Blood Thicker Than Venom

by theOwtcast

A Heavy Task

Some time into the afternoon, I returned to the Throne Room. Chrysalis wasn’t there at the moment, so Psycho suggested I should go do something and he would send a drone to find me when she returned.

I told him I’d wait, thank you very much Psycho.

The wait was shorter than I’d expected. Chrysalis strolled into the Throne Room and walked right past me as I bowed, ignoring me as if I were a drained cocoon. Only upon flying up onto her throne did she acknowledge my presence.

“I’m listening,” she said.

“I’ve come up with a rather simple and straightforward plan: to send out as many teams of hunters as you’re willing to grant me, each with their own territory to cover, plus my own team to coordinate the others. I have no way to be sure where Thorax would have gone, but if I had to guess, I’d put my hoof on Equestria. It’s the only place he’s ever been deployed to and thus the only culture he would know anything about, which would make blending in easier, despite the drawbacks of it being an obvious choice considering his familiarity with the destination as well as a risky one after the failed invasion of Canterlot and the ponies’ increased wariness of our possible return. If I can get as many teams as I’d like, I’ll have some of them cover other lands too; if not, I’ll have them focus on Equestria only. As for the teams themselves, I estimate that three hunters would be the right size. Three trained soldiers should be able to handle most of the conceivable dangerous situations easily, and the teams would still be small enough to go around unnoticed.”

“I’m inclined to grant you enough teams to cover all lands, not just Equestria.”

“Thank you, Your Highness!”

“But you forgot to clarify how they are supposed to cooperate with the infiltrators already in position.”

Okay, soldier, here come the slippery grounds.

“Actually, I’d rather keep them out of it.”

She raised a suspicious eyebrow.

“And why is that, exactly?”

“Considering the recent trend of losing infiltrators, I don’t want to risk that the ponies find out about Thorax if any more infiltrators get captured. Not that I expect them to get captured, but I didn’t expect those last three either, so one can never be too careful. What the infiltrators don’t know, they can’t reveal to the enemy.”

“Are you covering for that lousy brother of yours again?” she lashed out at me through gritted teeth.

Yes, but good luck getting me to admit it!

“I’m not!” I kind of was trying to keep him as safe as I could in the circumstances, but why tell her that, especially since I had no promise that my own team or any of the nearest ones would be the one to find him? For all I knew, I was just postponing the inevitable! “Think about it from the enemy’s perspective, Your Highness: we know that Thorax is a useless wimp with too low a clearance to know any relevant stuff, but they don’t! If they get word that a changeling has betrayed the hive and is running loose, possibly somewhere in their land, not only would they make it a priority to catch him, but their efforts would put our own hunter teams in danger of getting caught too! We don’t even know what Thorax might have figured out on his own that could be useful information to the ponies if he’s that far gone as to outright cooperate with them if they find him, which I hope he isn’t but wouldn’t put past him at this point, not to mention that he’s certain to cave under the most laughable of interrogation techniques they might subject him to, but if any of the hunters get captured before or alongside Thorax, they most definitely would know stuff that could damage us if it gets into the wrong hooves, and after that fiasco with Coxa, I wouldn’t trust anyone to not sell out our secrets given enough probing, regardless of how trained they are to resist interrogation!”

“Makes sense,” she said after a moment. “What would an individual team’s strategy look like, then?”

“Whatever is most appropriate in a given environment. Flexibility would have to be key. A rough guideline would be to disguise themselves when going into populated areas, look around for anything that might suggest a changeling in disguise, and shadow any suspicious individuals until they know what they’re dealing with; just basic common-sense stuff that they already know. They wouldn’t necessarily need a disguise in uninhabited areas, but it might be a good idea anyway. Also, they’d have to establish a base camp where they’d stash their battle gear and hide any prey they catch, and where they would regroup in case they have to split up.”

“What about communication?”

“Daily updates at scheduled times, except to report task completion or any matters of urgency, which should be done as soon as conditions permit. I will relay everything of importance to you on a daily basis, say, in the evening hours.”

“So none of the teams would be in direct contact with the hive?”

No, because I want to be the first to know if they capture Thorax in case any interventions on my part are feasible before you get word of what’s happened.

“I don’t see the need to, but if that’s what you want, I will comply.”

Was she convinced?

“Where will you set up your headquarters?”

