Chapter 1: Paradise on Earth

(Chrysalis)

The soft dust of the Badlands whispered the holes in my hooves as I trudged along through the Badlands, back towards my home, my “hive”, if it could even be called that. The wings of my two remaining Praetorian Guards buzzing lightly as they kept just a few paces behind me, but all I could hear was that white mare’s words in my ears, the question repeating over and over.

“But you didn’t trust me to understand your Changeling’s needs, did you Chrysalis?”

I hadn’t trusted her, I hadn’t trusted anyone in a long time, I hadn’t trusted her to understand my hives needs, I hadn’t trusted my Infiltrators who could’ve done a much better job of imitating Cadance, done a much better job at taking just enough of her husband’s love to feed my swarm, and I hadn’t trusted in the Ponies of Equestria to understand what we were doing once we were discovered. It had been so long since I’d had the luxury of trusting anyone save myself I had forgotten it was even an option, and now rather than the distrust and paranoia protecting my swarm it was destroying them, once again my actions had condemned my children to the life of scavengers, barely above the carrion feeders and the vermin we had sought so hard to escape from.

Me: the great provider of the swarm, barely able to find us a home in the dirt and dust of the Badlands.

“My Queen, are you alright?” One of the guards asked, his voice cutting through the echoing question in my head as he stepped in front of me, meeting my downcast eyes with his own, his emotionless face somehow managing to radiate concern.

“I am fine, uhhh” I stuttered as I tried to remember his name, blinking back tears that had started to form in the corners of my eyes.

“It’s Barbed Retort, my Queen”

“What?”

“My name, it is Barbed Retort, my Queen” the guard said.

“I am fine Barbed Retort” I lied, my voice as firm as possibly could be, while he cocked his head at my answer.

“You don’t look fine” he answered.

“You dare question your Queen” I hissed back

“Well your eyes are all red and puffy, you hadn’t moved in almost a minute before I spoke, and you kept on muttering something about trust” he replied back cheerfully “also you are a terrible liar”

“You would speak to your Queen that way?” I yelled back at him, dust lifting from the ground around me as my wings began to buzz furiously

“Yes, for one very good reason.” He hadn’t moved an inch from where he had sat down in front of me.

“Well then seeing as this reason is enough to defy your Queen for why don’t you tell me before I have you working in the Fungal pits until your carapace rots.”

“Oh it’s a very simple reason.” He replied, his smile fading a little as I snorted at him.

“If it is so simple then you should be able to explain it to your Queen” I stated back at him, my voice evening out a little.

“I would speak my Queen that way for the good of the hive”

My eyes narrowed at him, my horn sparking in anger.

“Right now we have established that we won’t get wiped out by Equestria seeking restitution for our acts against them” Barbed Retort spoke his voice completely calm as my wings began to slow, their furious buzzing dying away “But what about tomorrow? What about other Hives? The Griffon Empire? The Minotaur Republic? The Zebra Council? All have reason enough to hate us simply because of what we are and they know where we are now, or near enough at the least”

My wings stopped, the harsh glow around my horn sputtered and died as his words set in.

“Right now we are in as much danger as we have ever been in, yes we mended our bridges with Equestria, but we mended it with the first carapace of a grub, and while I doubt Celestia would want us dead enough to break her word, I doubt equally she would shed tears for us once we are gone” Barbed Retort’s voice was serious now, sounding every bit like the teachers from my Mother’s hive.

I hung my head dejectedly again as the anger drained away with the weight of his words.

“Which is why, right now, the hive needs its Queen, we need you to lead us, we need you to have hope that things will get better, we need you to not give up and mope over what could have been.” He moved closer still looking me in the eyes as tears started to form again, the flat blue orbs tinged with honesty, concern, and something else I couldn’t identify.

“B-b-but, I failed, I had all the love we could ever need” I could feel my barrel shaking, as tears started to fall “I-I-I could have got enough love to keep us f-f-fed for years, I c-c-could have just sat back and t-t-trusted the infiltrators do their j-jobs, b-b-but I had to g-g-go and i-i-insist that I do it b-b-because I-I-I’m the Queen, and the Queen h-h-has to look out for h-h-her swarm, and now I-I-I’ve made everything s-s-so much w-w-worse”

I choked back another sob as I felt Barbed Retort hook his hoof over my neck as he held his chest against my foreleg.

“Don’t worry my Queen; we’ve dealt with much worse, I’m sure you remember how we all starved we had to cross the southern desert to reach this place, or how many of us are here because you went out and found us after the Love Bomb” his voice radiated calmness, but I couldn’t help but shudder in remembered pain “You brought us through those trials at a cost to yourself, and we stood by you, even without the hive-mind link that the old queens kept us under, because you were willing to sacrifice for us”

I couldn’t speak, my tongue wouldn’t cooperate; all I could do was cough and wheeze as I gave a half-hearted nod.

“You’ve carried us through times far worse than this, I was just a grub when we went through the desert and I remember those times, I remember the stories you told us, of the land of overflowing love, where we could just be ourselves and not have to hide, where we wouldn’t have to fight with other hives for scraps of fleeting emotions, you’ll carry us through this, and we’ll stay with you to carry you when you need it” I could feel pressure on my neck increase for just a second as Barbed Retort squeezed my neck the briefest flicker of love coming from the starved guard, giving his words weight as I felt the warm emotion seep into me, soothing the aches in what I felt remained of my heart, before his hoof lifted from my neck and I heard the dull thud of hard chitin against the desiccated dirt.

“Now come on, any longer and the rest of the swarm will worry that the Princesses decided to wipe us out” he said as he stood beside me, his serious demeanour spoiled by the faint smile on his lips.

“Very well” I stood up straight, using the back of one of my dusty hooves to wipe the tears from my eyes “Guards escort your Queen back to her hive” I stated, my voice firm again as I started to walk again.

“Yes my Queen” both Barbed Retort and the other guard snapped to attention before I could hear their hooves thudding against the ground as they hurried slightly to keep up with my longer strides, before I slowed down, just a little.

“Oh, and Barbed Retort” I smiled faintly with my face hidden from view.

“Yes my Queen”

“First thing tomorrow, report to the fungal pits for duty” I could hear a brief chuckle from the other guard as Bitter Retort’s hooves faltered slightly before he caught up again.

“Yes, my Queen” he sighed.

The sadness was still there, the feeling of loss, but somehow I knew my swarm would get through this, I could carry them through this, I could help my swarm flourish, our chance would come to make amends, and I could finally bring my Changelings to that land I had told them about so long ago.

These thoughts echoed in my head as I walked calmly back to the hive, Celestia’s thorny words still there, lurking in my mind, but the pain was dulled by a hope that someday I could trust her enough to ask for help, and that she could trust me enough to understand I wasn’t trying to conquer her little Ponies again.

<~~***~~>

(Chrysalis)

I blinked, my eyelids fluttering as I felt the warmth of sunlight on the back of my head, almost like the gentle hoof of the last Stallion I had shared a bed with, the small clock on my bedside table ticking away, its hands counting the seconds between each minute as I dozed contentedly under my thin blankets.

“My queen, are you awake?” a soft knock came at the door, loud enough to rouse me from my doze.

Murmuring my assent I pulled myself from the comfort of my bed, before the door swung open and a well cleaned Changeling mare stepped through, her hooves whispering against the polished stone floor, a mug of steaming coffee and a plate of green fungal toast held in the grip of her telekinesis.

I yawned as she set the mug and plate down on a small coffee table I kept in my chamber, the dark wood soaking up the heat from the sunlight as it started to release the soft fragrance of oranges.

“Thank you Harsh Words” I yawned again as I floated the coffee mug up to my mouth, gently sipping at the bitter liquid, before nibbling at the dry toast, letting the breakfast wake me up by inches, as Harsh Words sat and waited for me to finish.

As I delicately licked the crumbs of toast from my snout I looked over at my assistant before swallowing, and clearing my throat.

“So what’s on the agenda for today?” I asked, before sipping my coffee again as Harsh Words pulled a scroll from one of the saddlebags she had hanging from her.

“Well, you have your weekly morning inspection of the ‘weather’ team, after that I’ve scheduled a brief visit to the water farm, before the meeting with Little Secret, Hidden Facet, Poker Face, Barbed Retort and Alluring Mystique to discuss preparations for the upcoming diplomatic visitation,” The Changelings words were clipped as she ran through the list of my duties “after which there should be just enough time to preform hive court, there have been fewer supplicants lately after we finally managed to ‘fix’ the issue with the tidal pools” She put the scroll away before continuing “But firstly my Queen, you need to look presentable” she said as she hovered a heavy comb from her other saddlebag, my old sapphire topped crown following it as they orbited around my assistants head.

Signing I straightened up and held my head high as the comb began to work its way through my mane, gently easing out any sleep tangles and straightening any stray hairs.

“This is demeaning,” I pouted as the comb was slowly returned to the saddlebag, knowing better than to speak while the sharp metal was brushing against my chitinous neck. “Can’t I at least do this myself?”

“Now, now, my Queen, I have no little hatchlings to look after, we cannot support more mouths at the moment, and so I go without anyling to lavish my affections on” she replied as she angled the crown on my head, the sticky cantrip she placed on it helping it keep the rakish angle she eventually chose, before brushing my mane into place around the base of the crown.

“And so I choose to help you look the very best you can look,” she said as she stepped back, tilting her head to get a better look. “There, very regal looking my Queen” she said beaming at me as I narrowed my eyes at her, before I snorted.

“You do realise we are going to have to fly to the ‘weather’ team’s lodge, undoing all of this” I gestured at my mane with a hoof.

“All that matters is that I get to help my Queen”

“Very well” I sighed at the undaunted Changeling “We have a busy day ahead of us, let us be off.” I said as I magically locked the door behind me, Harsh Words following behind me, a smile on her face.

<~~***~~>

(Barbed Retort)

I yawned as I walked down the street, it was, judging by the “sun” above me, almost noon, my armour felt heavier than normal, sweat was gathering in my helmet before rolling down over my eyes, and I still had several more Ponies to visit, before the meeting with my Queen and the other hive managers.

“Mornin’ Barb’”, a call came from somewhere behind me. I pushed a smile on to my face before turning to look at the source of the voice, a ruddy coloured Earth Pony mare, her cutie mark a hanging basket full of flowers.

“Barb is a mare’s name” I replied, forcing a chuckle to my lips “How’re you doing Babylon?”

The Earth Pony tilted her head at me; I could feel the faint concern rolling off of her at my unusually tired response.

“I’m fine Babylon” I spoke quickly before she could ask the question on her tongue “Just tired, I’ve got so much to do before this big diplomatic shindig, I keep on expecting something bad to happen so I’ve been double checking, and triple checking the security” I yawned again, partly for emphasis, partly because I was dead tired “and it doesn’t help that I just accidentally walked in on Kick-Back and Severed Bonds ‘In Flagrante Delicto’,” I said making air quotes around the fancy words “He’s awfully spry for a sixty something year old stallion, and I did not need that to make my morning complete”.

The mare’s already red cheeks darkened a little at my words as she blushed, before she spoke again.

“I knew him before I came here, back in Manehatten, he’d been miserable since, well you know” I nodded at that, the old Stallion had turned up pretty much completely heart-broken, and the hive guards had almost turned him away due to his emotional state, before the truth had come out.

“We’re lucky to have him here” I responded, and the truth was we were lucky to have the old stallion, the love of an old pony had a depth to it that made it far stronger than anything we could gather from our usual young visitors, the old Pony made for an exceptionally good source of food which was why I made sure to check up on him at least daily, “and it’s best not to talk about his past, he’s told me he lost a lot of the time from before he found himself here, which quite frankly, worries me.”

Babylon sighed heavily as we shared a moment of misery, the stodgy emotion settling in my gut like a lead balloon, before I tried to steer the conversation elsewhere.

“Soooooooo, how are the plants doing?” I attempted lifting my voice to a more cheerful tone.

“Hidden Facet’s been running me ragged for whatever you Changelings are preparing for, and he won’t say what it is other than ‘It’s diplomatic’, like that’s some kind of answer” she groused, but I could feel the happiness behind her words “but it’s been paying off and some of those plants you guys brought from down south are insane, when Hidden played that vine of Bell Peppers it was like gaining my Cutie Mark all over again”

“That ‘ling can do a lot with his fruits, gotta give him that” I responded with a saucy wink, before continuing as she giggled “I’ve gotta go and check on Clockworks and Gilded Gears, you wanna come with, and chat to them before I head off to my mysterious Changeling duties for mysterious Changelings?”

“Can’t, I need to make sure the Moon Orchids are going to bloom at the right time once I transplant them” she said.

“Fair enough, best of luck with your plants Babylon” I said before yawning again.

“Best of luck with your mysterious Changeling duties Barb’” she finished before walking past me, a faint trail of companionship floating in the air behind her, mingling with the sweet scent of flowers that seemed to follow her whenever she went.

Breathing deeply, I gratefully absorbed the emotion alongside the scent before setting off down the narrow street, towards the clock-tower that the two Pegasi mechanics called a home, a workshop, and their dream, it was a shame that everyling else called it a pigsty.

<~~***~~>

(Barbed Retort)

Twenty minutes, a cup of tea, some cloud scones, the odd sensation that my entire body had been filled with noise as the clock chimed the hour while the two Pegasi chatted happily through the din and a particularly interesting bit of news later I found myself outside the clock tower my head still buzzing with noise.

Tinnitus, in all my years as an infiltrator and a guard I had never heard of a Pegasus suffering from tinnitus, why was that?

I didn’t notice my hooves walking along the road to what was called the reception hall, my head in the clouds following this curious train of thought all the way to the station of madness, even as my hooves followed a far more logical road.

I’d met deaf Pegasi, I’d met Pegasi with incredibly bad earwax, I’d met far too many Pegasi who had suffered traumatic head injuries, I’d met depressed Pegasi, I’d met Pegasi with muscle tension that would kill any lesser being and several superior beings as well, but I had never met a Pegasus with tinnitus, I mused to myself not noticing where my hooves were carrying me.

I abandoned that train of thought, leaping from the engine as it sped away, as something black, hard, and decidedly cylindrical had decided that my forehead was a good place to land, heavily, and it was worth thinking about instead.

“Cap, Hive to Cap” I could hear a voice, a voice I recognised, did that have anything to do with the black thing that had just hit me?

“You alright Cap?”

“’mm fine” I muttered back to the voice “Why don’t Pegasi suffer from tinnitus?”

“Dunno Cap, you’d have to ask one” Faint Praise; that was the voice, Faint Praise was a guard like me, didn’t ask enough questions though, and he got slap happy when bored, one of his hooves was currently raised, he spotted me looking at it blearily, before putting it down on the ground again.

“Did, did you just hit me?” I asked, enough of my mind drifting back that I could classify as functional again.

“You’d been staring at the doors for 15 minutes Cap, I was worried” he stated.

“Huh”

He continued to stand there and smile, as I collected my thoughts.

“Was checking up on Ponies, worried about Kick-Back, Clockwork and Gilded Gears want to speak to Chrysalis, was stuck in clock tower when bell went off, meeting to discuss preparations for diplomatic visit, organise guard rota for said diplomatic visit, check storage cave for R.O.U.S’s, eat, sleep, those are my plans for today” I slowly listed off my itinerary before a realisation struck me.

“I’m not late for the meeting am I?”

“Is it five minutes ago?”

“Right, do me a favour Faint”

“What Cap?”

“Next Pegasus you meet, ask them if they’ve ever suffered from tinnitus”

“That sounds easy enough”

“Also, for striking a superior officer, you can organise the next guard rota, and get someling to check the storage cave”

“Sure thing”

“You agreed to that? I must look like manure”

“I didn’t want to say anything Cap”

“Right, wish me luck” I said, taking a deep breath before pushing the doubles doors open, the ivory white wood gliding softly on its hinges as I strode into the reception hall.

<~~***~~>

(Chrysalis)

I sat there nursing a cup of coffee between my forehooves, looking at my advisors as they sat around the square table, each of them nursing their own drink, each of them looked worn down, tired, and in the case of Little Secret, impatient, the mare kept on looking at the doors, looking away, before looking back at the doors again.

I could hear a hoof tapping against the floor with a nervous rhythm, tap-tap, tap-tap.

“He’s late, again” I could hear the icy tone of Alluring Mystique, her voice tinged with a Germane accent, a holdover from her years infiltrating the fashion business as a photographer “This is vhy I objected to him being”.

The sudden sound of the doors gliding open cut her off as Barbed Retort strode into the hall, the Captain of my Praetorian Guard looked bone tired, but he tried to hold himself up, his hooves echoing against the stone floor as he marched as smartly as he could before taking a seat next to Poker Face, blinking tiredly as he looked around the room.

“Sorry I’m late everyling, my Queen” He yawned, his fanged mouth splitting open as he didn’t bother to cover it with a hoof “Was speaking with Clockwork and Gilded Gears when the clock tower went off, kinda knocked me out of it for a bit” he blinked again before taking a mug full of coffee proffered to him by Hidden Facet “Speaking of those two, they said they wanted to talk to you privately Chrysalis my Queen” he took a sip of the coffee before shuddering “Pass the sugar please”

“Any other problems to report?” I asked him as he started to spoon sugar into his coffee.

“I need sleep, Kick-Back still worries me but that you already knew that, we haven’t found any more marsh Hydra eggs in the fungal pits since last week which is either very good because it means we’ve cleared out the infestation, or very bad as it means they were smart enough to hide their eggs extremely well, and I have this gut feeling that something is about to go very wrong, but I’m hoping it’s just nervousness” he sipped at his coffee again, before sighing in contentment and taking a much larger swig.

“What did Clockwork and his wife want?” I asked as Barbed Retort set his mug down and levitated a piece of shortbread over to himself, before dunking it in his coffee.

“They asked me to tell you that they needed to talk with you, privately, they said it was important, and to be honest, once they finally told me what it was I agreed, but it needs your immediate attention my Queen” Barbed Retort spoke around a mouthful of shortbread, before taking another swig of coffee before setting the empty mug back down on the table.

“Well, if that’s everything we can call this meeting to order” Hidden Facet’s soft voice cut through Alluring Mystique and Poker Face’s voices as they attempted to pry answers from Barber Retort, “Firstly is everyling here, Barbed Retort?”

“Only physically” came Barbed Retort’s immediate answer as he prepared himself another cup of coffee.

“Little Secret?”

“Yes” answered small Changeling mare, with the white markings of a healer.

“Alluring Mystique?”

“Ja” the icy tone followed by a pair of rolling eyes

“Poker Face?”

“Yes”

“Harsh Words?”

“Yes sir.” My assistants answer the only one not followed by a stifled yawn.

“My Queen”

“Yes” I answered, somewhat exasperatedly “We’re all here” I said openly, biting back the words, you overly bureaucratic buffoon.

“Harsh Words you have the minutes”

“Yes sir” my assistant replied as she put quill to paper.

