The Reformed Sniper

by Solar Caesar

Number One Priority

"It must be urgent if Thorax requires us to speak in person." Princess Twilight said, reading over the letter Thorax had sent for the third time. "When will we be leaving?" she asked Princess Cadance, who was busy preparing for the carriage ride to the changeling kingdoms.

"Right now." Cadance sighed, rubbing her neck. "I don't feel too good about this Twi. The timing is a bit...strange."

"I know what you mean," Twilight said, putting down the paper. "From the letter, it seemed as he was a little paranoid. Like he expects something bad to happen at any moment."

"Which is why we must leave at once," said Princess Celestia, walking into the room. "May I see that letter once again, Twilight?" Celestia asked holding out her hoof.

"Of course, Princess." said Twilight, going through the messy amount of papers on her desk until she recognized the scrap that had been hastily typed. Handing it to Celestia, the princess read through it all - the strange lack of formalities, the request to visit as soon as possible, the urgent situation they were in - it was, needless to say, chilling.

"Have the preparations for the carriage been made yet?" she asked, returning the paper to Twilight. Nodding, the three princesses proceeded to head to the front entrance of the castle, where Shining Armor was waiting for them, all dressed up in his formals. "Ready to go?" he asked them.

Receiving a nod from his wife, he opened the door to the carriage, letting the three princesses find seats inside the well-crafted and beautiful royal carriage.

"So, uh, just to be clear, he said we're required to meet face to face and not as a suggestion?" Armor asked, shifting uncomfortably in his spot in the carriage.

"Yes, we are required to visit in person. As per the letter states, anyways." Celestia told the captain. "Feeling nervous?"

Shining shook his head, "I'm just a bit concerned is all. Strange how he said that we must meet in person. Unnerving, if you ask me."

"Well, we'll just have to wait and see what he so desperately needs us for when we arrive." Cadance told her husband.

"Agreed." Shining said, turning to the driver of the carriage and saying something in his ear. Nodding, the driver proceeded to begin along the road outside of the Crystal Empire's border.

---

Finally arriving, a changeling guard with yellow and green body colours walked up to the window of the carriage, and after sharing a brief few words with the driver, stepped up to the passengers side. "Oh! Princess Twilight!" the guard exclaimed. "Head right on in. The king is expecting you."

"Thank you." Twilight said politely as the carriage entered the hive. The hive had grown into a much more prepared living space, with actual structured shelters instead of cocoons and caves.

Not long after their entry in the hive, another guard stopped the vehicle, saying that carriages were required to stop here. The carriage driver gone, the four royals proceeded to walk to Thorax's throne room as they were guided with an armed escort. The changeling military had gone from spears(when Chrysalis was in charge), to assault rifles. Some had even been equipped with riot armor, which threw Twilight off. It was almost like they were expecting to defend from something...

Being led into Thorax's throne room, they found the changeling pacing back and forth, muttering something. Seeing the four snapped him out of his distressed state, breathing a sigh of relief as Twilight came and pulled him into a hug.

"Thank god you're here," said Thorax, greeting the others. "Come, this way. I'll explain everything." Thorax started leading them into the Military unit rooms of operation. There was a Combat floor, Intel floor, Support, you name it.

Leading them inside the Intel room showed a dimly lit open area, filled with computers, changelings running about, all in all lots of activity going on.

Leading them into a small room with a table and large projector screen, he motioned for his guests to take to take a seat. The only other changeling in the room was a red-eyed male changeling with a blue coat and a slight orange shade on his neck. He was dressed in a military style striped camo uniform. He looked nervous.

"Alright, what is so important that you had to bring all four of us here?" Shining asked the king.

Thorax breathed heavily as he began to explain. "So, yesterday, we sent Morph here, a scout from our Intel unit, into the griffon mountains to collect medicinal plants. We've been running short, and I wanted to refrain from asking you, as you've helped us enough in the past.

As he went into his 5th hour of searching, he came across a griffon military outpost. Our command advised him to use caution, as the griffons may see him as an enemy combatant, you know? The war going on with the zebras?"

Shining nodded. "They'll accuse anyone of being a spy at this point. Even us, are in danger of being called out, as we've allied with the zebras multiple times before."

"Exactly, which is why command was worried. They told him to not stray too far to the outpost for safety. But there was a large group of plants near the base, so nevertheless, Morph decided to collect some of the medicinal plants in the cluster he saw.

But suddenly, a sniper fired at him." Thorax said.

"What?" Shining exclaimed, looking at Morph. "How did they mistake him for a combatant?"

"I, uh, guess they mistook the camo on my uniform for a zebras stripes, I guess?" Morph spoke to the royals, shrugging.

"Morph fortunately wasn't harmed. He did manage to get to a safe spot without being detected again, and gained a visual on the sniper." Thorax explained.

"Thorax, I'm sorry for the almost loss of your scout, but does this really need a face-to-face confrontation?" Cadance asked. "I'm guessing you have something bigger behind this."