“I was thinking Everfree Forest or Foal Mountain. Both are located in central Equestria which would be convenient in case of any complications with Equestrian teams that would require my direct intervention, practically uninhabited by ponies which minimizes the risk of discovery, and relatively close to Canterlot in case something happens that will force us to contact the infiltrators there and ask for their assistance regardless of my concerns that I’ve stated earlier. A slight downside of Everfree is that we’d have to be more careful about its wildlife, although the presence of the said wildlife might work to our advantage by keeping ponies away and giving us a wider variety of credible disguises should we need them anyway. I’m more inclined towards Foal Mountain, however; ponies hardly ever go there despite the lack of dangerous wildlife, and though I’m sure our soldiers can take on any monster that we come across, they could focus on finding Thorax better if they don’t have to worry about getting eaten all the time.”

“Have you considered which soldiers you want to include?”

“I have.” I held up a scroll I’d brought along. “This is my preferred roster of soldiers made with the assumption that I would get as many teams as I want.”

She took the scroll in her magic and skimmed through it.

“Impressive! It usually takes you longer to make such rosters, doesn’t it?”

“Yes, but this time it was easy because I still remembered what I’d read in the soldiers’ records after you told me to select replacement infiltrators for Trottingham, Tall Tale, and Salt Lick City. Most of the names on that scroll I’d originally considered for that task, and I’m afraid that Psycho may have a hard time tackling that selection now that I’ve taken most of the good ones.

I snuck a smug glance at Psycho, who bared his teeth in reply.

“He might if I don’t decide to make changes to your little list, that is,” she smirked.

Psycho returned me a smug grin, and I looked daggers at him. I’d watch that attitude if I were you, Psycho! You’re still acting First Commander!

“As you wish,” I told Chrysalis, careful to avoid an annoyed undertone in my voice, or she might send Psycho to rearrange my roster in such a way that I end up with only the worst soldiers. Why had I even said that? I didn’t normally lose control over my big mouth in front of Chrysalis like that!

“Do you have anything to add that we haven’t covered?” she asked.

“No, I think that’s all.”

“Then you’re dismissed! Go do something while I think it over. I’ll send a drone to find you when I’ve decided.”

I bowed to her and left.

---

About an hour later, Locust found me in one of the training chambers, destroying some more equipment that probably should have been left alone until a group of rookie soldiers assembled for their next drill session. I’d barely noticed him with all the dust flying around and the noise I’d filled the chamber with.

“Chrysalis sent me-” He ducked to avoid a rock I’d launched toward him. “-to find you! Watch it with that!”

“What, you have to become the new wimp now that Thorax is gone? She in the Throne Room?”

“No and yes.”

“No what and yes what?”

“No, I don’t have to become the new wimp, and yes, she’s there.”

“It’s ‘no, I don’t have to become the new wimp, Sir’ and ‘yes, she’s there, Sir’!”

The fact that he may not have had a reason to call me Sir anymore was beside the point. I used to be higher in the chain of command than him and I intended to return there! And I didn’t want him to think otherwise!

“Right. I’ll remember that, Sir!”

“Dismissed!” In other words, get out of my sight!

I caught a glimpse of him flicking his tongue at me as I turned to go, and before he realized what had happened, I sprang back, bit into his tongue and pulled at it, first until its full length was out of Locust’s mouth, and then until he lost his balance and fell face-first and bit his own tongue in the process.

He squealed, turned into a mouse, and dashed away into the nearest burrow faster than I’d sprung at him a second earlier. Lesson learned, I thought, and went to find out what Chrysalis had decided.

---

“You’re clear to go,” she told me as soon as I set hoof in the Throne Room, before I could even bow to her.

“I am? I mean, do I need to modify my proposed strategy in any way?”

“I’ve made a few adjustments to your team roster, but nothing too drastic.” She gave me back the scroll, and I saw some names crossed out and new ones written in their place, but not as many as I’d expected. “Psycho has already begun gathering them. Other than that, your original plan will do just fine.”

I hadn’t expected that! I’d thought she would insist on having the infiltrators know what was going on even if they weren’t going to actively cooperate, or that she would want the teams to report to the hive too, or most likely, that she would reject my plan entirely and make me come up with a different one or task someling else with it! This would make my job a whole lot easier!

But would it? She had, after all, made modifications to my proposed teams, and one such modification affected my own team. She would have had plenty of time to brief that soldier about our mission and task them to keep an eye on any suspicious business on my part! I’d have to be careful!

“When do we head out?”

“At midnight. Since not all of you are going in the same direction, and since you’ve prepared the plan so quickly, you may brief them here rather than after you move out.”

“Understood.”

“The soldiers will bring their battle gear with them. Go grab your own gear as well as the communicators while you’re waiting for them to assemble.”

“Right away!”

Comments

[Black--Soul]

Looking good. Chrysalis dont seem to suspect him to protect Thorax anymore. Of course there is the bare minimum of observations on him but he capable and loyal to boot ( normaly ).

Im curiouse how many deceptions and kills he will have in the very end massed up to save his brother.