]

Exavia was hoisted by her own petard, unfortunately. Considering Pinkie's reaction to Twilight's acceptance, however, I doubt she'd have gone along with the Princess's plan without magical coercion.

And Exavia, if she was truly honest(ha!) in her desire for peace and a symbiotic relationship, would have to allow Twilight to cast her spell. Reconcilliation happens after the violence has ended, not before. Since she herself stated she could not allow Twilight to proceed, this attempt at peace was doomed from the start.

[Municipal Engines]

4399656

I'm hoping that's not the case; planning for something like this would be near impossible. I'm guessing Eunomie saw an opportunity and took it, having kept the changeling 'Twilight Velvet' around in order to let the enemy think they had an agent inside their group.

[aduck]

4400547
There is no good reason to keep a spy in the group unless you have a specific use for them. There is no chance for misinformation, so you can't redirect or trick the enemy. Once the battle is joined, especially in an all or nothing battle like this, there is no point to keeping a spy around unless you have a specific use.

The spy, on the other hand, brings information to the enemy. The spy can assassinate. The spy can do so much damage.

Plus there is the fact that the hanging garden just happens to be under Canterlot, and just happens to have a transceiver. There are almost no coincidences in this story, hence planned. And underground is probably safe...and connected in some way to the mines...

And Alpha Brass really wants all changelings dead. Every last one. And I do believe the changeling princess was sincere, and Twilight in general would probably have loved a peaceful option, especially if the whole breathing thing was true for that hive. Chrysalis' have some independence, but we have seen great variety between the hives and there is the fact that with so many children Chrysalis probably has trouble enforcing her immediate will over all.

I also suspect that Alpha Brass wants the pony princesses dead, hence the breaking of the crown. His plan seems to be the only one without any trouble. Even Chrysalis has had trouble thanks to Blueblood. Because of Alpha Brass. And fake Blueblood has been taken out. Thanks to rogue Wonderbolt. Who did so thanks to Rarity. Who knew about Changelings thanks to Twilight. Who knew thanks to Alpha Brass...

He has his hooves in everything. Its just too much...

And there is even more. Why was the Changeling Queen at that particular receiver? Because all of these famous musicians were there, which isn't normal. I wouldn't be surprised at all if that was arranged by Alpha Brass...

I think you get where I am going with this.

[Capn_Chryssalid]

4399732 4399804
Believe me, this is something I've thought about before, but it is simply too late now to break the story up and copy the parts here and there as semi-seperate stories. I might have done it, had I felt this way when I was half-into the story, but to do it close to the end seems just more trouble than it is worth. My original intention had also been that people might appreciate having the whole thing available in one go without jumping links. Mostly because I, myself, prefer when I have an entire work of fiction on hand, rather than piecemeal.

I updated the table of contents before the new chapter. Like I've said before, feel free to browse around and get a feel for the story's parts before you commit to reading it entirely.

(in the interests of preventing spoilers, just in case, I won't consolidate this comment response in with the others)

[Capn_Chryssalid]

4399825
They wisely kept Vinyl away from any electrical equipment or subwoofers. Luckily, there's always her contribution to the Art Festival Incident to remember.

4399776
She's definitely more pissed than she's been since first finding out about her brother.

4399912
Chrysalis' changelings have been affected by their time among ponies, to be sure. That much is very clear due to Exuvia herself. But as much as they mimic Equestrians, changelings are still not Equestrians. It would definitely be naive to mistake Exuvia for a pony, with the same way of thinking a pony would have.

4400256
Exuvia does want peace, though she's also far from saintly. She wants peace because she thinks it is more workable and realistic as a long-term solution to changeling problems. She's pragmatic, rather than dogmatic, but still a changeling and still willing to manipulate things to achieve her aims. She's also still bound by the dictates of her mother as all changelings are.

4399656 4400547
Brass is very heavily reliant on others to do much of the "field work" for him, particularly Euporie, Eunomie and Chalice (the former two being capable schemers in their own right). Most of the plans you're looking into on the surface are actually Eunomie's, specifically, as she tries to carry out Brass' broader objectives.