“My Queen, you have the” once again the door slammed open, causing everyling to jump as it interrupted Hidden Facet, everyling but Barbed Retort as he continued to calmly spoon sugar into his coffee.

“Sorry for the interruption hive advisors, my Queen” the Changeling said, bowing hastily, its voice shaking as it panted “Captain, we have a problem”

“I knew something was going to happen” I heard Barbed Retort mutter to himself before turning to the panting guard.

“What’s happened Corporal?” He said his tired voice managing to sound calm and collected.

“It’s Shining Armour and the Royal Guard, they’re demanding access to the hive”

Chapter 2: Trouble in Paradise

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(Shining Armour)

I shifted nervously in place outside the cave mouth that led to the Changeling hive that the Princesses allowed to exist in the Badlands, just half a day’s walk from the Equestrian border. I still couldn’t believe that Celestia had signed the treaty allowing them to stay so close, she knew what these things had done, she knew what they would do given half a chance, she knew what they had done to Cadance and I; she had to know, didn’t she?

Hearing a grinding sound, I looked around before I realised it had been my teeth.

One of the two armoured and armed Changelings standing by the cave leaned over to the other and whispered something as it stared at me, the other one sniggering as it met my eyes with its own, flat, blue eyes, the emotionless orbs glittering menacingly in the dark cave mouth, staring at me, not blinking, just waiting for a moment of weakness.

I heard the grinding sound again and flinched, a pain shot through my mouth as I bit my tongue. The two Changelings sniggered again before looking away, either glancing down the dank tunnel where the rest of their hive lay, or at each other, whispering comments between themselves as they looked back at me.

Anything would be better than this waiting; I looked around, not wanting to stare at that wretched abyss or its twisted little guardians any longer.

This area of the Badlands had changed since my last visit, what had been an arid, stony wasteland, had somehow started to show signs of life, vines grew over boulders, trees sprouted from cliff faces, and grass grew over the surrounding landscape tall stalks whispering in the wind, the vegetation growing thinner the further away from the cave mouth it got, somewhere in the distance I could hear the sound of water rushing over stone.

When did they do all of this? The monthly patrols never reported this sort of growth? We’ve had Earth Ponies out here struggle to grow the most resilient of plants and they’ve done this?

I heard the quiet rustling of feathers behind me, as I turned one of the Pegasi guards behind me turned to gesture at the tunnel, as he attempted to stand even straighter, his wings now pressed firmly to his sides, his expression solemn, his spear held at a perfect right angle to the ground.

Sighing softly to myself, drew myself to attention, legs straight, back straight, head held up high without looking arrogant, the Changeling guards still slouched, but something about their intentions changed, their loosely held sickles oozing a malign purpose.

I could hear noises coming from the tunnel, the striking sound of hoof against stone, the sharp buzzing of insectoid wings, I could even make out blue glow of Changeling eyes as the welcoming committee approached my guards and I, there was a faint rattle of metal and an armoured Changeling stepped out of the gloom, his armour green and silver, he had a helmet tucked under one wing, and the other was buzzing lightly in place.

I stood there watching him, or her, or it, I couldn’t tell if the Changeling was male or female and to be honest I didn’t really care.

“Captain Shining Armour, Stallions and Mares of the royal guard, to what do we owe your unpleasant and unasked for presence in our Paradise?” The changeling spoke, his tone mocking, as the guards behind me bristled, rustling feathers and stamping hooves.

“You openly insult us before you introduce yourself, I always thought Princess Celestia was too kind to you Changelings” I shot back, the insult stinging, if these bugs wouldn’t even pretend to have any good graces, I saw no reason I should.

“You say I insulted you, but you have come to our Paradise with nothing but disgust and hatred in your heart Captain” the Changeling yawned rudely before continuing “I could feel it before I could see you and your troops, you could have at least tried to mask it but it’s just left there sitting out in the open, tastes like rotting apples”

“Already you feed on our emotions?” I yelled back at him

“You could not stop your gorge from rising if you walked past an open cesspool?” the Changeling responded, his tone still mocking as he wrinkled his nose, like he was stuck in the middle of a refuse pit.

“Captain” one of the Pegasi behind me whispered worriedly “We’re not here to start a fight”, as the two Changeling guards twisted slightly, gripping their sickles a little more tightly, their eyes flashing with wicked intent as they looked at each other and the armoured Changeling.

“Very well” I cleared my throat, before pulling a scroll of parchment out from under my armour “We are here on order of Princess Celestia herself, to aid Queen Chrysalis and her guards secure this location for the upcoming Diplomatic Summit, the Princess feels this would be an excellent chance for Chrysalis’ swarm to demonstrate that our continued allowance of its existence was not misplaced hope” I stated as I hovered the scroll over to the Changeling, who proceeded to carefully break the wax seal with his horn before reading it.

The Changeling yawned again as his eyes flicked back and forth over the Princesses densely packed cursive script, before he rolled the scroll up and stuffed it into his armour “seems about right” he said before looking back at me. “I am Barbed Retort, Captain of Queen Chrysalis’ Praetorian Guard, head of security, and unofficial general liaison to out Pony residents, I’m going to need you to submit to a small magical scan before I lead you into the hive” the Changeling sounded contemptuous as he listed off his titles, his eyes never leaving mine as the two Changeling guards horns started to glow casting a thin green barrier over the tunnel entrance.

“Don’t worry, this will only sting a bit” Barbed Retort smirked as he waited calmly on the other side of the barrier, his eyes glinting with twisted glee.

<~~***~~>

(Chrysalis)

I stood there, the perfect picture of royal serenity and good grace, while my mind raced, thoughts running around in circles as I tried to plan around the sudden intrusion, what was Celestia doing? Why had she sent Shining Armour here? Did he still hold a grudge over the invasion? What did this mean for my Swarm?

Slowly I could feel the faint aura of disgust approach, before even the soft sound of hooves on the magically treated sandstone floors of the hive, the emotion causing my advisors’ wings to buzz in discomfort, as I remained outwardly serene, now was not the time to appear nervous, this was a chance, I could mend so many burned bridges here if I played my cards right.

I felt a brief burst of sympathy for Barbed Retort, we were all tired, and my advisors were already suffering from the growing negative emotions coming towards us, he was stuck there with the source; considering what he had confided in me during the months after the treaty signing I hoped he would at least be diplomatic, but held no true expectations for it. He loathed Shining Armour and sending him was the worst decision at the time, but if the Royal Guard intended any violence, and I prayed they didn’t, then sending one of the others would have been a murderous order on my part.

The soft jangle of metal could be heard in the entry tunnel, and I could see a pale green glow approaching as Barbed Retort illuminated the entrance, the soft light illuminating several figures following him, their hooves striking the floor in lockstep as they approached.

I remained outwardly calm as Barbed Retort led the group of Royals Guards from the entrance tunnel, before coming to my side, his expression a curious mixture of relief and distance.

“Prince Shining Armour, this is a pleasant surprise” I spoke quietly, my voice not wavering noticeably “To what do we owe your presence in the hive?” I asked in my best diplomatic voice, before noticing him glare at me.

“Shouldn’t you already know” he snorted “We already told your little drone there, your hive mind should have told you everything”

I signed internally, while keeping my external façade going, the disgust and hatred pouring from Shining Armour was visibly upsetting my advisors, the guards he had brought with him, kept their weapons ready, and above all, this repeated issue had come up again.

“My changeling swarm doesn’t have a hive mind, at least as you understand the term, Prince Shining Armour” I said, my voice remaining diplomatic, while I internally cringed “I can send messages to my Swarm and they can communicate with me; but it does not allow me permanent access to their thoughts, or control of their actions, I do not dominate my changelings as the other Queens do”

He snorted in derision, a cloud of disbelief exiting alongside the warm air; I could feel Barbed Retort bristling at my side, his own hatred warming my sides uncomfortably, as my stomach churned.

“We are here on the direct orders of Princess Celestia herself, to aid you and your swarm in securing this location” he gestured around the hive with one of his hooves “for the upcoming diplomatic summit, Princess Celestia thinks that this is an excellent chance to demonstrate that her faith in you and your swarm was not misplaced, Princess Luna, and Princess Twilight Sparkle are in agreement” Shining Armour practically spat his sister’s name, the disgust pouring from becoming overwhelming for a second, my advisors taking a step back out of fear, as my wings buzzed for a brief second, even the guards behind him shuffled nervously.

Feeling a hoof press against my leg I looked down at Barbed Retort, his wings fluttering slightly before he spoke up himself, his voice steady if slightly muffled by a roll of parchment in his mouth.

“Besides Captain Shining Armour and his Guards, the Princess also sent you this my Queen” I pulled the letter from his lips with my telekinesis, shaking it slightly which made the wax seal fall off, the scarlet wax and ribbon landing loosely across Barbed’s muzzle, before I stared at him.

“I believe this message was addressed to ‘Queen’ Chrysalis” I directed a raised eyebrow at him as he removed the ribbon from his snout, before the entire thing disappeared into some hidden pocket in his armour, he didn’t have the decency to look ashamed but his ears quivered slightly.

“Princess Celestia is a Pony of her word; however my Queen, her assistant might not be, her couriers might not be, Shining Armour has skill and hates us enough to attempt to inscribe the scroll with explosive glyphs before resealing it.” Barbed’s voice was entirely dry, his eyes never leaving Shining Armour.

“You think I would attempt to assassinate your Queen!” He shouted in response, anger billowing from him, replacing the rotten scent of hatred and disgust with fire.

“Yes, yes I do” Barbed Retort replied, I couldn’t see his face but I could hear the smirk on his face and the faint contempt in his words “It is my place in the hive to think that, just as it is your place to think that when you receive a letter from someone who once declared their intent to capture and starve your Princess, I mean it’s only paranoia when we’re wrong, when we’re right it becomes something else entirely, a noble sacrifice for our rulers” he spat the last few words before continuing. I thought of the several attempts that had been made on my life ever since I had brought my swarm through the desert, Barbed Retort’s predecessor hadn’t thought anything of such a letter and had opened it freely in my presence; the ensuing fireball had engulfed him in a split-second, before Barbed had contained the explosion, and the unfortunate Changeling in his shield.

Breaking from my unpleasant reverie I fixed Barbed with a look, his dry diatribe dying on his lips, before he had the decency to look abashed as he shut his lips and started to stare at a point somewhere above Shining Armours head, while I unfurled the scroll and read it aloud.

Queen Chrysalis,

Given your current choice of location I hope that this letter and its carriers reach you in one piece, and in good spirits.

While we in Equestria are convinced of your attempts to secure a lasting peace with us, the other nations of the world feel that they need an additional level of precautions to be present during the upcoming Diplomatic Summit of Nations.

To this end I have assigned Prince Shining Armour and several of my own Royal guards to aid you in maintaining the security of your “Lover’s Paradise” Hive Resort, and will be sending an additional Platoon of 30 once they have been made ready for the journey and I hope you can find accommodation for them on such short notice.

It is my sincere hope that the leniency I showed you five years previously has not been a misplaced hope and that we can come closer together as nations and friends, for the mutual benefit of our little Ponies and the changeling swarm.

Sincerely,

Princess Celestia, Ruler of Equestria, Raiser of the Sun

Furling the scroll, before giving it to Harsh Words to carry, I turned to look at my advisors, each of them with various expressions of disbelief, discomfort, and some small measure of hope, while I tried to keep my own expression positive as I digested this information. Princess Celestia was finally willing to give my swarm a chance; I could finally attempt to give the stability and safety I had promised them so long ago, this could be our chance to fix the bridges I had burned 6 years ago.

Nervousness and exuberance ran through my head in equal amount, chasing each other in a never ending loop as I tried to plan what to do next, before Alluring Mystique’s voice cut through my thoughts.

“Vell then,” she started her sharp voice uncharacteristically nervous “Shall ve get started vith a tour?”

<~~***~~>

(Chrysalis)

I stood by the group of Royal guards as we walked through the Resort area of the hive, the guards looked around in amazement as Alluring Mystique led them through the comparatively large area, the almost tropical atmosphere lifted my spirits as a ‘sea’ breeze swirled around all of us, the sound of the artificial tide in the background.

I could feel the fur of my Alicorn disguise ripple in the soft breeze, the shimmering black hairs of my false pelt and crystalline feathers of my wings reflecting the light of the fake ‘sun’ that slowly moved across the ceiling of the massive chamber in time with the real sun separated from us by tens of metres of reinforced mountainside.

The vacationing ponies stared at us as the Royal guard followed Alluring Mystique, herself wearing a disguise that gave her the appearance of a Earth Pony mare, her fur the colour of the tropical sea, her mane and tail the colours of the setting sun, and a cutie-mark that took the form of a high-power photography lamp. The disguised Changeling was giving a lecture I had heard a thousand times before on the complex magic behind the chamber in response to one guard’s muffled question of “how in…?”, a lecture I was more than happy to ignore as we walked along the short promenade, while I studied the reactions of Shining Armour and his guards.

Continuing along, I watched the surrounding ponies out the corner of my eyes, I could see a changeling on the beach, I thought his name might be Secret Shame, teaching a small group of adoring foals how to use a body board in the light surf, his pale blue eyes were glittering with happiness and I could feel the exuberance of the foals from here, the giddy emotion feeling like I had a mouth full of fizzy sherbet.

“What’s that building over there?” I heard one of the Royal guards ask, his question seemingly innocent as he pointed at a low-slung building that had been built into the wall on a slight incline at the edge of the cavern, its muted colours and heavy curtains setting it apart from the open restaurants, bars, and hotels of the resort.

Alluring Mystique paused for a moment, trying to choose her words before Barbed Retort, the only Changeling who had not disguised himself, turned his head from a conversation he’d been having with a disguised Changeling guard.

“That would be the Fantasy Chamber” he stated as Alluring Mystique shot him a glare.

“The what?” Shining Armour asked, as several of the guards blushed or looked away.

“Well, how did your Princesses find us originally?” Barbed stated, the rhetorical question completely innocent, as one of the guards coughed, and Shining Armour blushed, I didn’t remember him being part of the original raid, but he had no doubt read the report from the bright pink that spread over his cheeks as he shifted around on his hooves, looking decidedly uncomfortable.

“The services of the original Love Hotel never stopped” Barbed continued, his smile growing wicked “we just expanded on our original plot” I winced at the exceptionally poor pun as he continued “After all, we only had the dong chance to make this twerk before…” the Changeling guard next to him started to snigger at the shocked expression of the royal guards as much as the bad puns, even as Shining and Alluring glared at him.

“Barbed Retort” my voice crossed the line between tired and icy as I interrupted him, while staring straight ahead.

“Yes my Queen?”

“Stop”

“Yes my…” before he could say anything more I shoved my hoof into his mouth

“No words Barbed, just stop, we are trying to be diplomatic here, so unless you intend to be diplomatic or provide an honest insight into how Shining Armour and his guards may aid you in your role, then, for the love of the swarm, please do not say anything else” I removed my hoof from his mouth, before looking him directly in the eyes “Am I understood?”

“Yes Chrysalis” he responded, almost petulantly, before biting his upper lip and turning away, and continuing his conversation with the disguised guard.

“Vell, now that that has happened and soured everylings mood, vhy don’t ve move on to the farms?” Alluring asked as she started to lead us towards a tunnel that led out of the resort area, the royal guards still blushing faintly as Shining Armour glared at me.

<~~***~~>

(Barbed Retort)

Muttering to myself, I walked along the hallway leading to my ‘office’, one of my Changeling guards and one of the Royal guards, a Pegasus, following behind me, both of their heads held low, slumped like mischievous grubs that had been caught in the act of lifting truffles from the jar.

It had only been two days, two bucking days, and already we had had an incident between Shining’s guards, and my own guards, and neither of them wanted to admit fault.

Hopefully the messenger I had sent to Shining had found him by now; he had taken to exploring the residential district where the ponies that had come to the hive lived, talking to the residents, trying to figure out why they would live here. I had felt his disgust give way to curiosity and, oddly enough, sadness when we first showed the guards the district where they would be staying for the duration, and the ponies in the district had come out to greet them, save for a few who had good reason to avoid the guard.

Feeling a rush of heat on my side I turned my head as Shining Armour and the Changeling messenger I had sent stepped through a portal outlined by a ring of green wispfire, Shining’s expression which had been unhappy enough for the last two days, was thunderous as he turned to glare at the Pegasus behind me, before keeping pace with me as we approached my office.

Pushing the curtain that separated the room from the hallway aside, I gestured for the others to go in before taking a deep breath and following them in, letting the heavy, green fabric fall shut over the doorway behind me.

Sloping behind my desk I sat down in the cramped corner, my desk had been shifted over to give Shining Armour enough space to set up his own desk, leaving the room cramped but functional, it might have been worse if I had a greater emphasis on keeping paperwork, but beyond a single set of filing cabinets set up on the wall opposite the door the room remained unblemished by the threat of organisation, Shining Armour’s desk was uncomfortably tidy though.

Sliding himself behind his desk Shining Armour shot the Pegasus a glare that had almost all the vitriol he normally saved for me behind it, as the Pegasus cowed beneath his eyes, before I turned to the Changeling myself, trying to keep my expression neutral, although judging by the way she shrunk back from me I had failed.

Shining was the first to break the silence.

“So Swift Strike, why am I being called to this office after hearing that one of my guards has threatened one of the residents of this hive with unlawful violence?” Shining Armour’s voice was tight; his patience, of which I doubted he had much to begin with, was running painfully short by the sounds of it.

“I didn’t threaten anypony” the guard responded, his voice almost petulant.

“So this witness report that says, and I’m going to delight in quoting this, you yelled at Chrysanthemum ‘We should’ve exterminated all you bugs, and I’ve half a mind to start with you if you don’t get out of my way now’ while brandishing your spear at her in a decidedly threatening manner, has the wrong Pegasus?” I asked him my voice completely level.

“She … she threatened me first” the guard stammered out, apparently caught off balance by Chrysanthemum’s gender, or trying to lie, poorly, I was going to go with gender, I felt like being diplomatic.

“Chrysanthemum?” I asked “Is this true?”

Chrysanthemum tried to look away for a second, her eyes seeking some form of escape before speaking up in a subdued voice.

“Y-yes Captain” she stammered out, fear streaming from her words.

“What!” Shining Armour shouted from behind his desk, anger mixed with a sense of self-satisfaction in his exclamation.

“Why did you threaten him Chrysanthemum?” I asked my voice still level, although I could feel frustration starting to build up behind my eyeballs.

“H-h-he was s-s-scaring Soft T-touch, he wouldn’t l-l-leave her alone, I could feel h-h-her fear, and h-his anger, a-a-and I th-th-though he w-w-was going to h-h-hurt her.” She managed to finish her sentence, cowering away from Swift Strike as the Pegasus glared at her.

“Swift Strike” I asked “Did you read the contents of the folder I gave you yesterday?” The Pegasus bridled at the question, before I saw Shining Armour give him an imperceptible nod.