"I do. But you would hear it better from Morph." Looking at his scout, Thorax made a motion to his guests with a slight jerk of the head. Sitting up, Morph began to explain.

"When I saw the sniper, at first I thought it was a griffon. Since, you know, griffon outpost? Anyway, when I saw the sniper, I didn't see a griffon. It was..." Morph paused.

"It was what?" Twilight asked.

"I-I saw a changeling." Morph finished, gulping before he said it.

"A...I beg your pardon?" Shining looked baffled. "One of yours, Thorax?" he said, giving the king a strange look. Thorax shook his head. "No. For the two years that I have been in charge, not one of my subjects left."

"It was an un-reformed changeling." Morph continued. "At first I thought that it may have been one of Chrysalis's operatives that was out on a mission at the time. I managed to take a picture of the changelings face, and then left the area.

I brought it back to HQ for it to be analyzed, but what unnerved me was the fact that that changeling looked just like...Chrysalis." Morph sighed, looking down with his hooves in his lap.

Everyone's jaw dropped. Except for Thorax's, who seemed pretty darn uncomfortable at this point.

"...Chrysalis?" Celestia repeated, shocked. "But...that's highly improbable. I'd say impossible even."

"The Queen? But, w-why would she be at a griffon outpost? And you said she was clearly visible to be un-reformed and unmasked, right? There's no way she could've been there in disguise!" Shining stammered, utterly flabbergasted.

"I admit, I thought Morph was crazy when I first heard it. We even checked him for PTSD after he came to me for the report. But as he described the shooter, the evidence came piling on like a sack of...what do you ponies refer it to?"

Twilight coughed. "Potatoes?"

"Yes, that."

"I saw the shooter with a female like build, with a green mane. It was a little...difficult to see her face, as she sported a griffon blue-and-white camo uniform, with a backwards cap." Morph explained.

"She even had the griffon military insignia. I-I don't know what else to tell you." Morph said, wiping a bead of sweat from his brow.

"We did a facial ID scan to possibly identify the sniper, put an end to the rumors once and for all." Thorax said, with a sigh.

"And the results?" Cadance asked nervously.

Morph looked at Thorax nervously, while Thorax showed no emotion as he turned on a projector screen, showing the photo of the sniper. What unnerved Twilight the most of this experience was not the possibility that Chrysalis was still alive, bu the fact that the soldier pictured really did look like Chrysalis. The sniper looked calm.

Focused.

Deadly.

"Here..." Thorax said, with a deep sigh. "are the ID scan results."

Popping up, the scan showed something horrifying.

Her.

Her facial photo showed no emotion as her personal information was left there on the side.

Chrysalis Corvakov

Age: 34

Place of Birth: Changeling Kingdoms

Royal Status: Queen N/A

Whereabouts: Unknown Vorech Koran Supply Outpost, Griffon Kingdoms

Notes: Queen Chrysalis has been labeled MIA, not being seen for the past two years. See Canterlot Library for details on early life. Queen Chrysalis has been located today, on █/██/████, at the Vorech Koran Supply Outpost, currently in possession by the Griffon Military.

"My god..." Shining muttered. "We've found her. After two years, we've finally found her."

There was a deadly silence in the room. The only sound heard was the air conditioning moving through the ducts.

"Captain." Celestia said, slowly standing up.

Shining looked up at the sun princess.

"This is our number one priority, do you understand? All of our resources will go into locating her - without attacking the base or getting fired upon."

"Yes, princess." Shining said.

"Thank you for telling us, Thorax. We will work together, I presume?" she asked. Nodding, Thorax added, "Of course."

"And remember..." Celestia added as she faced the room. There was a flurry of emotions going through Twilight's head; fear, anger, shock.

"Number. One. Priority."

Comments

[Profesionalac]

YAY more chapters, i like her last name i would like to see he be one of the GAF (Griffonian armed forces) operatives interesting at least

[Razzy]

Good luck with that, I don't think she'll come willingly. Not too traitors, at least.

This'll be interesting to see. Especially griffons telling Celestia to eff off.

7718482 What can I say, I feel for the best bughorse. And the reformed changelings disgust me, especially that, aside of Thorax, they did nothing to earn it, up until the transformation they were acting evil and enjoying it.

[Solar Caesar]

7724991 I think the Reznov was supplied to Russians in the Soviet-Afghan war, but I can't be too sure(The Soviet Afghan war being in the mid 1980's)

[Solar Caesar]

7725127 Hah, I like the way you think! You can bet the griffon king has a surprise for them...

[Solar Caesar]

7724994 Thanks!

[Yubella]

"My god..." Shining muttered. "We've found her. After two years, we've finally found her."

Touch her and I'll kill your kid and rape your wife. Actually I hate sex so I'll kill her too.

[Doctor_Den]

stop, Chrysalis is only 34 years old? I thought she was at least over 100 years old.