She knew about Twilight Velvet, but let her remain in the group to first ensure that the changelings would know where Twilight was going (she wanted the radio station destroyed, and thinks just that in an earlier chapter, now we know why), and second to hammer home Twilight's own reservations regarding the changelings ("there can never be peace"). In a broad sense, the plan on Brass' level may have been "protect Twilight during the first day, and when her spirits are at their lowest, bring her to the gardens" - Eunomie does just this, but also uses the opportunity presented by Twilight Velvet. What damage Velvet can do, Eunomie reasons she can either allow as long as Twilight lives or she can mitigate by constantly being near Twilight during the entire event. She thus sits on the reveal as a trump card until the most opportune moment, co-opting Fluttershy's own concerns to explain the delay.

For instance, of the two examples you made:
The first is mostly correct, in that Brass arranged for Lyra to help Cadance escape, with the expectation that she would be a thorn in Chrysalis' side ("Cadance has her own plans" he tells Twilight at one point). It turns out that Cadance frees Blueblood, and Blueblood finds a way to blind Chrysalis. Did Brass plan for that? Or did he just plan/hope to have something go wrong, not exactly what?

The second example is similar, but different. Brass sets in motion (through informing Twilight of the changelings) a series of events that result in Ritter killing the fake Blueblood before a war could break out. Did he plan for it? It seems improbable. Another question is, though: did he even want that to happen? It could also be conceivable that - given how Brass has helped Chrysalis and how he sent Chalice to kill Yumi, after helping Yumi in the first place - that he wants said war to break out, in which case everything that happened might be going contrary to his desires. He certainly hasn't been operating in a way to minimize Equestrian losses or casualties. The fighting in Canterlot, it is noted, is already decimating the nobility there.

Suffice to say, in lieu of posting concrete spoilers, that you might get some answers soon, since Twilight and her friends are headed to the Gardens, and so is Brass. Nor is everything going to plan for anyone. Believe me, when I planned so much of this out, I tried to make sure no plan entirely survives contact with the enemy.

[SomeRandomMinion]

Genuine or not, I can't help but think that Exuvia's peace plan was shot in the foot (hoof?) by Fake!Velevet, when she did made the "persuasion" so obvious.

It gave Euromie the PERFECT opening to oust her, enraged Twilight so she wouldn't trust Exuvia, AND basically killed any chance of Twilight showing the 'lings mercy. Now everything is in place for the genocide Brass has been setting in motion...

[aduck]

4401157
I see some of the points you are making, and some are good. I suppose I need to lay out my problems like this.

Alpha Bass: Alpha Bass is a serious contender for the Big Bad against Chrysalis. Chrysalis wants to rule over ponykind and to be the sole Queen of the Changelings. She has basically stated that any queen who survives the assault will be killed by her, so all changelings can be one color.

Alpha Bass seems to be similar. We know he wants all Changelings dead. All of them. It appears that he wants the Princesses dead, or at least mortal. The shattering of the Platinum Crown by Chalice at his command makes this likely. Also, a good portion of the nobles are dead. By the looks of it, he wants to be emperor. Considering he was raised to believe that his line was to be the best, to surpass the Blueblood line for "taking what was theirs", it would just be simple to follow that line of logic to its conclusion, his line should rule all.

Now let's look at what the two have done.

Chrysalis has had to work hard for her position. She killed her mother at a young age, seizing control of her swarm. She then spent years, possibly decades, uniting the other hives through a grand game of war and diplomacy. She also worked really hard on her plans for the actual invasion, yet the plans themselves were in their own way simple. Want to kill/incapacitate Luna? Replace a guard with a changeling and a poisoned dagger. Want a rival queen dead while having a way to surprise Celestia? Replace herself with a changeling queen who can mimic other changelings. Want access to the main defender of Canterlot? Replace his fiancé, removing a potentially dangerous Alicorn in the process. Also, Candace was possibly a changeling detector, being the Alicorn of love and all. On top of this, Chrysalis had to control an untold and unheard of number of changelings in her own swarm.

Chrysalis earned her position as the big bad through intelligence, sweat, and grit. She earned her way to the top, and deserves it.

And then we have Alpha Brass. He gets broken, through details I can't exactly remember, by Chrysalis's mother. And then...

Chrysalis rises. And things work out great for him. Let's see. Chrysalis enjoys him, and decides not kill immediately. Yay! Now he's got changelings working with him. It has been stated that he has never been in a duel, and he has managed to change the minds of those who were going to duel him. His wife, a pacifist, got into a duel of her own, and before him had the lowest number of duels. Changelings anyone? He has direct access to the most important changeling, allowing him to influence her to invade during the wedding.