“Yes”

“So then, do you remember why Soft Touch is here?” I asked, knowing full well that the Pegasus hadn’t bothered to read the folder, the contempt behind his words obvious.

“Because she wanted to live with bugs” it wasn’t even a question, just a flat statement.

“Soft Touch, as I explained when I gave you and your fellow guards your folders, is here because she has suffered extremely painful situations concerning her fellow ponies, like many of our more permanent pony residents” I kept my voice level, even as I felt the bile rise in my throat, this bucking Pegasus didn’t care about anyling or anypony here. “In Soft Touch’s case she was raped by a group of Royal Guard cadets almost four years ago” Shining Armour’s head snapped round to look at me, a look of sudden understanding on his face. The rape case had been highly publicised due to the fact that Soft Touch had been a filly at the time and her father had brought the case to Celestia herself in order to secure some form of justice, though the perpetrators hadn’t been found.

The guard was looking shocked, fear and apprehension were pouring from him as I continued.

“She suffered from extreme social anxiety to say the least, and attempted to take her own life several times during her six month long stay in the Canterlot medical system, which led to her being heavily sedated and placed under constant supervision in the Broadhoof Medical Sanatorium for an additional eighteen months.”

“How did she get here then?”

“Just getting to that Shining Armour” I looked at him for a second, before turning back to the Pegasus guard “Due to several other external factors that inhibited her full recovery, Princess Celestia asked Queen Chrysalis to take her in; other Ponies were the source of her problems and we had already demonstrated our ability to care for victims of extreme psychological and emotional scarring with Kick-Back, Clockwork and Gilded Gears, and Wind Dancer, just to name a few, we have been looking after her for the last two years, and while I won’t say that her progress has been astonishing or any such thing, she has finally started to voluntarily interact with other ponies in the last six months” I looked directly at the Pegasus guard who was now trying to avoid meeting my eyes, before he started to speak.

“You bugs are just using her for her love” he spat back at me “You don’t care for her well-being at all”

“Using her for her love?” I replied, cocking one of my eyebrows upwards “Are you implying that we feed upon thirteen year old fillies with no thoughts to the consequences? Are you implying that we do not want her to be better because we are monsters?”

The Pegasus just glared at me, his hate flowing out.

“Of course we have ulterior motives for helping her, if we can help her then maybe one day she’ll feel love that can help to sustain the hive, maybe she’ll be thankful and help the hive in return, maybe it’ll help prove to your princesses that we can be trusted and they’ll allow us to live with ponies again, but you are implying that we don’t care about a little filly that was hurt in the worst possible way!” Suddenly I was shouting all of my level-headed façade gone “She is not just a means to an end!” I snarled these last few words “She was given to us because she was failed by the Ponies who were supposed to protect her, and we have been failed by our protectors enough to know just how that feels.”

I looked over at Shining Armour who looked taken aback by my snarled tirade; either by the honesty, or the sheer amount of feeling I had put into it; I didn’t know I didn’t care either.

“Now Shining Armour, I don’t have the authority to punish your Guards, they answer to you, and you are helping us because you answer to Princess Celestia, how would you punish a guard that caused psychological scarring through neglect?” he looked at me for a second, before sighing heavily.

“Our rules apply only to Equestrian citizens, and you have made it abundantly clear that Soft Touch is not an Equestrian citizen” I blinked at this comment “I’ll go tell my guards to read the folders, deal with Swift Strike yourself rather than making me do your dirty work” Shining Armour made to stand up from his desk before I gestured for him to sit down.

“At least listen to his punishment so he doesn’t neglect that while under your watch” I said as he settled back down, glaring at me himself.

“Swift Strike, for neglect of duty that led to the potential harm of a citizen of the Hive, I am issuing you two weeks of confinement to the building we have assigned you as your barracks, during which I expect you to make it sparkle, Chrysanthemum for overreacting and causing potential harm to a citizen of the Hive, and your charge Soft Touch, you are assigned to the Fungal Pits for the next two weeks, I still expect to see both of you on Parade for the Diplomatic Summit, regardless of other duties.” I sighed heavily as Shining Armour stood up from behind his desk “I want both of you to know that this was entirely avoidable if either of you had bothered to take the effort to think for a second, both of you are dismissed to your punishments”

Watching as the Pegasus followed the nervous Changeling from my office, I sighed again, before squeezing out from behind my desk, we still had another 12 days of this, and another thirty guards coming on the next train according to Shining Armour’s letter. Brushing aside the curtain that covered the doorway to my office I wondered what would break first; my patience, or Shining Armour’s restraint.

Chapter 3: An Ill Wind Blows

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(Celestia)

I stood on the white and gold stones of the entryway to my castle, my sister besides me, yawning heavily. My sun hung low in the sky as evening wound on, my little ponies casting long shadows over the courtyard cobblestones as they stood there in the orange light. Some of my ponies had placards hoisted overhead, bobbing up and down as had been the symbol of a demonstration for so many years, something was always being thrust up and down into the air; pitchforks, torches, scythes, and now, placards; I wondered if I’d ever understand why.

A nervous grumble ran through the crowd as my sister and I stood there silent, staring out over the crowd, my sister yawning behind her hoof as I took in the images that had been hoof-painted onto the signs and banners that the crowd waved; images of Changeling’s and Ponies together, pictures of a heart clutched by hooves full of holes, a long banner with the words “LOVE ENOUGH FOR ALL” printed on in it black ink, the letter full of holes.

A strange mixture of love and anger at my Little Ponies washed through me, I loved them for their forgiveness, the fact they could throw aside the hurts of the past, give an enemy a second chance so willingly. They had done it for my sister when she was cleansed of her corruption by the Elements of Harmony, they had done it for Discord in these past five years allowing the chaotic beast a chance to redeem himself, and now they were doing it for Chrysalis and her Changelings, an enemy that had struck at their hearts, an enemy that had come so close to enslaving them.

The anger however hurt me, how could they forgive her so easily, how could they forgive her after she had struck out against me, how could the Ponies my sister and I loved so dearly forgive Chrysalis after all she had done to them, everything she had done to me, my niece and nephew, turning me against my student; how could they forgive her that?

These thoughts raced through my head, running around and around in a never-ending circle as I held my normal expression, a warm smile on my muzzle, my eyes kind even as I struggled with my darker thoughts.

I did not see her move, but I could feel my sister pull closer to me, her snout reaching up into my ear as she whispered.

“’Tia, what are we to do?” her question echoing my own thoughts “This mob has been growing the last few days, they have stayed peaceful these days past, but if we ignore them any longer” she left the ending to the sentence unsaid, our Ponies had been known to do some extreme things when angered, Luna’s rampage being one of them, I was not keen for another riot to take place in my city.

Sighing internally, I stepped forward and drew myself to my full height, letting my mane and tail flow behind me, as I spoke for the first time that evening.

“May I ask who is in charge here?” I asked softly enough to sound kind, loud enough to be heard over the noise of the crowd

“You are, ain’t cha?” some Pony who fancied himself a comedian yelled from somewhere in the mob, the anonymity allowing his insouciance as others in the crowd either laughed, or looked worried.

I ignored him, as I felt my sister bristle behind me, before I spoke again rephrasing.

“May I ask who is leading this demonstration?” I asked, my voice growing only a shade louder, there was a stirring at the back of the crowd as ponies turned around to look at each other and shuffle around in the cramped confines of the crowd as somepony approached me, pushing their way through the pulsing press of ponies, until at last a Unicorn mare walked out of the crowd.

She held her head high as she approached me, the dull brown of her coat at odds with the almost bilious blue of her mane, a pair of saddlebags hanging over her barrel almost obscuring the image of a billowing cloak on her hips.

“Ah, Wind Cloak, I had wondered when I would see you again” I lowered my head slightly, a nod of recognition, as I stared at the charity mare, this large a demonstration was unlike her but she had been a nigh-permanent fixture in my courtyard before when similar situations had appeared. I could say I was proud of her but I was honestly more proud of what she achieved, the mare herself refused any reward I could give her and was often abrasive, disruptive, and manipulative in her efforts to direct my charity to her, mostly worthy, causes.

“Princess Celestia” the mare bowed enough to be polite, not enough to show respect, as she always did, something I was familiar with after centuries of dealing with self-absorbed nobles; at least in this case what she wanted from me was something that benefited others rather than just herself.

“I suppose I am to take it that this demonstration is your work” I stated, it wasn’t a question, we both knew the answer and at this point we were just dancing to an old song, the only difference being the crowd behind her.

“Princess, you wound me, this is not just my work; this is the work of all ponies to care for those that need it, to give a voice to the voiceless, to bring aid to the helpless” it was a practised speech, one that she had given me plenty of times already; and then she went off script.

“I can’t pretend to understand your hurts” she looked down at the ground as I felt my eyes widen in shock “after the invasion we were all scared, so many ‘Ponies’ went missing, some of them must have been Changelings in disguise just living amongst us for so long, one of my closest friends herself disappeared and I was terrified for her for so long” the mare’s breathing shuddered as her chest heaved, the crowd behind her was silent, this was a story that had gone too long untold.

“The last thing I remember of my friend, she was a pony, she told me to stay inside, she looked worried like something had gone very wrong, she told me not to worry and to stay inside, and then the invasion happened” I could see small tears forming in her eyes, the small droplets of water soaking into the fur around her eyes, some of the closer ponies looking disturbed. “Afterwards I looked everywhere I could, asking after her, I checked the records of those injured, I travelled to the places where Changeling were found thinking that one of them had carried her as the love bomb blew them away

“Last year I finally went south to the Hive” she turned her dark brown eyes back to mine, her expression serious “Just to put that constant nagging fear to rest” biting her lip she took another breath before continuing “I spoke with several Changelings, and the ponies that live there, asking if any of them knew her before the invasion, it took me a while but I found a Changeling who remembered her, she said her name was Chrysanthemum, and my friend was called Healing Toxin” Wind Cloak paused again, apparently struggling with something important.

“She told me that, during the aftermath of the explosion, when the Changelings were flung from Canterlot, very few of them survived, most of them either died from the explosion itself, or from the landing, but some of them died of their wounds, starving from a lack of love” the mare looked away from me again, her voice wavering for a moment before she continued.

“I’ve starved before, during that winter almost thirty years ago” I remembered that winter for less than pleasant reasons myself, and the memory made me shudder internally. “I was young and some fool who was tired burned down our village’s food storage and most of the adults were injured trying to extinguish the fire, the snow was so hard we couldn’t get a message out to any nearby settlements” Wind Cloak looked away from me from a second wiping at her eyes “I barely remember anything from that winter anymore, but I still have the nightmares, and when I picture the pony that I consider a friend lost, hurt, starving, dying it reminds me of a pain that haunts me through so many years” Suddenly so much of her actions made sense to me, not least of all her constant insistence on the governmental soup kitchens that the nobles had tried to shut down numerous times.

She looked up at me, her eyes full of pain, regret, uncertainty, fear “Even if my friend was a Changeling underneath everything, she was still my friend; she could have given me no warning, she could have subdued me herself, she could have used me and had a Changeling take my place, but in the end she did none of those things, in the end she was my friend, Pony or Changeling”

She took a deep breath as I continued to stare, my outward expression not changing. It had been something I long suspected myself after the invasion, reports of missing family members, friends, business partners, and lovers had come flooding in. My guards had spared no effort in searching for these ponies sealed in Changeling pods, but we had never found them. I had used it as another justification for banishing the Changelings from my lands; even in failure they had hurt my little ponies again.

“Princess, I know about the summit coming up, how could anypony not, the media won’t stop talking about how it’s some grand scheme of Chrysalis’ to take control again, but everypony here has lost friends, whether it was due to the invasion, the rigours of life, or one of the many calamities that have seemed to strike us so recently.” Wind Cloak was still looking up at me; the emotions in her eyes had lifted to something that resembled hope, anticipation.

“All we wish to ask is that you give the Changelings a chance, all of the ones I talked to seemed hurt by the invasion themselves, none of them seemed hostile, and the ponies living in their hive acted like it was just another town.” She paused for a second before looking directly into my eyes “They are like us, alive, capable of happiness, sadness, pain, fear, hope, faith, and love”

I stared down at Wind Cloak, my violet eyes meeting her grey eyes. I didn’t let my expression change, not the slightest change as I held her gaze as I assembled my thoughts.

“Wind Cloak, your charity does me proud” I paused letting the words I had said before whenever she brought another charity case to me, sink in as always “However this demonstration was unnecessary, that is the point of the meetings that Chrysalis is hosting, we” I gestured back towards my sister “wish to see if we can put the hurts of the past behind us, we wish to see if Chrysalis and her swarm can be trusted, if she wishes for our trust, however your presence here puts my heart at rest” I waved my hoof outwards, over the amassed crowd of ponies “to know that my little ponies can be so ready to forgive one who has done you so wrong”

I sat back on the stone, still staring out over the crowd, I knew my voice had carried, I could see the blushes, the embarrassed ears splaying out over heads, the nervous flicks of ponies tails.

“Thank you Princess, nopony or indeed noling deserves to have no chance at forgi…” Wind Cloak was still speaking when the bolt of sickly green energy struck her in the side of her head, her body flopping down the sun-warmed ground with the sickening thud of flesh on stone.

The crowd held still for a moment, just for the briefest of moments, before I heard the shrill scream of a mare and panic broke out.

Some ponies surged forth to check on Wind Cloak, far more turned and ran, stampeding from the grand courtyard.

My head snapped in the direction of the magical blast, just in time to see a ragged black tail disappear over the walls surrounding my castle, several of my royal guards chasing it as I turned to my sister who was bellowing orders to the guard who were now struggling to placate the panicked ponies, before turning to my assistant who had not moved, a look of shock on her face, before I spoke to her, the anger in my words barely constrained.

“Raven, I need you to compose a letter to Shining Armour and Chrysalis, we have an emergency”

<~~***~~>

(Shining Armour)

It was always strange, seeing the sunset while underground, feeling the tropical breeze after the still humidity of the mushroom farms, seeing happy families sitting at restaurant tables being served by Changelings who wore smiles on their faces, it was surreal, and almost idyllic in its own way; or it would have been if it wasn’t for the chatty Changeling that I had been forced to accompany as he went on his rounds, and insisted on stopping the both of us to talk to everypony and everyling he saw.

“So how are you enjoying our resort?” Barbed Retort had stopped me again, this time to talk to a pale gray Earth Pony Stallion who had a filly bouncing around his ankles, a huge smile on her face.

“It’s been great!” the filly almost shouted in her excitement, I could feel my bad mood melt a little on the sunny warmth of her smile “We got to see mommy again!”

I couldn’t see Barbed Retorts expression change but the Stallion flinched a little, a flash of guilt running over his face.

“I got to tell her all about school, and all about daddy’s cooking which is yucky and all about our new house in Ponyville which is really really small and all about meeting Neptune Grass who taught me how to play on a body-board” the filly paused to take a breath “You changelings all have really silly names”

I felt myself start to laugh as the father looked aghast and Barbed Retort put a hoof to his head in shock.

“Star-Chart! You can’t just say that!”

“Why not daddy?

“It’s, it’s rude, and thoughtless, and, and” the father started to sputter out before Barbed Retort started to laugh, his shocked expression disappearing.

“It’s okay, we do have silly names” waved a hoof at the still sputtering father “but Star-Chart, do you know what Neptune Grass is?” he asked the filly, lowering his head to her eye level.

“It’s a kind of grass?”

“Close, but no truffle, it’s a flower that grows underwater in the seas around Saddle Arabia, it grows in really big meadows and Neptune told me that he once saw it all flowering at the same time, and could think of nothing more beautiful, so he took it as a name”

“He wasn’t named by his parents?” the filly asked confused, one of her ears flattening against her skull while the other perked up.

“We changelings aren’t for some reason, and until we pick our own names we’re just called ‘Drone 1’ or ‘Drone 43’ or something like that, until we choose our own names”

“Why’d you choose your name?” the filly asked, and the changeling looked nervous for a second.

“That’s personal, I don’t think it’d be a good story to tell a filly like you” he chuckled quietly before continuing “Next time you see Neptune Grass, why don’t you ask him to show you the garden he’s been growing, I think you’d like it” A grumble came from the filly’s stomach “but why don’t you go and get some dinner first?”

I watched as the filly nodded, before grabbing her father’s hooves, babbling excitedly about what she wanted to eat, and whether ‘mommy’ would join them, as he walked away pretending to be dragged by the exuberant foal. I smiled sadly, the filly believed so much that she had met her mother but it had to have been some Changeling just playing a part to drain some love, preying on the father’s emotional state.

He brushed past me, an odd expression on his muzzle, before I turned and followed him along the path that separated the ‘beach’ from the stony paths of the hive; it was only about two-hundred metres long but it taken us almost half an hour to cover the entire length, because Barbed Retort had stopped us so often for so many meaningless conversations.

We finally reached the end of the path and I continued to follow him along the rapidly emptying streets, a pale image moon could be seen rising into the ‘sky’ as the sun continued to set.

“Where are we headed now?” I asked, tired of all the time we had wasted as Barbed Retort casually strolled along, his silver armour glowing in the sunset.

“Just one more visit” He replied cheerily as we started to walk up a shallow incline, “And this one shouldn’t involve much talking, I just need to check-up on the Fantasy Chamber”

I stopped as he continued on, humming slightly to himself.

“No” I stated, causing him to stop mid step, one chitinous hoof hovering half an inch from the floor.

“What?”

“No” I repeated, my voice utterly firm, it was the voice I used when rookies wanted to try and scare aware dragons.

“Okay, you’re going to need clarify, because without context, the word ‘no’ can mean a lot of things” he paused for a second “But mostly it means no”

“I am not going in that flesh pit, not with you” I stated my voice still utterly firm.

“I’m touched you’d think of me that way” he chuckled, fluttering his eyelids, as I felt a wave of disgust wash over me, but he continued. “Look, after that incident today, I honestly think it would be best for you and the other guards to work with us in pairs, that means following us on our routes, except in the fungal pits those are actually dangerous”

“I’m not going in there” I responded with all the grace and reason of a foal denied ice-cream.

“We’re not actually going to go in any of the rooms, I just need to talk to the receptionist, see if there’s anything they need, it’s not like we have ponies and ‘lings mating on the floor, we’re not savages, unless that’s want you want.”

“I’m not going in there”

“Look, you can either come in here with me, see that what we’re doing is entirely consensual, or you can sit out like a moody hatchling and continue to try and come up with reasons to demonise us by demonising the lonely, afraid, and rejected ponies who come here for comfort, validation, or a way to let go of something that is eating them away from the inside” his voice was growing sharp, impatient, entirely like a drill sergeant.

“Fine, but can you make this quick?” I responded, lowering my head childishly, as I started to walk uphill again, dragging my hooves over the stone floor as he started walking just in front of me, matching my reluctant pace.

Reaching the top of the hill he turned around to make sure I was still there and hadn’t run away, before he pushed aside a heavy purple curtain with one of his hooves and gestured me in.

Stepping inside the reception room wasn’t what I had expected, although to be honest I didn’t fully know what I had been expecting only that it wasn’t this; soft green, almost black, crystals and polished white marble, smooth velvet high-backed chairs arrayed around dark oak tables, heavy looking bookcases placed against the walls. It put me in mind of one of those smoking clubs that always seemed to show up in colt detective novels; where the rich villains would have their shadowy meeting s about whatever shady scheme they had planned this week. I had seen plenty of these in other meetings where whatever noble would attempt to wine, dine, and bribe me before getting me to turn my head away from whatever shady scheme they had planned this week, they had only attempted this a few times before the word got around I was incorruptible and they had targeted my lieutenants instead, to limited success.

Suffice to say I didn’t like it on moral grounds; looked good though.

I started to look around as Barbed Retort waved to a changeling behind a low desk, before approaching and talking with it in a low voice, occasionally gesturing in my direction.

This continued for a few more minutes as I wandered around before a plaque on a wall next to of the tunnels leading into the rock caught my eye, a plaque with three very telling words.

THE ROYAL CHAMBERS

Pushing aside another curtain, I looked down the tunnel, candlelight illuminating an impressive reproduction of one of the Canterlot Castle majestic hallways curving away through the rock, the occasional pair of ornate looking double doors set in the walls.

Peering down the hallway I could see pictures on each door, but from this angle I could only make out the two of them that were closest.

A replication of Cadance’s crystalline heart and Twily’s magical star cutie marks.

“Like what you see?” I started in place before tumbling through the curtain as Barbed Retort appeared at my side, whispering in my ear, before sniggering at my shock.

“What is this?” I asked the question on my mind fully expecting the answer.

“These are the royal chambers” he smirked “So many of your ponies fantasise about laying with royalty, well besides that Blueblood fop for some reason”, he shrugged confusedly before continuing “but your wife is especially popular”

I could feel my gorge rising, both of my ears lying flat against the back of my head in anger. “You seduce ponies as my wife?!”

“Well not me personally, but she is the princess of lov…” he didn’t get the chance to finish his sentence as my vision filled with red and I felt my magic surge.

<~~***~~>

(Barbed Retort)

My vision filled with pink as something smashed into my snout sending me flying through the curtains to “the royal quarters” before I smashed into the wall opposite, I could feel the stone behind me crunch and splinter slightly before I fell to the ground, wheezing for breath.

The plan had been going so smoothly, get Shining all riled up, and then drain his anger off, before getting him to at least act professionally by leading him into thinking we at least ran a tasteful operation; not the best way to establish a working relationship but just allowing the negative emotions to fester was a far worse idea, considering the fact that he was essentially a walking powder keg of anger by this point. The explosion this early was a surprise; I hadn’t expected him to be curious and had obviously proceeded the wrong way.

I saw Moss Blanket behind the counter start to charge his own horn with a shield spell as I struggled to my hooves, green sparks of healing love dancing under my armour; the few reinforcement spells I had cast before talking to him were paying off with my continued survival being just the first benefit, but I could feel the armour pressing against my chitin where it had been dented by the wall.

I felt the wave of anger ripple through the room, before the curtains flew open, revealing Shining Armour; he floated a few inches off the ground, his hooves dangling uselessly while his eyes glowed with magic, his horn releasing pink arcs of thaumathurgical energy that left burn marks on the floor where they struck.

“You seduce ponies as my wife and my little sister!?”

I barely had time to charge my own horn, releasing the speed spell I had in mind before another wall of pink energy flew towards me before I scrabbled out of the way, my boosted speed just enough to avoid being where the now crushed wall was.

I saw Moss Blanket in the corner of my eyes as he ducked beneath the counter, and heard him in my mind.

What did you do?

Charging my horn to cast another reinforcement spell, I leapt over another sweeping wall of force that Shining threw at me; the pink energy flying through the air scant millimetres under me.

Would you believe me if I told you this is part of my master-plan?

No.

The moment my hooves touched the floor, I leapt again using my reinforced leg muscles, twisting my body in mid-air as I released the spell I had been charging, a simple sticky hooves cantrip which let me cling to the ceiling as Shining released a beam of Telekinetic force at where he had expected me to land.

Moving quickly I sprinted over the ceiling, charging my horn for one last spell before launching myself at Shining, buzzing my barely functional wings for as much speed as they would give me.

The livid unicorn hadn’t expected me to cling to the ceiling and had paused as I moved closer, but his combat training kicked in as I leapt for him, and a beam of pure force ripped forth from his horn.

Which was exactly what I wanted.

The anti-magic spell stored in my horn whispered as it struck against the beam of force, disrupting the focused energy which shot off wildly into the room shattering Shining Armour's already tenuous focus; I could feel my reinforcement spells peeling away as the anti-magic coursed through the area, Moss Blanket’s shield sputtering away, while I ploughed into Shining Armour from above.

Carrying him to the ground, I pushed my horn against his as I started to drain the anger out of him, noting the odd combination of doubt and love that was helping the anger burn as fiercely as it did.

I had barely finished removed the worst of it before the curtains billowed open as Chrysalis hurried into the reception room, her expression worried, and I could feel fear pouring from her, which was odd, the last time she had been afraid to lose control of her emotional walls was before the invasion.

“Barbed Retort, we have an emergency” she said before she stopped and took in the sight of me standing over Shining Armour who was now groaning in magical exhaustion.

“What happened here Barbed Retort?”

“Would you believe part of my master-plan?” I tried, my voice aiming for cheerful, but coming out as insane, just before I felt Shining Armour’s hoof smash into my jaw from underneath me.

Chapter 4: Where Do The Dead Go? (Implied Gore Ahead)

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(Barbed Retort)

I sat there, on a comfortable couch, in a comfortable cabin, on a comfortable train, moving under the comfortable light of the moon, in the middle of a deeply uncomfortable silence.

Shining Armour had finally stopped glaring at me, and had started to reread the letter from Celestia, for I think the fifth time; a hastily written copy of the treaty hovering in his telekinetic grip alongside the letter. An empty plate had been shoved to the side to allow space for a notepad where his pencil was scribbling down his thoughts, jotting down names, motives, methods, questions. He was trying to connect everything he knew about the murder we had been told about; personally I thought he was wasting time and effort, there were two options.

A changeling had killed a supporter of changeling integration; either it was a Canterlot noble, the stuffy, self-interested, morally-bankrupt tag-nuts of Pony society hiring a killer, or another Queen had decided to damage the hive, kill it, and take it for herself forcing us back to the wilderness we had long escaped. I had said as much after eating, Shining Armour’s only response was a grunt and the pencil scribbling more notes on the paper.

Yawning, I settled down on the couch, looking at the dark blue fur of ‘my’ hooves, I had transformed before leaving the hive, using the form to avoid suspicion at the emergency guard train currently resting in Hayseed. I wanted to sleep, be fresh for arriving in Canterlot; I wanted to arrange my thoughts. Simple as my options were having a clear head would make choosing them easier.

Closing my eyes I thought back to earlier as I drifted out of consciousness.

<~~***~~>

(Barbed Retort)

Chrysalis just stood there, mouth agape as I landed on my back, my metal armour clanging against the marble floor.

“I suppose I deserved that” I muttered as I rubbed the base of my jaw with a hoof, a second before Shining Armour struggled to his feet and started attempting to throttle me, poorly I might add, but he only had hooves to work with, I could grow talons or tentacles to make the task easier.

I was about to say something, I’m not entirely sure what I would have said, but it would have been witty, and calming, and would have made the situation much better, but before I could open my mouth I felt the strange, almost acidic feeling of telekinesis wrap around me before it separated the two of us, Shining growing still although he did keep glaring at me, I wasn’t worried about it, I couldn’t feel any anger from him.

“WHAT ARE YOU TWO DOING?” Chrysalis yelled, it was a passable imitation of the royal Canterlot voice, and I saw Shining Armour’s ears press down against his skull in an attempt to hide from the volume.

I waited until the echoes in my head had died down and both my eyes were pointing in the correct direction before speaking.

“Male bonding, my Queen” by this point I was sure that my smile was creeping into utter madness, but I didn’t care, this was fun.

“WHAT!” both of them shouted at the same time, the blast of noise rippled across my chitin, and caused my tail to blow backwards, but I continued all the same.

“Well Shining Armour has been constantly angry with us for these last few days” I looked at him “so I decided to help him relax, it got a little out of hand, but I’m sure this little bit of horseplay has let him express his feelings adequately”, he was still glaring at me.

“What possessed you to do this?” Chrysalis hissed at me, her fear was gone, replaced with anger.

“The desire to help”, I answered as honestly as I could before turning to Shining Armour “Are you feeling any better now that you’ve let all of your anger out?” The lie was a small one, I had torn the anger out of him rather than let him let it go naturally, but such small lies will be forever useful in telling the truth and we’d have been here for the next 3 years otherwise.

He opened his mouth to answer but I cut him off.

“Do remember that all three of us can read your emotional state, so no lying now young stallion” I chuckled slightly as he scowled at me.

His mouth contorted, although I couldn’t feel any disgust coming from him, just resignation and some bitterness “I feel a little better”

“See what letting your anger out in a constructive and useful manner can do for those around you?” Moss Blanket was looking at me like I was insane, Shining Armour looked like he wanted to let his non-existent anger out on my still-beating heart, and Chrysalis just looked tiredly at me, an expression I was used to.

“Well if you two are quite done with your ‘male bonding’ I have an emergency for the both of you” the fear was starting to seep back, but Chrysalis was covering it up with sarcasm.

“What about Moss Blanket?” I asked twisting my head enough to gesture at the changeling who was still huddled behind the counter, peering over it just enough to watch the unfolding drama.

“Moss Blanket, please leave” was Chrysalis’ strained response; she glared at me as Moss slinked through the room as quickly as he could.

“Now that that is dealt with maybe we can actually talk like intelligent adults without any of your immaturity getting in the way” my Queen was still marvellously angry, I could feel the fear there, but anger supressed it as sarcasm kept her voice steady. She took a deep breath before continuing.

“I have just received a message from Princess Celestia, there has been a murder in Canterlot and she is requesting Shining Armour be returned to Canterlot as soon as possible to deal with the crime”

“Awww, but we were just becoming friends” I lied through my teeth, again, while I felt waves of relief and horror pour from the stallion as he listened to our conversation.

“I for one would like to return to the Princesses side”

“There are complications Prince Shining Armour, for one the victim was Wind Cloak, a staunch Changeling integration advocate”

“I remember her, she came by last summer, wasn’t she looking for Healing Toxin” I responded, I could barely remember what the mare had looked like, only that she had come with fear, and left with grief.

“Yes” Chrysalis looked down for a second, we hadn’t even found Healing Toxin’s remains, and like so many others it was a failure that Chrysalis took personally.

“Secondly” she said her eyes returning to Shining Armour and I “The murderer is suspected to be a changeling” Chrysalis ignored a shocked gasp from Shining Armour and continued before he could launch into a tirade “As such, I am invoking Section 5 of our treaty. This is an unforeseen emergency for both our nations and I’m sending Barbed Retort with you”

Shining tried to speak again before he was interrupted.

“This murder puts my swarm at risk and I will not sit back and do nothing about it when I have options, I have already sent my response to Celestia alongside my intent” I could feel the barely contained anger mixing with her fear “If this is a Changeling of my swarm then there will no escape for them should they flee to the sanctuaries of Elysium, if this is the machinations of the wasteland Queens trying to turn Equestria against my Swarm then all the more reason for us to work together” Chrysalis dropped us from her telekinesis, I landed on my side, dented metal digging into my carapace, while Shining Armour was lowered more carefully.

“You both have thirty minutes to get what you need before leaving”.

I turned to leave, following Shining Armour who was moving with a spring in his step, even if I could feel the bitterness of having to work with me. However as I started to push the curtains of the door to one side I heard Chrysalis cough.

“Barbed Retort” I could feel the fear pouring off of her again, no anger, no rage, no worry, just fear “Please take this seriously, for the Swarm”

“For the Hive my Queen” I responded as I walked through the curtains muttering to myself “for the Hive”

<~~***~~>

(Shining Armour)

The train car was quiet, my pencil scribbling down my notes, the metal of my cutlery rattled against my plate with the motion of the train, the soft chuff of the engine car as it dragged us through the wooded landscape that led to Canterlot. It was pleasant, serene, a solitary moment of peace.

Or it would have been if it wasn’t for that Changeling’s damnable snoring.

“SNOOOOORRRK”

It was like he was sawing logs with his teeth, and every noise cancelling spell I knew just seemed to fail when cast on the bloody thing.

“SNOOOOOORRRK”

I glared at the disguised changeling; it had taken a colouration the reverse of mine, a dark blue coat, with a pure white mane and tail that both had azure streaks, although it had refused to show me the cutie mark it was wearing, keeping as much of its body hidden under a long brown coat, with a short horn pushing out from under the brim of a fedora it had dragged from somewhere, and last time its eyes had been open they were a startlingly acidic green.

“SNOOOOOORRRRK”

I contemplated trying another noise cancelling spell, this one had been taught to me by Twily: she told me, giggling as she did, that she had made it to block out Luna’s snores from the times the Lunar Alicorn had decided to remain in her castle for the day and her snores had echoed through the town of Ponyville, the threat of a second visit forced her to create the spell on quick notice.

“SNOOOOOOOORRRRRK”

That did it; I concentrated as the changeling took another deep breath, collecting the shapes in my head, muttering the unfamiliar words as the spell built up before I released it, a shower of rose petals that fluttered throughout the cabin halfway through another resonating snore

“SNOOOOO---“

Silence, blessed silence; finally I could work on collecting what evidence I had, although with my surge earlier, and the surprising amount of energy it took to cast the silence spell I felt tired. I started to pick up my pencil and pad again while stifling a yawn, I only had maybe seven more hours before we arrived in Canterlot, I needed to make use of that time, put my thoughts in order, arrange what evidence I had. I needed to think.

I felt my eyes drift shut, and heard the soft thump of my notepad landing on the table, before I feel asleep.

<~~***~~>

(Shining Armour)

The sunlight was pressing against my eyes like the spears of an invading army as I struggled to wake myself, wincing at the uncomfortable creak of bones from having fallen asleep on the couch.

Sunlight? Fallen asleep?

“Buck!” I sprang up, all drowsiness forgotten as I scrabbled around, the aches in my muscles forgotten as I scrabbled to look through the window, only to see the towers of Canterlot looming closer.

My scrabbling had woken up the changeling, who watched me with a smirk on his lips as I tried to gather everything together, before he yawned, or tried to least, no noise came past his lips, and he looked down confusedly at his muzzle, his ears twisting around in confusion, before he looked at me, his eyes narrowed.

He started mouthing words at me, his expression becoming increasingly agitated as I watched him struggle, and I couldn’t help but snort as he gestured with his front hooves, trying to make himself understood.

“You know” he paused as I started to speak “I like you a lot more like this” he raised an eyebrow at me as I started to chuckle before he brought his hooves down on the table, as hard as he could. The cutlery bounced on the plates, my pencil fell to the floor, and papers rustled from the impact, but his hooves made no sound despite leaving dents in the wood.

Slowly his expression changed from one of agitation to one of horror as he lifted his silent hooves to his snout and tried to clap them together, each clap producing no sound.

I couldn’t help it, I started to laugh, deep rumbling belly laughs as he looked at me and mouthed “What have you done?” his eyes wide as saucers, my notes forgotten as he continued to panic while I hugged my sides, just laughing as hard as I could, struggling to breathe as tears streamed down my cheeks.

Finally the laughter died down, and I could look back at the now sullen changeling who was pouting at me he held my notepad and pencil in his acid green telekinesis.

you going to fix this? the changeling’s mind writing was terrible, almost like a Unicorn foal.

“I don’t know, I did say I like you like this” it was petty, but it felt good after all the sarcasm he had offloaded on me over the last few days, just a little bit of revenge.

please fix this

“Why don’t you just remove it with your anti-magic” I replied calmly, watching as he glared balefully at me.

it doesn’t work that way, please just fix this

“Really, why not?” I asked, actually curious, very few ponies I knew could use disjunction spells; not even Twilight could, and I was eager to know more about their use.

it just doesn’t, please was all the reply I got, even when I pushed the issue farther all I got was a wadded up ball of paper thrown at me, that and another baleful glare.

“If I get rid of this spell will you tell me?”

maybe later, just fix this

The spell was much easier to remove than to work, scattering even as my horn lit up with the cancellation spell, I could hear the faint noise of his hooves rapping against the table as the magic faded away.

He glared at me, even as the spell finished fading away; his horn arcing with bilious green energy, which faded alongside the traces of the spell.

“Thank you” was the only thing he said, it didn’t sound like a thanks.

Although to my joy, he did remain silent for the rest of the journey.

<~~***~~>

(Barbed Retort)

I felt the train shudder as it drew into the Canterlot station, I had only just calmed down from the earlier events, and now I had to face the crowds of Canterlot, to say I was uncomfortable would have been an understatement.

At least I’d finally managed to make some headway with Shining Armour, at the cost of my dignity, and exposing my fears to him; I could only hope he hadn’t picked up on how badly he had unsettled me with that silence spell.

“What should I call you in this disguise?” I didn’t register the question for a moment, before responded.

“What?”

“What should I call you while you’re disguised” Shining repeated the question.

“Bitter Pill”

“Bitter Pill, is there a connection between that and your ‘cutie mark’?”

“Yup” it had been tricky, but the name and mark were definitely connected in a most unpleasant way, transmutative transformation was more difficult than illusion but the results could be well worth it.

“Are you going to show me, or am I going to have to live in suspense?”

“Trust me when I say that you don’t want to look at this mark, a Bitter Pill always makes you feel worse before you feel better, you ordered me to cover it up before we came to investigate” I half smirked at him as his curiosity peaked “and that’s all I’ll say on the matter”.

The screech of the train’s brakes overwhelmed Shining’s response, his words drowned under the noise before he turned to look out the window and his expression fell. I followed his line of sight and felt my own mood immediately plummet.

Princess Celestia was waiting outside; her expression a storm could on an otherwise serene sky, and her sister didn’t look to be in a more pleasant mood, a set of scrolls hovered in the air around their heads.

Getting up I followed Shining Armour as he exited the train car, stepping on to the white marble of the station’s floor the glare of the sunlight reflected from the polished surface causing him to squint.

I readjusted my hat and tried to surreptitiously scan the surrounding rooftops for any kind of emotional signature, but wild surges of emotion coming from the Alicorn princesses were not exactly helping in that regard, and by this point I was close enough that looking anywhere but at the princesses would be a bad idea in case they interpreted it as a ‘guilty conscience’.