Which means Candace is captured. Which means he is her only chance of escape, meaning she has to follow his general plan, which she basically does. She only moves early. He has his sister, Chalice. She appears to be a doormat, which probably how he got her to be a conduit for an old god. Which he conveniently has the knowledge to do, knowledge that even Blueblood, who knows deader than dead uber suicide spells, considers to dangerous to have around.

Then he gets the two daughters, who happen to work really well with his plans. And he is able to identify all the changelings in his house.

Rarity enters the scene. This was unforeseen...and gives him a good reason to talk to Twilight...which gives him control of a powerful wildcard.

When Alpha fails, it doesn't seem to matter that much. Yumi survives...ok, that wasn't exactly planned, but the main thing that he was trying to prevent was prevented. In this case, Yumi was not replaced by a changeling.

Princess Candace escapes earlier than planned...which means what? Less nobles die? As long as the important ones die, its fine. He can still seize control.

Really, the only thing that seems to be going actually wrong is that Luna is doing so well, new found mortality considered.

Chrysalis on the other hand, has had real, tangible set backs, being blinded and basically taken out of the fight and all. She was tricked in a clever manner, anticipating an attack, but not from that direction.

But wait, the stars align more for Alpha Bass. Twilight Velvet has been replaced, and makes it to Twilight. Ok that makes sense. But wait, the tower that the group has to go to has all of these famous composers. An amazing coincidence. Or maybe Alpha arranged that, because he knows somehow that the changeling most likely to try for peace, therefore saving the changeling race, will go there to save the artists. And thus create the most perfect situation to set Twilight into an exterminate all changelings mode.

And also, Twilight really should have figured out there was something wrong with him during the clandestine meeting. She was already worried, given that he had somehow never been in a duel. If he had truly escaped the changelings, he would have been immediately assassinated to keep the secret of the race. The only way he could be alive is if he was working with them. And that would easily explain how he got out of duels. And how he had a changeling, who for some reason obeyed his orders to change, yet was still snarky in general, and rather unbroken. Come on Twilight, pick up a hint.

Basically, Chrysalis earned her power and fortune, and despite that, could lose it all, mainly due to very clever and or powerful enemies. Alpha, save for his introduction to changelings, which was horrific, seems to have everything drop into his lap to get his primary goal of killing all changelings done. Sure, he may not achieve secondary goals like becoming emperor, but that doesn't seem to matter nearly as much as kill all changelings.

Chrysalis is believable. She makes mistakes that actually hurt, and doesn't account or quickly adjust for everything. Alpha is not.

So yes, he doesn't have a direct hoof in everything. Some things are luck. But still, it all seems to convenient for him.

[ULTRADJ4EVER]

This looks intriguing and it's been out for a while. Should I get into reading this?

[djthomp]

Ritterkreuz wearing a cloak of peace? You'd almost think it should burn her.

“Let’s show the world what it looks like when a Prince dies,” Ritterkreuz yelled. “All we need first is an audience.”
Her wings snapped out, and the luxury cabin vanished in a single explosive Galloping Grenadier.

Hell. Yeah.

So, we've put an end to the prospective Neighpon vs. Canterlot battle, and both armies will be on their way to assist in Canterlot? Excellent, that is a massive hit to Chrysalis' plans. And I don't believe for an instant that Ritter is dead, didn't we see her pull the exact same move to escape a quarry eel that had swallowed her? I'd need to see a body as well as proof that the body isn't a changeling.

I believe Exuvia in the same way that I believe in Alpha Brass, with my emotions but not my intellect. It was great seeing fake Velvet exposed, however.

Heh, I managed to guess the location of the Gardens about half a page before the reveal. The abandoned mines below Canterlot must be pretty big if both the abducted ponies and the Gardens were down there. Unless Twilight was correct the first time and the Gardens were teleported in after the attack started, which could also serve as the answer to Vinyl's question.

[Brony Tom]

4401405
Short answer: Yes.

Long answer: If you want to read a very grand-scale story about a wide variety of themes and topics, all while the story explores a deep and fascinating take on Equestria, then you should read this story.