“Prince Shining Armour, it is good to see you, even if it takes such troubling events to bring us together” her voice was kind enough and there was a brief undercurrent of love, but the white Alicorn couldn’t disguise her storm of emotions, anger, hope, disgust, malaise, faith; they were all present to some extent, and they did not make a tasteful brew.

“Princesses” Shining Armour bowed deeply enough to be respectful; I didn’t bother “I came as soon as I received your summons” I could feel his love for the princess, mixed with a sympathetic anger.

“Are we to assume that this is the one the Chrysalis spoke of in her response” the blue Alicorn gestured at me, her emotional state was far simpler; anger, bitterness, and curiosity, mostly anger.

“I am that one, yes” I responded as cheerfully as I could “as per section 5 of our agree---“

“We know what the treaty says Changeling” Luna responded her voice rising in volume “You are not needed here and we command you to leave” her voice was loud enough to lift my hat which I held on to with one of my hooves to stop it from flying away.

“Well done Princess” I shot back, I didn’t need to force the cheerfulness any more, I had already been dismissed as unnecessary, my respect would be equally unnecessary “Now if the assassin has been watching us they will know that I am a Changeling sent by Chrysalis, one of the few creatures capable of finding another changeling quickly” I continued merrily staring at the furious princess “I mean it’s not like your royal guards didn’t notice when one of their princesses, a pony they’re responsible for guarding at all hours of the day was replaced” everypony there was now glaring at me, a storm of hatred directed entirely at me, even Shining was aghast at my words, although more in shock than disgust, “even you couldn’t recognise when your beloved niece was replaced, but by all means dismiss your best chance at solving this without any more deaths”

The expression on the lunar Alicorn’s face was priceless and her horn started to glow with a terrible purpose.

“I didn’t think I would die this way, but I always kinda hoped to be at the mercy of a powerful mare when it happened” I continued as I waggled my eyebrows suggestively.

“Luna, please calm down” Celestia interposed herself between us before the lunar Alicorn could unleash her magic against me “I might not encourage Chrysalis in taking this course of action without consulting us, but I am equally sure that she would not send us aid if she didn’t have our best interests in mind” Celestia was attempting to mollify her sister, the dark glow of Luna’s horn not dying, but losing purpose at her words.

“Well of course I have Equestria’s best interests in mind, without Equestria there is no hive, and I have the Hive’s best interests in mind at all times, what farmer doesn’t care for his harvest”

“Art thou comparing us to food?” and that terrible purpose returned, bringing rage along for the trip.

“Sister, please calm down”

“I am being honest and explaining my motives, analogy and metaphor are a part of that process”

“You are not helping”

“Does thou think us so simple minded that thou must explain to us like thou would a foal?”

“BOTH OF YOU BE QUIET!”

Ah, the actual Royal Canterlot voice; it was a lot more impressive than Chrysalis’ attempt. I could feel my hat lift from my head and as I clamped down on it with my hooves again I could see Shining Armour cover his ears as the sound washed over him, it almost looked like his armour was rippling in the wind caused by Celestia’s exclamation.

I stood there patiently, my ears ringing as the echoes in my head died down as the Solar Alicorn turned on me her expression strained.

“Welcome to Canterlot,” some welcome, I could feel the anger mixing with her pain and hope, but it was better than nothing at least “Chrysalis spoke well of your character in her letter, although she forgot to mention your name.” Basic manners, finally; I had been despairing that these ponies didn’t know what manners were.

“I thank you for your welcome, and I hope my conduct will reflect well on what Chrysalis said of me, and that it may make up for any previous disputes.” I responded with platitudes as I removed my hat and bowed, ever so slightly “The name I go by is Bitter Pill for the moment” I glanced to my side only to see Shining Armour with his mouth hanging open in shock; apparently he thought I was incapable of any good manners, I couldn’t blame him.

“Despite these being trying times I hope we can work together for the betterment of our cultures”

“Speaking of working, could you show Shining Armour and I to the deceased” it was a pleasant enough request, if brusque, I didn’t want continue exchanging empty words when there was a job to do.

“That seems reasonable given the circumstances” The white Alicorn turned away for a second, speaking quietly to her sister and the gathered guards before they started to walk away in the direction of Canterlot castle.

“Please follow me Prince Shining Armour, Bitter Pill” Celestia started to lead us away from the castle, our path leading us further down the mountainside, the Alicorn’s stride easy enough for us to keep up, but still purposeful. Shining marched alongside her, head held up with pride, a muscle memory from long years of duty no doubt, I preferred to stalk several paces behind the both of them, watching the crowds of ponies as they parted before us, either staring awestruck at Celestia and Shining Armour or scrambling out of our way.

The walk was short, although the parted crowds may have helped our progress on that front and we soon arrived a low slung building next to another much grander structure which identified itself as “Canterlot Medical University for Unicorns”, a subdued sign on the doors announced this building to be a morgue.

“A university morgue?” I asked as we were ushered through the double doors, which locked behind us, drawing my coat tight as the cold atmosphere of the building started to seep into my disguise. “Seems like an odd place to store a murder victim”

“Wind Cloak wanted her body left to science, she always wanted to help somepony, sometimes the aid she asked of the crown was a little too much, and she would harass and harangue my staff into an audience with me, but she always had good intentions” Celestia answered as she hovered over a set of badges that had the word “VISITOR” printed in blocky red font over the top; one for me, one for her, and one for Shining Armour. “I’ve ordered the Dieners here to hold off on any truly invasive procedures until Shining could arrive, however the initial autopsy has revealed no poison that we can identify, no lethal magic that could have resulted in such a quick demise, or any sign of natural causes; it seems whatever was done to Wind Cloak simply shut her body off” she finished as we drew next to a heavy looking white door, I could feel a chill miasma seeping out from under the door as Shining Armour’s breath started to mist in the air in front of him.

“I shall have to leave you two here” the Solar Alicorn almost turned to leave before speaking again “Shining Armour, I am not often angry, but whomever did this, they hurt My Little Ponies, I would like them found and brought to justice, mister Bitter Pill, if this turns out to be another of Chrysalis’ plots, plans or schemes there will be no power that will protect her or any of you that aided her in this, am I understood?” the rolling surges of anger helped make her point.

“Yes Princess” Shining Armour sounded worried.

I felt it might actually be best to demonstrate at least some respect here, at least the white Alicorn had been open, honest, and polite so far “Yes, Princess Celestia”, was all I managed to say before she had turned and walked away, her billowing prismatic tail whipping around a corner the last thing I saw of her.

Turning to look at Shining Armour as he stood next to the door, I thought for a second about Celestia’s description of the attack, my knowledge of Changeling magic wasn’t extraordinary despite my position in the hive. I knew there were several Unicorn spells that could have simply stopped a ponies biological functions, each darker than the last; but Changeling magic was centred on keeping its target alive to extract love, or instantly destroying the body, removing any evidence that a pony had been replaced, I didn’t know of any changeling spells that could instantly kill without destroying the body.

I only noticed Shining Armour open the door when a cold mist washed over me, the depressing chill sinking through my coat and my disguise; by the Hive I hated morgues and cemeteries.

I followed him into the examination room under the watchful eyes of a pair of Unicorns; both were wearing medical gear, face masks, goggles, hoof gloves, dark blue scrubs, and heavy white lab coats, their eyes following us as a pair until we reached the covered table in the center of the room, the white cloth covering what was obviously a body.

“Good morning Prince Shining, Princess Celestia mentioned you would be bringing an investigator with you” the taller unicorn was the one that spoke first, her long mane was tied behind her head in an unruly braid “May I assume that’s you?” she extended a hoof towards me, oddly she felt happy in her work and I snatched hold of the emotion.

“Bitter Pill” was all I said as I shook her hoof; at least her contentment stopped my teeth from chattering from the ambient dread, despair, and depression that seemed to ooze from the walls.

“My name is Mercy Graves, this is my assistant Buttermilk” she gestured to the smaller unicorn besides her, his wiry black hair gave the idea that his head was being eaten by steel wool, very surprised steel wool, as he looked at us quietly before Mercy continued “I’m sure the princess has already filled you in on our initial examinations but I’ll just run through the details with you two before we do any more scans.”

A clipboard hovered through the air, wrapped in the same grey aura as Mercy’s horn, before it settled in front of her face, while Buttermilk tugged the cloth down revealing a dull brown face, the skin beneath bloodless, while the body’s mane spilled out across the metallic surface, the same blue as the colour of my normal eyes.

“Subject is Wind Cloak, Unicorn Mare, age is 37, height is three foot eight inches, weight is-“ I started to block out all of the boring details as Mercy Graves started to go into lecture mode, just waiting for the relevant details to come up “-me of assault 20:00 PM yesterday, EMT’s arrived on scene at 20:05 for immediate treatment and transport, subject reached hospital at 20:08 and was declared Dead on Arrival, cause is believed to be organ failure although the mechanism by which this was achieved has yet to be found, blood work has revealed no anomalies yet, magic scans have shown that the magic was changeling in nature although we have been unable to identify the spell structure and all digestive toxicology has revealed nothing” her voice wound down from its clipped tone as she finished her list “any questions Captain, Investigator?”

“She’s pale; did you drain all of her blood?” I asked, quietly as I examined the mare more closely, lifting her eyelid to study her eyes, the misty white film sent a flood of terror through me. I hated looking at the eyes of the dead, it was always the same cloudy whiteness combined with the sort of terror that would drive anyling else insane.

“Yes, stomach and intestinal contents too, they are being stored under the table if you want to examine them”

“Maybe later” Shining Armour quickly cut in, the unicorn was looking green in the cheeks

“Feeling squeamish Captain?” I asked while I rolled the cloth slightly further down, revealing the neck, there was a slight scorching where the spell had struck her and swelling where whiplash had occurred, but that seemed to be it.

“The captain never liked it down here” Buttermilk’s soft voice almost took me by surprise, I had forgotten about him while I looked over the body.

“You said the magic was Changeling in nature” Shining spoke quickly “Do you have a reading?”

“You think the University would pay the bits for a spell-reader for us?” Mercy’s voice was incredulous, while Buttermilk looked down at his hooves “No, but we’ve kept the body circled so there should be as little leakage as possible”

“Mind if I take a scan?” I asked as I gestured towards the body.

“Go ahead, that’s why you’re here isn’t it” was the response.

I closed my eyes as my horn lit up, the energy on it condensing into a thick, acidic green mist as I cast the scanning spell; the focus required was immense, divination was never my forte, but scanning spells had been too useful to ignore given my responsibilities, and hard work was its own reward, or so went the pony saying.

Slowly the green mist that had formed around my horn started to flow down to the body, enveloping it, taking the shapes of the last spells cast on it, gathering in the areas that had been exposed to the most magic, with almost half of it settling around the horn, an indistinct cloud showing that it had been heavily exposed to raw unshaped magic; telekinesis most likely. However the mist that settled around the scorch marks twisted and writhed as it was forced into a pattern, a pattern which slowly spread over the mare’s entire corpse; a pattern I recognised.

Letting my focus slip, the mist started to fade, slowly dissipating in the cold air while I tried to figure out how I was going to phrase this before a flash of light blinded me. I blinked to see Buttermilk holding a camera in his telekinesis, using it to record the patterns of magic my scan had revealed, the captured images slipping from the device’s base with each flash of light.

“It’s definitely Changeling magic” was the first thing I said, telling nobody anything they didn’t already know.

“We knew that”

“It’s also fairly common changeling magic, just with a lot of power behind it”

“So we’re dealing with a powerful changeling, anything else?”

I chewed at my bottom lip nervously before continuing, this was not going to be pleasant.

“It’s a combination of Illusion and Enchantment magic, both of them are simple spells, although the binding isn’t as easy” I gestured at a set of interlinked shapes that were fading away “the enchantment is used to restrain the target and suppress all physical movement, while the illusion spell is simple, it was designed to make the target look dead to all physical and magical scans.” I finished, the words had been easy to say but the results they were not easy to look at. Shining Armour’s face had turned bone white, his eyes shrinking to dots; Buttermilk shrank back from me, his breathing starting to grow heavy; while Mercy just looked down at the body, her face tightening as my words sunk in.

“Are you telling me” her voice was strong given the circumstances, although her emotions had rapidly turned to shock “that when she was brought here, she was still alive?”

“It’s very likely that that is the case, yes, if not, then she suffocated while under the restraints of the enchantment” I wasn’t feeling well, this was changeling magic and methodology; what’s better than the murder that another unknowingly commits for you as the changeling saying went.

I didn’t look around as I heard Shining Armour sprint for the corner; I didn’t bother looking at him as the scent of vomit wafted to my nostrils; I could feel his pain as an almost physical force, I could feel Buttermilk’s nausea swirl around his head, I could feel Mercy Grave’s rage build up in her stomach; I could feel myself growing numb from the flood of negativity all around me. Despair, loss, pain, fear, malaise; all pressing in on what little soul I felt I had left.

I fought to keep my own breakfast down as my next words pushed their way out my mouth even if the others didn’t know what I meant; I knew the Hive was in danger from something hiding in Canterlot, something absolutely vile, something without remorse, without equinity.

“We’re dealing with a wasteland changeling”

Chapter 5: Elysium for the Weather, Tartarus for the Company

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(Chrysalis)

“My Queen this is a terrible idea” Hidden Facet’s voice was panicked “please reconsider, we can just let her out now and take the love you’ve already harvested, it’s enough to last us years”

“We will not be abandoning the plan advisor” my own voice was imperious and hard, my worry had been completely suppressed after the first few days of infiltration “None of those ponies, not even the Princess of the Sun herself, have noticed anything wrong with their Princess of Love” I looked over at the heavy Rowan-wood door that had been set in the crystal wall, a silver lock held it with a single flimsy looking chain, a flimsy looking chain that had been set in place with my magic. “And even if they did we can offer the pretty, pink, princess of passion in exchange for clemency.”

“My Queen, please listen to me” my advisor was almost frenzied “you’ve been holding too much love for too long, it’s starting to affect you, please just leave it to the infiltrators from now”

“ARE YOU CLAIMING I CANNOT SEE THIS THROUGH TO THE END?” I roared, who was my advisor to tell me what I was not capable of, whom was he to tell me that I could not provide for my Swarm, who was he to tell me that I couldn’t hold my love.

“N-n-no my Queen, simply t-t-that it is not wise” he stammered back, edging away as he did so, a flood of nervousness, worry, and dread began to creep from him as I followed him towards the lip of a precipice that plunged deeper into the crystal catacombs beneath Canterlot.

“We will stick to the plan, I will impersonate her until after the wedding, then when we leave for the Honeymoon I have arranged it should be the work of a moment to exchange places again” I hissed as I continued to stalk towards Hidden Facet, towering over him as his hooves scrabbled at the edge of the cliff.

“My Queen, we already have enough love to keep the hive fed, and fed well, for a year at the very least”

“And when I pull this off we will have enough that my swarm will not have to hunt for decades, we will be able to live happily, maybe even attempt diplomacy with the Princesses with the promise of our stores to keep us safe if things go wrong” I could see all of the possibilities stretching out, all of the chances my swarm would have if I could see this plan through “I will not abandon this plan just because of your misgivings Hidden Facet, not when so much can be accomplished”

“My Queen, please reconsider” I could feel the mixture of fear and determination that surrounded his words.

“No, I will succeed, for my Swarm I will succeed” were my last words as I turned away, green fire washing over me as I took the shape of Princess Cadance.

<**~~~**>

(Chrysalis)

I woke up shivering to the noise of rain on glass.

I knew the dreams were inescapable, but that one always reminded me of the one choice I had made, the one choice I shouldn’t have made.

Pulling myself from under my thin silk sheets I felt downcast, there was no gentle caressing hoof, no scent of oranges, nopony besides me legs wrapped around my back trying to pull me back into the warmth.

The feel of my hooves on the cold stone floor made me shiver, I didn’t like cold; no changeling liked the cold, but it was a necessary evil.

I slowly made my way through my apartments towards to my personal bathroom, letting the sound of the ‘rain’ buzz through my head, my body acting almost automatically as I entered my bath, my magic twisting the taps that allowed a jet of hot water to come cascading down from the showerhead.

Slowly the heat started to soak through my carapace; the water plastering my mane and tail down as it washed the sleep away, taking with it the dust and dirt of my dark dreams.

Quite without realising I began to hum as the heat suffused through my chitin, my wings buzzing in harmony; while my horn glowed verdant green as I used it to lather soap on my chitin and massage shampoo into my hair. The soft melody was one that I’d heard the nurse-maids sing to the nymphs as they explored hidden nooks and crannies of the nursery, back when we had the love to spare on new hatchlings, back before the royal wedding.

The melody died on my lips as the memories came back as strong as ever, the warm water growing cold as it pooled around my hooves before draining away, taking away the soft white suds.

Allowing the last of the foam to be washed away I turned the shower off and started to towel away the water residue that clung to me, polishing my carapace as best I could while my wings flittered quietly, shedding water with the motion.

It was when I was towelling my leg-holes that I heard the faint knocking at my chamber doors; faint, panicked knocking.

Sighing to myself I let the towel drop on the side of the bath, leaving my mane and tail to dry naturally as I began to approach the door, thinking to myself who it could possibly be.

Eventually I reached the dark wood of my door, where the knocking continued, much, much louder that it should have and I began to wonder if the spells I had woven on the wood to muffle anything beyond a certain level of noise were already wearing off.

Touching the locks with my horn, the metal bolts lining one side of the doorway jerked back with a sharp metallic clang as the unlocking spell snapped them open, before I pulled the door open to an unwelcome sight.

I could very rarely, truly fault Barbed Retort for what he did for the hive, and while his attitude was often unpleasant, his explanations of why he did what he did were often inexplicable, and my attempts to bring him back in line with polite standards had met with continued failure, but he cared, which was a good enough reason for me to overlook his issues to some extent.

One of the things I could fault him on was standing in front of me, breathing heavily, his eyes flickering about wildly.

“Spoken Softly, why are you hammering on my door this early in the day?” my voice was calm, collected, and kind, which apparently made the Behemoth standing in front of me flinch as though he expected to get struck.

A Behemoth who would shy away from leaves in the wind, who flinched at any form of contact, who was as timid as a foal, this was who Barbed Retort had chosen as his replacement while I sent him on a wild goose chase in Canterlot. I would never fully understand his sense of humour, nor did I want to.

“My Queen” true to his name the Behemoth’s voice was quiet; I had to strain to hear him over the noise of my wings buzzing and the nervous clinking of his heavy bronze armour “we have an emergency”

“Another one!” I yelled at him as he tried to make himself as small as possible at my sudden outburst “We have had nothing but emergencies for the last fortnight; it is enough to make me think that Faust herself is conspiring against me!” the Behemoth was leaning back trying desperately to not meet my eyes, too scared to speak, too scared to run, while I ranted.