[Spiritus Arcane]

4401157
Yeah, I've pretty much figured through Chalice's actions (assuming she broke the crown on his orders) that Brass' plan is to either A: completely remove the nobility from power, or B: Basically A but in a way that puts him (and Twilight?) on top. Wiping out the changelings is just a really nice bonus for him. And of the two, I really think that it might be A, since I wonder if, like me, he thinks all the political games going on are stupid and wants to put an end to them for good, despite what casualties it might take.

[Capn_Chryssalid]

4401398
I'd planned for a condensed response post tomorrow on reception to the new chapter, but after seeing such a long and detailed post from you, my friend, I thought I'd respond before I turned in tonight. Though I had to wonder for a little while how to respond. Mostly because, you know, spoilers. So how to formulate a response without them?

I loved your analysis of Chrysalis, and how she struggled and schemed to set the invasion in motion (it was exactly what I was going for). So I'm going to start there. Why? Because Chrysalis was an antagonist inserted relatively late into TPC. We don't get to see much of her acting until the midway point, well after Antimony and most of the Insane Fiance Brigade have already been tearing up Ponyville. I always knew I wanted to explore Chrysalis more - her motivations, her background, her hive, her race as a whole, etc - and I devoted a lot of time and effort into that. I think if you tally up all of Chryssy's scenes in TPC, it would be longer than most fanfics, period. lol

Brass, on the other hand, has been kept a big secret. By me. Specifically.
We've seen him interact with Twilight and Chrysalis and Antimony and his step-daughters, but we've very rarely gotten into his head. The narrative as I write it very carefully omits a lot of information that would otherwise be there. There is a lot we don't know, but that a lot of readers should suspect they need to know, eventually.

This is mostly due to my approach to writing this layered-cake of conflicts. We're almost to the point where I do reveal these things, and then, like Chrysalis, we should see what Brass has done to drive things as far as they are currently. Actually, I guess, keeping narrative secrets like this is probably sort of a cheap writing trick... hahaha... but my thoughts were that people want "one prevailing villain at a time." I was worried about spoiling too much of what was to come by revealing it all. So I kept many things a mystery only hinted at here and there.

If my plan for the story works out, rather soon, Brass will get some of the "Chrysalis treatment" and we'll see what makes him tick, what he's done, what his desires are, and what he's done to make them real. As you can guess, this also ties into Eunomie and Euporie and Chalice (and Antimony). If I fail in this, though, don't be afraid to call me out on it. At least I know I've done well by our Great Changeling Queen!

Though as a last word, I'll also admit that because Chrysalis is many people's favorite character (or favorite villain) I also tried to put special effort into her. I'm always a bit hesitant to spend too much time on any OC. This is why virtually all of my scenes with an OC have a canon character around as well to share the spotlight. A private worry I sometimes have is that the Brass backstory stuff, which is almost entirely OC exclusive, will break this rule I try and stick to as much as I can. So if I'm 100% honest I guess that's a factor, too, for why I've put it off this long.

[Emerald wake]

What! She was a changeling all along?
I did not see that coming!
What I do see coming is a betrayal of epic proportions by enomie

[Municipal Engines]

4401157

It seems things are going to go down at the Hanging Gardens.

I'm looking forward to the happy reunion of loving fiancées between the Twilight and her beloved Alpha Brass. :P

[Emerald wake]

4402152
I never like brass, and really it's been too long for me to remember exactly why but when I learned he helped chrsy with the invasion I knew he was going to be the "final boss". and in my opinion the biggest obstacle- "oh guess what you may have stopped the invasion by the skin of your teeth but now brass is going to nuke canterlot- goodbye" (I honestly think he just wants to level the mountain) his true objective is a mystery to all but one pony (I'll give you a hint the name starts with a "B" and rhymes with ass) and honestly he's been messed up in the head that I don't think he cares if he lives through the ensuing chaos.

[Emerald wake]

4402784 oh you know he planned that crap in advance now all he has to do is sacrifice the virgin to the astral gods and he'll be immortal (I doubt very much it's that cliched but you know he planned something sinister and not all to wholesome)

[aduck]

4402152
I guess I will trust you. Still, two final points.

1): Alpha Brass was already pushing my SoD in the duel with his parents. First it was ridiculous in terms of pure power compared to the other duels, which revolved around trickery, and a stallion who was almost invulnerable when he didn't move. In that duel, you had a mad scientist who could immediately find a unicorn's magic numbers, and use them to drain said unicorn. Only because Twilight was also a scientist did she win, so that kind of works. Then Alpha Brass's father drops a castle on the two. A castle. A. Castle. And then Alpha Brass still wins.