“What is it this time?” my voice was acidic, I knew that Spoken Softly didn’t deserve it, but if Barbed Retort had suggested him then he could either deal with my temper, or my captain could clean up his subordinates’ messes.

“The rest of the Royal Guards have arrived my Queen” his eyes were flickering about like mad; the white dots dancing in a sea of blue, almost like they were trying to escape his body as fear cascaded from him, “They are demanding to speak to you, they barged past the scans and are refusing to allow any of the swarm near them”

Was this Celestia’s sense of humour at work? Was this some form of test? To see if I could work with the most recalcitrant of her guards, or was this all an unhappy coincidence that the universe had cooked up for me?

“Very well, where are these Royal Guards?” my voice was calmer, less volatile, but apparently still enough to set the Behemoth trembling.

“They are waiting in the reception hall; I did not want to leave them in the rain and they refused to wait outside” the behemoth tried to avoid looking me in the eye, the fear pouring off of him was becoming concerning, and I struggled to swallow my own emotions. Time to play the calm, collected, diplomatic Queen, which was an act I could play, and play it well.

“Very well, lead me to them” I spoke smoothly, putting a little bit of calm into each word, directing the emotion at the behemoth as he looked downcast at the thought of having to deal with the Royal guard again.

“Yes, my Queen” he turned around and started to trudge down the corridor as I followed him closely.

<~~***~~>

(Chrysalis)

Despite my earlier calm, I could feel worry creeping up on me, I could see a group of my Changelings waiting outside the reception hall, each of them looking pensive, but that was not the worrying thing. I could see some of the Ponies we had living with us and they looked no less apprehensive than the Changelings surrounding them and several of them started to walk towards Spoken Softly and I as we approached the crowd.

“Queen Chrysalis” they had already elected a spokespony, one I knew.

“Sponge Cake, what can I do for you today?” I asked the stroppy looking Earth Pony, she had come to the hive looking for a job, when we first opened the resort, and had proceeded to harangue, browbeat, and bully my Changelings into allowing her entry, something that would have been unnecessary had she simply brought examples of her tradecraft; the mare loved baking, the emotion saturating the dishes she made.

“What is the Royal Guard doing here?”

“Straight to the point as usual I see” I stared down at the mare that refused to flinch away from me, maybe she thought that I couldn’t feel all of the terror and guilt that was oozing from her. “The Royal Guard are here because your Princesses wanted to help me in securing this place in preparation for the upcoming Diplomatic Summit, I notice you didn’t raise this question at the arrival of Captain Shining Armour and his guards”

“That’s different”

I cocked my eyebrow upwards at the response, but I didn’t wish to get dragged into an argument with the irate mare, not now at least.

“I assure you, the Royal Guards are here on Celestia’s orders, just to make a show of might, and let the press write their headlines on how we can all work together” I wished I was as confident as I sounded, but at least the mare settled down as I continued to walk through the worried crowd before I noticed a pile of wooden crates left lying by the door to the reception hall.

“Spoken Softly, what are those?” I asked, pointing a hoof at the crates as a pair of Changelings opened the doors to the reception hall.

“My Queen, I do not know, the Royal Guards brought them in when they arrived and attempted to deflect my attention every time I asked” I was more amazed that the nervous Behemoth had been insistent enough to push for an answer than I was curious to the contents of the crates, but before I had the time to make any kind of remark we turned a corner to an extremely unwelcome sight.

A quartet of Royal Guards flanked the door to my office, a pair of my Praetorian Guards standing on the opposite side of the hallway, a mixture of anger and disbelief on their faces, but the worst thing of the whole situation was the hatred pouring from the royal guards. I didn’t know how I hadn’t felt it walking through the doors of the building, I don’t know how I hadn’t felt it as I had approached the building itself. It was like walking into one of the wild desert storms that still rolled into the Badlands on occasion; I could almost feel parts of my chitin being peeled away, and my eyes started to water in sympathetic agony before I could arrange my mental defences.

I continued down the hallway, blinking the tears from my eyes, planning my next step for dealing with such blatant hostility, before I directed my thoughts at the Praetorians.

Guards, leave, I will deal with this

Our Queen, please reconsider they answered in stereo, their thoughts buzzing in my head.

You have been dealing with this storm of emotions too long; take a break, I will have Spoken Softly to assure my protection. The two Praetorians glanced at my ‘Captain’, exchanged a glance between each other, before mentally sighing, and leaving, they brushed past me as I reached the door to my office, and pushed the ebony wood open, revealing a most unwelcome sight.

A unicorn was sitting behind my desk, his grey eyes staring at the now open door, the polished gold suns on the flanks of his armour marked him as a member of Celestia’s own personal Solar Guard.

And there he was, sitting behind my desk like it was the most natural thing in the world.

I felt Spoken Softly wings flutter behind me, suddenly I could feel his nervousness again, the erratic emotion cutting through the consistent waves of hostility that pressed in against my mind.

Spoken Softly, please wait outside, if I need you I will call.

Yes my Queen.

I felt the Behemoth walk backwards, carefully, before he pulled the door shut behind him, cutting off the hostility of the guards and leaving me alone with the grey eyed unicorn who continued to stare at me silently, his hostility crashing against my mental shields.

I met his silence with my own, just thinking on the best way to handle this; Barbed Retort’s methodology of conflict resolution would do me no good, I happened to enjoy keeping my dignity, and anything done carelessly could be a diplomatic nightmare.

“Good morning...” I looked over his armour for any insignia of his rank, or any sort of name tag, finding nothing I continued “Captain…?”

“‘Solar’ Captain Steel Shod” the unicorn's voice was well enough controlled that I couldn’t hear the bitterness, but the emotion was easy enough to sense, sometimes I wondered if these Ponies forgot that we could sense emotions.

“Solar Captain Steel Shod” I repeated, as pleasantly as I could “it is reassuring to see that Princess Celestia has sent her best to aid us in these momentous times”, his only response was a deeply unpleasant snort, and a continued glare “so reassuring that I may in fact overlook the fact that you are sitting behind my desk”

“Oh you’ll overlook it will you?” the unicorn’s voice retained all of its control but his eyes flashed with hatred as he leant back on my chair.

“Yes, I think I will, your Princess was kind enough to grant my Swarm some leniency, and I see no reason as to why I should not do the same” I was keeping my words pleasant enough, just adding the right amount of inflection to make sure that the meaning behind them was clear; so I was surprised when the unicorn reared out of the cushioned seat, slamming his hooves onto my desk.

“You think you are in a position to grant me leniency!” he all but roared, his fury building against my shields, before I answered.

“You are no longer in Equestria, Captain Steel Shod, you are in my home, my hive” I brought myself to my full height looming imperiously over the unicorn “It would behoove you to act with a modicum of manners”

“I am not some mindless drone for you to play with, I will act as I see fit!” the unicorn stalked around my desk before pulling the doors open again “I have several tasks from the Princesses and I intend to carry them out, follow me”

I could feel my temples throb as I attempted to force my immediate response of ripping the unicorn's horn from his skull and beating him about his head with it, it would be satisfying, but only in the short term, and I wasn’t going to jeopardise my swarm’s existence on a moment of carthartic pleasure, no matter how well-justified it might be.

Silently I followed the unicorn, Spoken Softly and the four guards following behind us, as he led me back towards the reception hall’s entrance where the rest of his guards waited alongside the ten that Shining Armour had brought. The pair of Praetorians I had sent away were nowhere to be seen but I could feel their presence and I assumed that they had faded into one of the shadows in the room; most likely one on the ceiling.

I watched as a pair of Guards, Earth Pony stallions, pulled the doors to the Reception Hall open and Steel Shod sauntered out, his head held arrogantly high, while I walked at his side not wanting to appear at all deferential to the high-hoofed unicorn.

As we stopped outside the door I could see the crowd of my changelings sway back, looking alarmed, curious, and apprehensive, the waves of hatred coming from the seemingly smiling pony standing next to me were almost enough to make them ill and I could hear their worries being broadcast through the ‘hive-mind’, while the ponies mixed in could tell that something was wrong from the reactions of my changelings.

“Former Ponies of Equestria, residents of the Badlands” that was not an encouraging start “I am Solar Captain Steel Shod and I bring great news, the Princesses of Equestria, your Princesses, have decided that the Diplomatic Friendship Summit, which was last held in Ponyville, in honour of Princess Twilight Sparkle, will be held here” the unicorn stopped in order to wait for a decidedly absent wave of applause, although I did hear a couple of unenthusiastic coughs and chirps from the back of the crowd. I didn’t smile openly, while the unicorns visible expression dropped to one of cold neutrality, his inner turmoil growing more and more violent by the second.

“To make sure that these proceedings go as planned, and to keep the ponies of Equestria safe, all residents of the hive are required to wear identifying tags at all times until the summit, we are unable to judge the threat that changelings present to these proceedings, and as such have deemed these measures appropriate” this announcement was met with something, a roar of outrage that washed over the armoured pony whose expression changed to match the thunderous turmoil he was holding in.

I could feel the clashing emotions, I could feel the panic of my changelings, the outrage of the pony residents, I felt some hope that I would stick up for them. My brain started to whir, I had to make a decision, I had to calm the crowd down before they did something they would regret.

“My Swarm, My Changelings, My Pony Friends, all of you who call this place home, or those who are just visiting for the services we provide” so far so good, the crowd was still angry although my Changelings were listening closely, and the ponies were not shouting any more “I share in your outrage, and I am aghast at the behaviour of our visitors” so far so good, the anger had simmered down, although I could feel the hostility at my back, scorching my carapace as I continued to speak “And while I believe this to be an extreme measure that I will not require you follow, I ask that when the Princesses and their retinues do arrive we all wear one of these identifying tags, not as a way of showing that we are a threat that must be curtailed; but as a badge that demonstrates we can work together” the crowd still seemed uncomfortable but my words had had the effect I wanted. The ponies were no longer shouting their protests, my Changelings were no longer buzzing in agitation.

I lifted the first box in my own acidic green telekinesis, before peeling it open, revealing stacks of blank identification slips, plastic holders, and cloth necklaces, and hovered the open box to the crowd who were now forming into an orderly line using thought-speak to organise themselves efficiently, more changelings working on handing out the contents of the crates.

I stared at the sight for a moment, suppressing the smile I felt, before turning to the irate looking unicorn besides me.

“This is not Equestria, you are here to help, not make demands that bring about riots” I hissed, matching his wrath with my own, before I raised my voice again “Vigil, Hyacinth” the guards jumped as the two Praetorians faded into existence by my sides “please show the Captain and his platoon to the barracks and help them get settled in, if the Captain needs me he knows where my office is.”

<~~***~~>

(Severed Bonds)

I could feel the love pouring from the old pony as we lay together in the grass of the residential park. The grass was still damp, I didn’t mind, and judging by the emotions that the old unicorn was emitting he didn’t mind either. He was happy just to sit and hold me, his ‘wife’, and I was happy to sit and be held as his ‘wife’.

Kick-Back shifted slightly and I could feel him nuzzling me, a gesture of affection; I had never really understood, I knew how much he loved his ‘wife’, he didn’t need to tell me in any other way.

Regardless I nuzzled back, the creaky old bones of my disguise clicking and popping as I stretched my neck out to push my snout behind his ears,making him whicker in surprise and pleasure.

“Aye, you’ve always known how to make a randy auld stallion like me happy haven’t you” he spoke quietly as he dragged his neck backwards along mine, leaving small kisses in his wake as his lips brushed along the underside of my chin, leaving little hotspots of love pressed against me.

I shivered in pleasure as he drew away, his orange eyes locking with my own grey gaze as we just sat there, lost to the world with each other, or at least he was, I was lost in my own thoughts.

Sometimes I thought the act was needlessly cruel to him, I wasn’t his wife and he knew it for most of the times we spent together; but for the moments he forgot, the hurt would only return all the harder. Finding the old stallion bawling like a child had been hard the first time, and only grown more painful since; even if it wasn’t my fault, it was my fault.

“Your not thinkin’ about Manehatten are you?” His voice cut through my thoughts, he had noticed my distance, time to play damage control.

“Just a little darling” I never enjoyed using the clipped lawyerly tones of my disguise “I feel so bad that you lost your friends for me”

“Feck ‘em” the stallion's voice had a hint of venom to it, and his mood started to sour “They weren't there the first time around, they weren’t there for you when it happened”

“I just want you to be happy”

“I’m happy to be with you” the stallion leaned in and nuzzled me again, his emotions lifting as he put his hooves around my withers, hugging me tightly his weight resting on me “Nae matter who you are”

I returned the embrace gingerly, my joints creaking under the force of the stallions emotions; his love bolstered by a terrible loss.

I didn’t know long we spent like that, it could have been a minute, it could have been an hour, until we were broken out of our fugue by the nearby rattling of armour.

“Aww, isn’t that sweet, two little snuggle bugs” I twisted my head around to see a trio of guards looking down at the pair of us, each of them emitting their own cloud of hatred and disgust.

“Aye, and what can we do for you?” Kick-Back responded laconically, I could feel his hooves shifting underneath his body as he started to stand up.

“ID please” the guard’s tone was pleasant enough, but even if I couldn’t feel his emotions I could tell by his eyes, he knew our answer and he had something planned.

“Yon Queenie said we didn’t need to wear them badges til’ the Princesses arrived” I started to get my hooves underneath me, cursing the rickety old bones of my disguise; Kick-Back was lucid at the moment, but the old unicorn was stubborn, and dropping my disguise with the Royal Guards around would be a bad idea.

“Your Queen isn’t here Bug” the Earth Pony stallion spat back, all traces of good humour dropped from his voice, “Identification, now!”

“Go feck yersel’ ya twist-minded gobshite” Kick-Back spat back before I heard a loud ‘crack’ and he fell to the ground.

I could hear the guard speak again, but the words sounded far away, even as he stepped over the unicorn, who was moaning in pain, a thin stream of blood dribbling from his snout.

Armoured hooves stepping over him as he lay on the grass, I could feel the wave of pink force pressing in on me, it would take him away, like it had before.

I didn’t feel my magic build up, I didn’t feel my disguise drop, I didn’t feel the backlash of the force I released.

I felt fear.

The wave of force took the guards by surprise, their expressions changing from hatred to shock in a moment as my telekinesis blasted them off of their hooves and carried them away over the park before I heard the noise of them hitting the ground, and the faint sound of their dazed moans.

I heard the old stallion besides me groan as he spat up a blob of saliva and blood and suddenly all of my anger was gone, replaced with panic.

Chrysalis had trusted me with Kick-Back, I had to protect him, I had to keep him safe and happy, I had to keep him safe and he would keep us fed.

I had to keep him safe.

I didn’t notice the groaning guards picking themselves up as I wrapped my legs around the old stallion, my buzzing wings lifting both of us into the air without any effort, he was so light when I was like this.

I didn’t know where I should go, all I knew as I had to take the old stallion, my old stallion, somewhere safe, anywhere safe.

Author's Notes:

Okay, before anyone goes "Wind King" you douchebag, you're totally straw-manning the royal guards into being unlikeable dickwads, there is a reason behind their actions, all the clues are there, alongside some red-herrings, and it's up to you to either wait it out until I reveal the truth (chapter 10 or thereabouts on the current plot-speed), or makes theories, if you go theory making don't expect me to validate them until the reason is revealed.

Also, getting Lovedrunk is a very real condition, it includes making smoochy-smoo faces at particular females, abandoning your bros, and being whipped. (please don't hurt me, I thought I was being funny )

If anyone is confused by how Shining Armour is the Captain of the Royal Guard, and Steel Shod is the Captain of the Solar Guard it works like this (also I’m bad at military/police ranks so don't get mad, educate me).

The Royal Guard is split into, currently, 4 divisions: Solar (Celestia), Lunar (Luna), Crystal (Cadance), and Aetheric (Twilight Sparkle). Each of these divisions have a two full “commanders”; their captain, and the relative princess.

However in the case of a disagreement between the relevant captain, and the relevant princess there needs to be a third voice, enter the captain of the Royal guard.

Technically Shining has command over every division, but only if a captain is taken ill, dead (so severely ill), or otherwise indisposed, and the relevant Princess is also ill, dead (unlikely), or indisposed, until the captain's second in-command can be found and promoted as they are rarely ever deployed to the same assignments to avoid a complete command loss. As a coup d'etat in this manner would require the murder of several powerful combatants and the immortal Princesses, it has never been a high concern to put failsafes in place.

Normally the Guard Captain functions semi-autonomously, to make sure that the rules and regulations are followed, and peace is kept, so making rotas, organising training, investigating crimes, yada-yada; until commanded by the relevant princess, if there is a disagreement between the two which could cause harm, the Royal Guard Captain is called in to settle the dispute, essentially meaning that the Royal Guard Captain has very little real authority at peace times, but a lot of political clout as his word is enough to countermand even the Princesses in matters of the Guard, and their rules and regulations, hence why Shining and his Lieutenants have to be incorruptible, and there are several geas’s in place.

Current Captains & Seconds, and their locations

Shining Armour = Captain of the Royal Guard (Currently in Canterlot with Barbed Retort)

Bulwark = Second of the Royal Guard (Currently in Canterlot for training exercises)

Steel Shod = Captain of the Solar Guard (Currently in the Hive for diplomatic purposes)

Lamplight = Second of the Solar Guard (Currently in Manehattan for an inspection of the local rescue services)

Last Watch = Captain of the Lunar Guard (Currently in Yakyakistan on a ponyhunt for a rapist)

Noctilucent = Second of the Lunar Guard (Currently in Hayseed as potential reinforcements for the guards in the Hive)

Sapphire Entropy = Captain of the Crystal Guard (Currently in the Crystal Citadel for training exercises)

Prismatic Opal = Second of the Crystal Guard (Leading an Expedition into the Old Kingdoms)

Standard Array = Captain of the Aetheric Guard (Currently working with the ROSC on a Ley-Line mapping exercise)

Scroll Shield = Second of the Aetheric Guard (Currently in Ponyville for training exercises)

Chapter 6: Paradise Crumbles

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(Chrysalis)

Sometimes I wished I could be more like the wasteland Queens, utterly devoid of morals, taking the easy way out by putting my voice into the heads of my swarm, just repeating the words of obedience, sacrifice, conformity.

Usually when these thoughts came I could just lock myself in my chambers with a cake and wait for the feelings to pass, and my advisors to sort out whatever problem had come up that week. Usually I didn’t have to deal with a supremely angry Royal guard screaming about how he would get the princesses to wipe my hive off of the face of the planet. Usually there wasn’t a changeling and an old stallion behind me, using me as a shield.

Another steel clad hoof came down on my desk, the wooden furniture denting underneath the force of the armoured limb while the pure hatred that was spilling forth from Steel Shod’s mouth battered my mental shield. The desk had been expensive, at least for the hive it had been expensive and to watch the callous destruction of my property was starting to grate on what remained of my nerves.