Honestly, your first duel with Rarity was your best. There was no OP ness, no crazy powers. Just pure trickery. It was awesome.

2): I don't know about everybody, but I actually love it when multiple Big Bads are running their plans against both each other and the heroes. It makes the conflict more interesting. Rather than a simple, we defeated X, now Y is making his move, you get X having trouble because of Y, but Y has revealed too soon so we hit Y, but this is kind of giving X a chance to recover...It is much more interesting. A good example would be Harry Potter and the Natural 20 which features a munchkin wizard from a literal D&D world (complete with level ups and rolls for every action). One of the main problems for the heroes is that there are literally three to five villains executing plans at the same time, making it hard to figure out what is going on.

Oh, and Chrysalis has been my favorite villain ever in fan fiction. She is the first one I have ever really believed to deserve to win, if only through her hard work and intelligence.

[GBscientist]

The way I see the villains of this piece is basically this:
Chrysalis = Palpatine
Alpha Brass = Thrawn + Jedi Mind Trick

And I've always liked Thrawn.

[Storyteller27]

4402152

I'm always a bit hesitant to spend too much time on any OC. This is why virtually all of my scenes with an OC have a canon character around as well to share the spotlight. A private worry I sometimes have is that the Brass backstory stuff, which is almost entirely OC exclusive, will break this rule I try and stick to as much as I can. So if I'm 100% honest I guess that's a factor, too, for why I've put it off this long.

Which is why it is a better idea to reveal your backstory in the heat of action rather than stopping the action to give readers a massive chapter- (or multichapter) long info dump. That way, you can keep the action going and still do your Big Reveal at the end.

There are several ways you can do this. As a matter of fact, you've set up for some of them nicely. I won't risk inadvertent guessing-what-you-were-going-to-do-in-front-of-everyone by going into details here. And you write so well anyway that some of these are probably obvious to you, once you start thinking in that vein--But, PM me if you would like my suggestions/observations.

Wonderful story, by the way! I've been with you since chapter five (?) was new.

--Storyteller27

[Bugsydor]

It's a testimony to how rich and complex this story and this world are that you can believably deliver a gut-punchingly "oh crap" moment at the end of a chapter, several chapters in a row. You have enough irons in the fire with this fic to make Vriska jealous, and I love that.

My guess is that the beacon within the gardens hanging from canter lot is the perfected artificial Crystal Heart, and we'll need to see Eupory put the lesser one into action before Twilight uses the perfect one.

[RoboRed]

Anytime Ritterkreuz goes to work, I get all warm and gooey inside.

I rather like Exuvia, but I'm not sure she can be trusted.

“It wasn’t easy, but we did it,” Twilight said, breathily. She faced the Broadcasting Tower that was the end of her search. The changelings had abandoned it in their haste to retreat. “Finally,” she announced, smiling to her friends through thick and thin. “We did it!”

“Working together,” Twilight Sparkle declared, trotting towards the front door. “We did it!”

It was then that the Broadcast Tower, and all three adjoining buildings, exploded.

...Ouch.

[Walabio]

I do not trust any Changeling but I sense that Princess Exuvia speaks some truth:

Princess Exuvia may lie about not wanting to enslave the ponies, but I suspect that she does truly appreciate PonyCulture.

[SoarinSoren]

Should've made Twilight's mum say Would you kindly accept the deal?

Because Bioshock references are the best kind of references, and that was the same kind of mind control that changeling impersonating Velv was using. (sans code word)

[Always Breakfast]

Eurgh. I want to believe Exuvia, but she took so many bad-faith measures that I can't. And now poor Twilight got tilted toward her for all the wrong reasons, then turned against her for good for all the wrong reasons.

I'm with Pinkie on Brass's backup plan though. If his plan really was just to stop the changelings, he'd have had Eunomie sneak them there right to begin with. Clearly, he wanted that confrontation to happen to get Twilight in the mood for genocide.

[Lurks-no-More]

I think Exuvia is perfectly sincere, here. She's taken the "appreciate Equestrian culture" thing that Chrysalis has, and turned it up to eleven. She wants to take out her mother, and Instar, and become the Biscione queen, and forge a nice system of symbiotic cooperation with the ponies that gives her people all the love and niceties of civilization that they can want.