“Captain Steel Shod to what do I owe this surprise visit?” I knew keeping my voice level in this situation wouldn’t be much help, but it made me feel better, and honestly after yesterday’s speech, the constant influx of Changeling’s who had found themselves being harassed by guards, and now this, I just wanted a little bit of that, once so close, warm, fuzzy feeling that everything was as close to pleasant as possible.

“You know damned well why I’m here you sun loathed bug!” The captain screamed at me, causing the two behind me the flinch away from him, I could see Spoken Softly hovering around outside my office, waiting, and most likely praying, to escort the captain away without any violence. “Your insects attacked my guards ponies without any provocation”

I was beginning to grow sceptical that ponies ever remembered we could sense emotions, or that we had lived on deception for almost 30 years before our banishment. All of the elements of a deception were right there, floating through the miasma of hate that surrounded his words, desire, superiority, contempt, smugness, all wrapped up to make the taste of an artificial preservative without any of the substance.

“Captain Steel Shod, if any of my swarm, or the ponies who live with us, had attacked your guards without provocation do you honestly think I would withhold them from punishment” the unicorn continued to sneer at me “But according to several witnesses your guards openly attacked Kick-Back in a flagrant abuse of their authority and in complete abuse of the laws of my Hive”

Those words were a mistake, the sudden surge of hostility, of rage, of pure unbridled hate howled against my mental shields with fury of the Windigo lords, and I could feel Severed Bonds start to shiver against my hind legs, Kick-Back doing his best to comfort her.

“Your Hive only exists because the Princesses have allowed it to! You dare to think you have any authority over me, I am a Captain of the Solar Guard!” He all but howled his rage, and I wondered if only the Princesses actually had the Royal Canterlot Voice.

“You are a guest here” I hissed back, not allowing him to continue his tirade “And I am disgusted in your behaviour, as I imagine your Princesses would be if they were here to see one of their ‘little’ ponies acting like a deranged grub”

“You have no right to talk about my Princess like you understand her” the Unicorn screamed back.

“Just as you have no right to order the denizens of my Hive!” my voice was matching his for volume now, the loose papers on my desk fluttering and whispering under the storm “If I still had the means to contact your Princesses I would demand your involvement in this event be terminated and somepony with the ability to control their temperament and their subordinates be your replacement.” my voice faltered and I could see the Unicorn gearing up for his own exchange in our verbal battle before I cut him off again.

“I am putting this matter to rest for now, however when your Princesses arrive they will know of this” I gestured a hoof at the door behind him “do not let me detain you.” my voice had returned to a low hiss now as he glared daggers at me

“You think you can just dismiss me?”

“I think you didn’t understand me, you are responsible for everything your guards do while you are here as guests, do not make me enforce your more permanent housing in the barracks we have given you. I would hate to explain to Celestia that her guards couldn’t enjoy some of our ‘Sun, Sand and Surf’ due to being unable to act with any discipline”, another blast of hatred, another piece of me not caring, this was almost getting boring now and I wanted to care for my child and her charge. “Do not let the door hit you on the way out”

Spoken Softly, please enter.

The surge in raw rage was expected, but before the unicorn could finish drawing the breath, the door to my office swung open at the behemoth’s hooves, the sudden presence startling both of the unicorns who could not hear the thought-speak, Severed Bonds trying to reassure the old stallion behind me as he flinched.

“Spoken Softly, please escort Steel Shod back to the barracks with his ponies, I need some time to arrange the reports and decide on an appropriate course of action without letting my emotions get the better of me.” I didn’t bother to look at the Captain as the behemoth wrapped a hulking hoof around his neck with the minimum of force to not drag the furious unicorn from the room, just gently persuade him to follow his own head lest it get torn from his shoulders.

Taking a moment to clear my head of the cloud of negative emotions still floating around it I heard the door click shut and the shuffling of hooves behind me as Severed Bonds and Kick-Back edged away from me, as I took deep, calming, breaths, gathering my thoughts as I planned and schemed.

Vigil, Hyacinth, I want both of you to watch over our Royal Guests until I’m done with today’s business, I trust you can deal with any immediate emergencies that emerge for the next I glanced at the strange clock hanging from my wall before realising just how late it had gotten, thirty minutes.

I snorted as I turned to the pair that had been huddling behind me, both of them now hanging their heads like guilty little hatchlings, I could feel the shame, regret, and fear pulsing from Kick-Back as he glanced upwards at me, then to Severed Bonds who had gone back to her pony disguise, her own cloud of worry oozing through the air around the tip of her horn as her eyes flickered around the room.

“I am not angry with the two of you, that emotion is being reserved for our guests” I relaxed my posture slightly, lowering my head just enough to look them in the eyes even if they didn’t meet my gaze “I am however disappointed with both of you, both of you lacked control in a moment when control was desperately needed” the unicorn glanced up at me, anger flashing across his emotions for a second before it faded while Severed just continued to stare glumly at the floor.

“The way they spoke, it was nae right” Kick-Back grumbled.

“And I’m touched that you’d care so strongly” I put a hoof under his chin and lifted it so he was looking me in the eyes “I’m proud that you took your duty to protect Kick-Back so strongly” I repeated the action for Severed Bonds, trying to look as kind as a five hoof tall, chitinous, fanged, monstrosity could “Neither of you are to blame for this mess, and I’ll stand by the both of you regardless of what that pompous flank-kisser tells the Princesses”

I felt a rush of gratitude wash over me as the two continued to look into my eyes.

“However for your own protection, I will be having one of my soldiers watching you and your house, and I ask that you try to stay inside a much as possible, these Royal Guards are acting to some sort of agenda and I am worried that they might try to make an example out of you two with this incident” I tried to look as serious as I could, masking my own worries and concerns, letting the pony and the disguised changeling before me know that everything was fine, given the situation.

“Don’t worry, I didn’t expect the Guard to do something like this, noling could have expected this, but if they try something like this again no force, not even the Princesses, will stop my fury” I didn’t feel the same conviction that my words had, even as I stood up to the gesture the pair out of my office. There was so much riding on this and if this was some sort of test from Celestia it was in poor spirit at this point.

It couldn’t be the assassination that was provoking this behaviour; that had been kept a tightly lipped secret between Shining Armour, Barbed Retort, and Myself to avoid any panic, and Steel Shod certainly would have howled it for all to hear if he thought it would hurt my swarm.

I sat with my thoughts as the illusionary sun continued to set outside, this day had been too long already, and I had the sinking suspicion that I was not done yet, even after I received Vigil and Hyacinth’s report.

I didn’t notice as Harsh Words slipped through the door, until the cup of tea landed on my desk, placed neatly on the spot where I had been staring a hole into the wood; the soft clunk of the heavy mug against the thick wood breaking through my thoughts.

Looking up at my assistant I wondered what was going through her head, was she as worried as I was? Did she trust me to pull us through this mess? did she think that this was a bad idea and we should just sink back into the shadows again and live like the parasites that the I had brought us here to escape?

“What do you think I should do?” the question caught her off guard, and I could hear her breath catch in shock; apparently she had just hoped I wouldn’t notice the gently steaming mug on my desk or the cloud of concern that had suffused through the room.

“What do you want to do my Queen?”

The answer wasn’t entirely unexpected, Harsh Words had the habit of answering my questions with questions, and she was one of the few Changelings I felt comfortable venting to.

“What I want is to geld that thrice-accursed stallion with his bucking horn, I want things to get better, not worse, I want my swarm to be happy and well fed, I want to wake up in the morning and not have to worry each and every day that one emergency could wipe out our food stores, I want to ask Celestia what she’s thinking sending those guards here when we’ve already proven we can live with her little ponies” I took a deep shuddering breath as I ran out of steam “I want to know how to make things better, and punch somepony”

I continued to stare at the cup of tea sitting on my desk; while the Solar Alicorn was thought to drink nothing but the stuff I didn’t think she would approve of my particular blend, the bitter, scorching tannic drink was enough to wake the dead, and the sugar and milk I added did nothing to take away from the flavour, only add to it. Stygian might have been too kind a word.

I had been staring at the cup long enough for my assistant to find her answer, and my ears perked up as she started to speak.

“My Queen, I don’t know what you should do, all I’ve ever done is care for the little hatchlings, I don’t make their decisions for them, I let them do whatever they will do, and once the dust settles the tears are coming down I pick them up, dust them off, kiss them better and remind them that no matter what they do I care for them” she paused just for a second and I broke away from staring at the steam rising from my tea to look at her “No matter what happens when the dust settles, the swarm will stand by you.”

“It almost sounds like you practised that speech” I responded.

“I’d tell that to all the Hatchlings when they asked me what they should choose at their final moult, just that it was their choice to make and I’d be proud of them no matter what they chose, but that doesn’t mean I don’t mean what I said, we will stand by you, come Tempest or Tartarus”

I lifted the cup in my telekinesis, before taking a sip from it as my assistant flattened her ears in embarrassment, her tail flickering about in nervousness, as we both sat there in silence, our emotions saying everything that words couldn’t.

“Thank you for the tea, Harsh Words” I paused for a moment as an idea floated through my head, and a smile floated across my lips “Once you are done with your business for the evening could I impose on you to go and keep an eye on Kick-Back and Severed Bonds, I promised I’d have someling I trusted watch over them in case of any foolish thoughts of revenge by our guests”

“I would do so gladly my Queen” my own smile was matched with a sense of almost childish glee coming from my assistant, I could almost see the plans forming behind her blank blue eyes, and I almost felt pity for any of the Royal Guards idiotic enough to approach the pair after this meeting, almost.

I floated a group of paper from my desk to her as she prepared to leave, still smiling.

“Could you please pass these on to one of the messenger drones as you leave” a nod, the flicker of exchanging telekinetic fields, and the click of my door as I was left alone again, this time with hopeful thoughts.

Vigil, Hyacinth, what are our guests doing now?

Our Queen, the captain has gathered his forces in the barracks that Barbed Retort allowed them to use, it has already been warded so we cannot listen in on their conversation, however the mood has been swinging between grim determination and violent hatred for some time now.

What are our own forces like?

Not including Captain Barbed Retort, or us, we have two Praetorians; if we include temporary Captain Spoken Softly we have four Behemoths, and ten regular drone soldiers, in addition we have Assassin Harsh Words if she can be convinced to leave your side. We are outnumbered two-to-one.

Harsh Words is going to be watching over Kick-Back and Severed Bonds after today’s incident.

We see.

The thought-link was quiet for a moment; the only ‘sound’ being the regular background hum of the Swarm’s conversation, before I came to a decision, and opened the conversation to another member of my hive.

Little Secret, how many Infiltrators can be spared from their normal duties at the moment?

M-my Queen, currently thirty five Infiltrators are without purpose at the moment

Vigil, Hyacinth, keep an eye on the captain until tomorrow morning, do not put yourselves at risk unless completely necessary; Little Secret, I want you to choose the twenty most talented Infiltrators before ‘dawn’ tomorrow and have them report to Vigil and Hyacinth where they will be monitoring our guests for any more suspect behaviour so that we can avoid more of these incidents

Yes, Our Queen

I dropped my mind out of the hive-link, quieting those all-encompassing voices to a soft buzz in the back of my mind, and sipped at my tea again.

<~~***~~>

(Barbed Retort)

I sipped at the cardboard cup of coffee that I had gripped in my fetlock as I sauntered along on three legs; flavoured syrup was something that we desperately needed back in the Hive, I could feel the stares as I hobbled my way through the castle gates with nothing but a nod and a smile.

Something told me that dishevelled looking unicorns in coffee stained long-coats were usually turned away on sight, could’ve just been my imagination though, maybe the Guard badge they had forced me to wear around my neck was causing consternation, maybe rumours had spread about the ‘altercation’ at the train station, maybe my ‘cutie mark’ was showing, I didn’t smell bad, at least I didn’t smell any worse than I normally did, did I?

I didn’t notice as my hooves started to crunch gravel, instead sniffing at myself, I didn’t smell any worse than normal, although I could do with a good bath soon.

Making my way through the gardens, only stopping to pull a doughnut out of the saddlebags that I had borrowed, not stolen, I could see the guard recruits fumbling their way through weapon training, the shouting of buck sergeants despairing over their charges seemingly complete inability to wield anything properly bringing me back to my own training, unhappy times.

The cloud of disappointment, and occasional pain as some recruits stabbed themselves in the hoof, faded behind me as I pushed my way into the guard barracks, following the trail of frustration that led me to Shining Armour’s office, a cloud of papers spinning around his head as he tried to sort through the pile of bank papers that Wind Cloak had left behind her.

“Coffee, doughnuts?” I asked as he turned to look at me, his eyes haggard with the pressure of paperwork, as he started to mouth words, only managing to speak on his third attempt.

“Where have you been?”

“Getting coffee and doughnuts” I thought the answer was obvious as he stared at me.

“You’ve been gone for two hours!”

“Well Donut Joe's isn’t exactly in a prime location to the palace, and there was the usual dinner rush, and then I helped an old mare across the road, and then I helped get a cat down from a tree, and then…” I stopped as a tendril of telekinesis wrapped around my muzzle effectively silencing me.

“You could have gone to the castle kitchens!” Shining Armour started to pant as I pushed and pulled at the band of force wrapped around my muzzle, before it snapped off, “why didn’t you go to the castle kitchens?”

“Needed the walk” I lied, while I had to admit that Canterlot was an impressive city to walk around, not architecturally, the castle dominated the city too much for the individual buildings to be that impressive, but the sense of scale alone had always taken my breath away; a city dominated by a castle, dominated by a mountain, dominated by the sky. All of which had been dominated by ponies. That wasn't the reason I had been gone so long.

“Any progress with this lot?” I shimmied out of the saddlebags gently leveraging them down to the ground as Shining Armour levitated another steaming cup of coffee, the closed lid the only reason that my loaned saddlebags weren’t soaked all the way through.

A shuddering sip was followed by a rush of bliss, the coffee would still be as hot as it was when I bought it; magical insulating cups were a great thing.

“And that’s why I went to Joe’s” I muttered to myself while I slipped the box of doughnuts onto the desk before sifting through the top layer of papers, while Shining just lent back into his chair; the cup pressed against his snout like the lips of a loved one.

I was almost about to repeat my question to the blissed out unicorn before the door opened and an utterly massive earth pony stuck his head through.

“Hey Lover colt, I got the reports in from those restaurants you wanted us to visit” his voice was oddly sophisticated, before he caught a glimpse of his captain and he started to smirk all sophistication falling away from his voice, “Is there something you ain’t telling me about that coffee cup Lover colt, is it a Changeling Queen in disguise?”

I leant back slightly fully expecting another wave of disgust or rage, but all I got was embarrassment as he started to to stutter through a mouthful of coffee, which was odd. None of the guards had broached the subject of his time in the Hive, and he had kept his terse attitude with me; maybe being back ‘home’ was helping him relax.

“So, what’ve you got for us?” I spoke over the coughing unicorn as Bulwark turned to look at me.

“The cap got me to follow up on a couple of places where the victim visited regularly, receipts every-other week, dunno why” I did, a scan of Wind Cloak’s stomach contents had shown she’d been pumped full of love which had helped to power the changeling magic on her, “turns out she’d visit every week for the last six months, right after the summit was announced, with a different friend each week, her friend would pay every other week, looking at the paperwork each of these different friends paid using the same bank account, and if that don’t smell like seapony I dunno what does”

Sloppy, sloppy wasteland changeling, the red-tape of the banking system would be your downfall.

“Meanwhile, most of the funding for ‘Change of Heart’” Shining Armour paused in his exposition as I groaned at the name of her changeling charity “comes from a subsidiary of Jet-Set travels, Jet Set has been one of the most vocal anti-changeling influences in the Canterlot noble circle making his involvement just a little odd.”

“So we’ve got a group of mysterious friends all using the same account meeting regularly with the victim, and a noble financially supporting a charity for a species that he keeps demonising?” the questions floated overhead “Sounds like we’ve got our leads” I looked over at Shining Armour as pieces floated together in my head. “How do you feel about schmoozing it up with the nobility?”

Author's Notes:

Come Tempest or Tartarus is the pony version of Hell or High-Water, as Hell doesn’t “exist” in MLP (being replaced by Tartarus), and the tempest part is just to keep the alliteration part going, the Germane have “Sturm und Strang” (actual real-life German saying, means Storm and Stress), and the Shetlanders have “Raiders and Revelers”, in reference to the two people you never want to see show-up on your doorstep at 2 A.M.

For those who appreciate manly nicknames Shining Armour’s nickname among his guards and his friends is “Lover colt”, due to his marriage, he wishes it was otherwise.

This chapter might have been one of the worst to write, that bit with Chrysalis, Steel "Rough" Shod, Kick-Back, Severed Bonds, and Harsh Words took me a full week, and I kinda rushed through the second half at several 2.A.M's, already making good progress with Chapter 7 though.

Chapter 7: Chasing Shadows From Elysium...

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(Shining Armour)

Luxury is a privilege, luxury is a privilege, luxury is a privilege.

I repeated the mantra to myself as I waited at the old door, the white marble it was built into almost glowing with the afternoon sun.

Most nobles I had met before I joined the guard were fine, upstanding citizens who embodied the hard work and intelligence that allowed ponies to make it for themselves in the world; they had always had a kind word or a tasty treat for the colt who proclaimed ‘One day imma be the Captain of the Gauwd”.

Then I became the ‘Captain of the Gauwd’ and all those nice, kind, ever-so-pleasant noble ponies had a personal reason to get on my good side and suddenly bribes would flood in, not obvious bribes, just tickets to go see the opera, offers of marvellous cruises, personal discounts at fancy restaurants, just little creature comforts that would make the life of a single Unicorn living on a guard salary that much more comfortable.

Turning down these comforts had been easy to do, I was the Captain of the Guard, the guardian of Celestia herself, in my hooves lay the safety of the citizens of Equestria, I was the Knight in Shining Armour as Cadance would joke with me in the long lazy evenings before our wedding.

Dealing with the aftermath of turning down those invitations was a much harsher mistress.

The nobles couldn’t do anything obvious, obviously; but the number of complaints against me for the first few months had been phenomenal to the point that Celestia had to personally intervene to hold back the number of petitioners who wanted to see me removed from my newly held position. A process she seemed to be familiar with.

It only got worse when I was appointed as the Prince of the Crystal Empire, apparently some backwards prince of a podunk little town in the frozen plothole of nowhere would know which way the money was flowing when it all came down; although their faces when we met again were a memory that had kept me chuckling in some dark places.

I stood back to attention as the door swung open and an Unicorn butler stood there, glaring at me.

“I am Royal Guard Captain Shining Armour, would mister Jet Set be at home?” I asked, politely while the Butler wrinkled his muzzle at me.

“I am afraid the master is not at home this moment, I must ask you to return some other time” The butler started to swing the door shut, his magic pushing the heavy wood before I could put my own magic against it.

“That’s no problem, I have a warrant of investigation” I said as I pushed the door open against the butler’s now sputtering magic as he stepped backwards trying to stop me.