Her problem, however, is that as pony-minded as she is, Exuvia is and remains a changeling. And for quite a few ponies, the core concept of her plan - that there be any changelings in Equestria, even well-assimilated nice ones -- is unacceptable, and an existential threat to ponykind.

Now: the Hanging Gardens being in the crystal caves beneath Canterlot? That I did not expect!

Also, I can so see the Equestrian tabloid headline: "I am the mother of Prince Blueblood's changeling love-foal!"

[Lord Xaos]

Oh, Exuvia....that is not how you broker peaceful coexistence. You might have just condemned your race to extinction if you don't win.

If she couldn't stop herself from using mind control NOW, then whatever is stopping her from manipulating ponies for anything she wants in the "peaceful" future?

It would be hard enough to maintain the ponies' trust just for having mind control powers if you DID restrain yourself from using them in the initial peace talks. Now?

....Now, you can expect them to always be suspicious of you. ...What was that thing you said about a basic level of trust, again?

Anyway, great chapter, Cap'n! Once again you've demonstrated just how terrifying the changelings are and its surprising that you seem to be the only one to have explored the ramifications of their abilities and nature.

[Alondro]

4419402 It kinda does make the ponies in the show look really stupid for so far not even bothering to find out where all the changelings disappeared to, eh?

Ah well, but that would require actual planning going into the long-term meta-canon. Clearly, that's not happening.

[Alondro]

4409443 And yet, Brass is just as horrible as the changelings, for he uses mental control on ponies as well and desires supreme power for himself.

What we have here is a cascade succession of would-be magical despots.

And experience in a trillion magical universes has taught me that the only way to save the world in such a situation is to KILL THEM ALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!

[Ponibius]

Some interesting developments this chapter. I’m starting to see some of the major issues with Chrysalis’s plan here. Obviously, it heavily depended upon secrecy in order to function. She was semi-successful on that front, but there were some pretty major intelligence failures that resulted in several significant players being able to counter her. Then there’s the other issue with her plan. It seems to be working on what more or less amounts to a timetable where certain things need to be done within a certain time window.

While there seems to be a good deal of redundancy to her plan, it depends heavily upon quickly achieving its major objectives (namely severing the head of Equestria, seizing Canterlot, and disabling Equestria’s ability to organize effective resistance) with overwhelming coordinated force in a surprise attack. Of course, a significant problem is that she only seems to have enough forces to do just that, not engage in a slugout or battle of attrition with the various forces of Equestria. So it’s starting to look like that the more objectives she fails to achieve within a set time period is going to slowly unravel her whole plan. Plans involving keeping Cloudsdale, Neighapore, the Terra Roc, and the Blueblood forces out of the fight and preferably busy crippling one another specifically seems to be falling apart, which will likely have major consequences down the line. Every hour the forces in Canterlot can hold on is another hour for Chrysalis’s timetable to come completely apart.

Not to mention she has several troublesome/untrustworthy allies given even her own daughters are plotting against her. If studying history has taught me anything, this tends to result in disasters at some point.

Hm, looks like part of Alpha’s plan was to get Twilight to hate the changelings. Twilight Velvet might have been a convenient part of that, but blowing up the radio tower would certainly be a solid push in the right direction to go to his Garden. Now what exactly he has in the Garden and intends for Twilight to do on the other hand…

[websterhamster]

Exuvia's example of how changelings work, while comparing them to a hive of bees, isn't a good analogy. In a beehive, royal jelly is not produced by the queen; rather, it is secreted by workers.

[Fox]

So called the location of the gardens. The moment the sky was mentioned to be false, I realised that had to be the case.

So wait then, that rumbling under BB et al is from the Gardens? Is it... Is it going to rise up out of the mountain? Because that would be a crowning moment of fucking awesome. It probably won't, but I'm gonna read on with that in mind anyway.

[Psyco Josho]

That twist at the end...

This story is too fun to read.

[FOXTrot2]

I don't know about you, but I would genuinely assist Exuvia in becoming the new Queen.
mind control, compulsion or not, she seemed like a pretty chill and conversational...changeling.

Also, she is into art.
who better to associate, then a fellow artist?

#checkFOXTrot3deviantart