“Now you see here, that doesn’t give you the right to just come barging into the master’s house like this”

“I would rather think it does, considering that you are now blocking a criminal investigation” I leaned inwards towards the stuffy butler “I would hate to go back to Princess Celestia and tell her that I needed the full force of the guard because somepony wasn't playing nice” I stepped backwards, a smile suddenly on my face, “Now I know Jet Set and his wife are currently at home for the sole reason that their carriage is still in the driveway, and I would like to speak to them, so could you please take me to them.”

I kept my outward smile as the butler turned around even as I cringed inwardly, I never enjoyed doing that sort of thing; these were ponies who just had a job to do, and they didn’t need me to make it worse, especially considering who they worked for; and the fractured temperaments that inevitably followed my visits could only make things worse.

Following the butler through the mansion I held my head high and kept my mouth shut even as a group of pinched and tired looking maids turned to face away from us, the mansion might not have had the pure opulence of my current home, but that didn’t stop it from trying at the cost of millions of bits and the souls of its caretakers.

Eventually, I was led to a small, if not understated, door the Butler knocking on it softly his expression twisted tight from the previous shock that had the last thing I saw.

“Sir, you have a guest” his voice was polite, but strained.

“Hooves, I thought I told you I was not to be interrupted for the remainder of the afternoon” A clipped, precise tone, with the faintest hint of Canterlot snob floated through the door as “Hooves” flinched, his serene expression reverting to panic before he could respond.

“They were most insistent they see you sir”, still polite, still strained, newly apologetic.

A soft sigh and then “Very well, send them in”.

The lightly coloured wood swung open quietly as the butler’s magic pushed it to reveal an upper-class study.

That’s what it was, it was the very image of an upper-class study.

Rich, dark cherry panelling lined the walls behind an oaken desk topped with green felt, a heavy looking bookcase loomed in the shadows cast by the open door, silk and velvet cushions were scattered on the floor with a deliberately casual pattern, while a magically shielded fireplace kept both the heat and the embers contained. However the usual family picture were missing from the mantelpiece and the room felt oddly sterile; it wasn’t a study where Jet-Set went to relax, or feel accomplished in his hard work, it was a room where he said ‘yes I am important, and rich, and successful; don’t you wish you were too?’ it was a room dedicated to subtle vanity.

Needless to say I was having some very aggravating memories drawn from the depths of my mind.

“Ah, Captain Shining Armour, this is a pleasant surprise” the ash grey unicorn looked at me from behind his desk, his cold blue eyes betraying neither surprise, nor pleasantries.

“Jet Set, it has been too long” or not long enough, on one hoof I loathed him, on the other he wasn’t malicious per-se, just, as Caddy would put it, more in love with images than reality.

“Indeed it has, but I am an important Stallion, and my time is money, make this quick” the Unicorn stated as a book floated away in his magic, slotting neatly into a gap in the bookcase, disturbing a thin layer of dust on the tops of the other books.

I heard the door click shut behind me as I waited for Jet Set to hover a cushion for my seating purposes. He raised his eyebrow at my continued silence as I stared at him.

So this was how it was going to be.

I kicked one of the cushions over to a suitable spot and sat down slowly not once breaking eye contact with my suspect. My armour rattled lightly with each motion, the only noise to break the silence.

We both continued to stare.

The fire crackled behind me.

We both continued to stare.

I could feel his resolve wavering; he was a business pony who had inherited his fortune, I was a Royal Guard. I would have put the future of Equestria down on him breaking before I did.

His eyes flickered away towards the fire behind me.

Equestria would be safe for a long while.

“What can I do for you Captain?” The unicorn’s eyes returned to mine, his tone neutral.

“I only have a couple of questions regarding current events, I won’t take much of your time” I smiled politely.

“Very well, ask away”

“What are your feelings on the Changelings we have living outside our borders?” I watched as Jet Set’s expression turned from neutral to questioning to furious.

“You cannot possibly be insinuating I have had anything to do the recent tragedy!”

“I am insinuating nothing,” I replied calmly “I am simply asking questions based on the evidence I have.” the unicorn’s expression tightened at the mention of evidence, “Now please, what are your opinions on the Changeling Hive in the Badlands”

“I have no opinions so long as they stay there” his eyes darted away from mine for a split-second.

“So your name on these lists of guest to very public balls, garden parties, and other such gatherings where a number of anti-Changeling petitions have been spawned”

“I highly doubt that I am the only name on those petitions Captain”

“That is true, yours is not the only name on those petitions, however I believe we are getting off of the topic” I shifted slightly on the cushion before continuing “What are your feelings on the Changeling Resort in the badlands?” a brief flicker of annoyance, and a tightening of his jaw, before his clipped response.

“They are parasites that feed off of ponies and I would rather see them exterminated than allow that travesty of a resort continue on”

“And your feelings on their Queen?” I continued patiently before he could go on a full rant.

“She is a monster, though I doubt that you would think any less of her”

“But we are not here to discuss my feelings, we are here to discuss your feelings on the matter” I paused, just for a moment, gathering my words. “So you wouldn’t describe yourself as a supporter of Changeling integration?”

“I most certainly would not”

“And yet I have here the paperwork clearing a number of donations, rather sizeable donations if this paperwork is to be believed, from your personal account to “Change of Heart”, a changeling integration charity” I looked up at the shocked Unicorn, his eyes were wide, and his mouth started to fall open as I levitated a set of paperwork copies to the desk in front of him, “What am I to make of this?”

Jet Set looked at me, looked at the spread of paper on his desk, looked back at me, and hung his head in defeat, not the reaction I had expected.

The new, now uncomfortable, silence hung over the both of us as I saw Jet Set’s mouth work silently, before he looked up again, refusing to meet my eyes.

“Can I get you anything to drink Captain Armour?” he asked, his voice was much softer, the clipped tone gone.

“No, but thank you for the offer”

“Very well” I saw his horn start to glow, and heard the shifting of wood and the soft tone of crystal, before a bottle of brandy and a small glass landed softly on the desk. A small glass that was swiftly filled.

“The reasons are very simple Captain” the unicorn quickly slugged the brandy back “Business, and business alone”

“Please explain”

“I thought it would have been simple Captain” The bottle returned to it’s hidden compartment in the desk “I am a business pony with major investments in travel and tourism, the Changelings have redefined their way of life with travel and tourism” he smiled ruefully, his tone slightly bitter under the carefully clipped and enunciated words “even with the paltry amount of bits they charge the low-class rabble they call visitors they spend even less, such a lucrative chance shouldn’t go ignored.” the glass hovered in his magical field before any traces of fluid disappeared from it and I saw a brief bloom of light from the fire behind me almost unnoticeable in the light from the window that overlooked Canterlot “alas, I am a Canterlot noblepony, and I am expected to uphold standards that so few of my Canterlot rivals themselves uphold while extolling their virtues, given the poisonous nature of our deals, agreements, polite hoofshakes, and back-scratching, if I was seen to openly accept these Changelings I would lose a great deal of work, both in so-high-it’s-stinking society, and a business that I have worked hard to keep stable in this time of constant upheaval.”

“So…” I waved a hoof gesturing for him to either finish up or keep going.

“I want to have my cake and eat it too, that is the point of a cake Captain Armour” the Unicorn stated the saying like it was pure madness to not eat cake “I want the Changelings here so that I can make use of their skills for my business, and I do not want to sacrifice my social standing so that I can continue selling delightfully fashionable, and expensive, holidays to ponies who so desire to be seen as important and rich and make myself even richer by doing so” the Unicorn straightened his back again as he started to meet my eyes again. “However I must ask; why do you, with all of your experiences, care Captain Shining Armour?”

“A pony is dead, it is my job to see that the murderer comes to justice” I answered.

“That’s your job, not the reason you care, you have asked nothing about Wind Cloak, or how I knew of her, your only concern has been the Changelings” damned smug-looking, backstabbing, politically savvy, Canterlot nobles, this is why I refused so many meetings with them.

“Because honestly, after letting go of my first impression with Chrysalis, and my second at their hive, they seem like ponies who were let down by their leader making a very poor decision, even if the one I have to deal with is unprofessional, unpleasant, and naturally impolite.” I sighed “Something happened there, and it felt like I let go of something bad, and I feel I can see clearer now, I can hate their Queen easily enough, but hating all of them would be like hating all of the Night Guard because of Nightmare Moon, I think” it was the closest I’d come to sorting out my emotions.

“Very well Captain, I’m glad to have helped the Royal Guard with their inquir…”

A sudden knock at the door was followed by the butler’s voice.

“Sir, there is a Royal Guard here, there is an emergency that needs Captain Shining Armour’s attention”

I pushed myself to my hooves, before nodding farewell.

“Thank you for your time Jet Set, I’m sorry to have involved you needlessly in this business.”

The door swung open, and the butler led me away as quickly as he could, towards whatever emergency the Changeling had caused.

<~~***~~>

(Barbed Retort)

I liked the bank archives, they were dark, quiet, and the fornication was amazing; these ponies seemed to have such a sense of architecture, compared to the natural shapes of the hive, and when I expressed my awe all Bulwark did was stare at me like I was insane, before pushing the ladder I was perched on further along the shelves.

“So what are we looking for here Bitsy?” I didn’t know when I had got a nickname, let alone when I had had time to be familiar enough with Bulwark for him to use it; it was better than my other nickname at the very least.

“An address, I pulled open another drawer and started to flick through the labels “After the invasion a lot of buildings lost their owners, whether they were Infiltrators in disguise harvesting love for the hive, or Ponies who couldn’t stay in a city full of shadows” we had been watching carefully, gathering information on the famous public figures, very carefully redirecting searches for our hive with misinformation “Most of those places are still sitting empty, although I can put a guess as to why.” The drawer exhausted I pushed it shut and gestured for another shift over to the next.

“Besides being owned by Changelings and being extra-spooky?” Bulwark stuck his tongue out at me, his humour rising like a rush of warm air, even as he effortlessly shifted the ladder, and kicked the brake down.

“Those places were temporary storage for all of the emotion we were gathering from the wedding; anticipation, excitement, nervousness, joy, jealousy, every emotion that goes into a wedding was stored in those places” I pulled another drawer open with a screech of metal, my telekinesis was still being somewhat shaky from the transformation, it was a miracle that I’d been able to horn-write the day before with the way it had been acting up earlier.

“I assume there is something I’m missing”

“Think of how much emotion was running around at a once-in-eternity wedding, neither Moonbutt or Celestia are ever getting married, I’m pretty certain that there’s a law against it somewhere, and all of Equestria, save Ponyville whose newspaper was full of gossip, was running wild over it, all of that emotion was focused at Canterlot where we caught it, stored it, and we were going to take it home after the ceremony” I could feel curiosity rising now “Unfortunately the ‘invasion’ happened, and when the love bomb went off it stripped away all of our magic, including, as we found out when we re-infiltrated to try and salvage some of the things we had left behind, the storage for those emotions” I sighed, just a little bitterly, it had been so much work gone up in smoke “so the places where we had stored them were, and are still for the most part, infused with the remnants of these emotions, and if you know anything about emotions, bad ones tend to stick around longer, so the buildings make Ponies who can’t sense and separate ambient emotions paranoid, and the treaty happened before we could make a concerted clean-up so the emotion will have stuck around causing all kinds of ghost stories, twitchiness, and other mental issues to anypony that stuck in those buildings regardless of their better instincts” A file caught my eye as I continued through the drawer, one of the labels catching my attention as I saw the account I was looking for.

“So Ponies wouldn’t want to stay there thinking the buildings were haunted, and Changelings would know better”

“Yeah, our assassin would be able to ignore the negative effects, while any ponies wouldn’t want to stick around, makes for a really useful safehouse, and it works in reverse” I pulled the file out and started to leaf through the pages, finding what I was looking for, before I closed it again, picked the file up very carefully in my mouth and started to carefully climb down the ladder.

“You got something?” a brief burst of hope, mixed with concern coming from the Earth Pony was met with my muffled affirmations as I made my way down to the floor.

Finally I felt my hooves touch against solid stone again as I spat the folder down at Bulwark’s hooves, “Yeah, this one list one of our old safe…” I felt the hostility a split-second before I saw the flare of green magic out of the corner of my eye, and slammed myself behind the ladder as the bolt of virulent green magic smashed into the side of the Earth Pony's head. Shit, I reacted like he’d been one of my guards, capable of sensing the intent to harm, and he’d taken some form of magic to the skull, I could see his previously blue eyes turn white and any emotions he’d been giving off rapidly died away.

“Oh, you are competent” the feminine voice was dead, lacking any tone other than that words had to be said “I had hoped to get the both of you with that shot, can you make this easy and just come out from your very poor hiding place”

I felt my ears flickering about, trying to home in on the voice, but the stone walls caused it to echo and the sunstones set in the ceiling cast fitful illumination that revealed nothing, even as my horn lit up.

“He is going to die if you do not step out.” Where was the voice coming from? I kept flicking my eyes up and down the corridor of filing cabinets, “Choking to death like that simpering fool, such a waste of a good meal for the hive but our Queen told us that she had to die just like you will”

I felt the haste spell seep through me, and my mind started to race, what were my options, what were my weapons, what were my opponent's weaknesses, what could I do to escape.

“I will give you five more seconds”

What options did I have? I could escape without Bulwark or the folder, it’d be easy, and I knew the address I was looking for.

“Five”

I could fight, against an opponent I couldn’t sense it would be monumentally stupid, but I would go down swinging.

“Four”

I could run with Bulwark in my telekinesis, it’d be shaky but I was good enough to get him out and fix whatever the assassin had done to him.

“Three”

I could take the folder away, leave Bulwark, it’d be even easier, the folder was tiny, light, and most likely wouldn’t struggle.

“Two”

I could just give up, and hope that my will was strong enough to resist whatever spell the assassin had planned

“One”

Decision time.

I dove out from behind the pitiful cover that the ladder had given me, my horn lighting up as I scooped both Bulwark and the folder into my telekinesis, and kicked away the protective cover of the coat I had been wearing, revealing the ‘cutie mark’ I had given myself.

It was a work of art if I say so myself.

I felt the psychic shriek of terror from my assailant as the building light of their magic blinked out and I barrelled past another changeling whose dull, black chitin had allowed her to blend into the shadows.

I still smashed her rubbery snout into the metal as I ran, it was a matter of principle, couldn’t let that uppity bitch think she had the upper hoof after all.

Sunstones flickered on and off as I sprinted along the maze of corridors, the sound of my hooves pounding against the stone were suddenly drowned out by an echoing screech of anger.

I started running faster.

She sounded really angry.

I felt my hooves skid on the floor as I powered through the sharp corners, heatless green fire spinning through the air behind me, splashing against the metal corridors of filing cabinets.

Let’s put that down as furious, I could feel the billowing clouds of rage chasing me as would the chains of Tartarus, threatening to overtake me and force me to the floor for a chance to excuse her rage upon my prone form.

What does it say about me that I started to laugh, as adrenaline pumped through my veins.

I could see the doors to the bank's main room looming ahead; heavy, dark oak dominating the wall as I rushed towards it, juking left and right as bloom after bloom of venomous green fire sought me out, missing me and my passengers by a margin of error that I felt was too damned close, before blinking out of existence as they crashed against unimportant things.

The doors grew ever closer at an increasing rate until I was seconds away from crashing through them and I drew myself into a tight ball as another spell wove its way through my hide, reinforcing it, covering it in the ages old bark of ironwood the merest moment before I smashed into the wood, praying that my speed and strength would be enough.

It turns out that only reinforcing one side of a door against criminal entry makes the other side that much weaker, also a common cost cutting measure in the city of unicorns; so my surprise when I just busted through the door like it was made of styrofoam, clouds, and prayer was enough to send me crashing to the floor rather than rolling onto my hooves again.

I barely scrambled to my hooves before a pink hoof came crashing down where my head had been.

“I am sorry sir but the bank is closed, you cannot be here” the florid Earth Pony mare’s voice was dead, her words echoed by the other staff who had all turned to look at me, every eye glowing a sickly green.

Well shit.

Author's Notes:

Jet-Set is being entirely honest, it’s all about business, part of that is giving a positive image to his customers, so the Upper and Middle classes of Canterlot, while also balancing with the demands of “We are the Pony’s that the lesser class should look up to, we must set an example” high-society.

Calling your pony butler Hooves, is like calling your human butler Jeeves, and it’s just not done, the butler’s actual name is Silver Standard, yes he’s related to Silver Spoon.

If I was to try to describe Bitter Pill/Barbed Retort’s “Cutie Mark” start with the sight of something that shouldn’t exist (Ia, Ia, Cthulhu Fhtagn), add in the most shrieking obnoxious sound you’ve ever heard (Rebecca Black’s Friday, nails on a chalkboard, etc, etc), the smell of skunk spray, the taste of durians, and the violent shuddering touch of cold, clammy, corroded flesh. Ya know, a full exposure to all of the most horrific things to attack your senses. Then add in magic to make it as “look at me” as possible. Weaponising Cutie Marks is a nasty thing, and it comes down to an asshole to actually do it. Problem is it’s a one time thing as the mind blocks out the pure revulsion and stops “seeing” it after the first shot, that first shot is a doozy though.

Chapter 8: ... And Into Tartarus" is most likely going to be late, apologies, work has come up and my D'n'D group has reignited so I've got a little less free time.

Chapter 8: ... And Into Tartarus

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(Barbed Retort)

Well Shit.

I bathed in the sickly green glow coming from all of the bank ponies who surrounded me, their eyes were unfocused and their voice sepulchral, but I could deal with them, they were just bank ponies for the Hive’s sake. Completely emotionless, mind wiped Bank Ponies who would obey the slightest whim of a mad assassin, totally something I could deal with.

No, they weren’t the thing worrying me; that would have been the cloying, choking rage that had settled around me like the tender forehooves of a loving, caring, mother who suddenly had very, very good reason to punish a disobedient hatchling, and was letting them know there was no escape to be found. A sensation I thought I had left behind over thirty or so years ago.

It was disconcerting to say the least.

The motherly hug that is, not the rage, I was used to the rage; the rage had been a constant boon companion over the last few days.

“Thinking you could escape?” the feminine voice was just behind me, somewhere in that cloud of rage “Our Queen is most amused by your antics, drone”.

No point in getting riled up here, a chance would reveal itself, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t play my part.

“Oh, and you did such a good job stopping me, nymph” I shot back over my shoulder, seemingly angry.

“We did,” The bitch had the gall to sound smug, “you are still here, and all the playthings are in our Queen’s grasp, soon the witless Captain will come here at the beckoning of his drones, and they will…”

Oh Queen, I thought to myself, she’s going to monologue. I was not going to just sit there and listen to some half-baked villain monologue delivered by the most bored sounding Changeling I’d ever met.

“Let me guess” I interrupted her as loudly as I could, Bulwark twitching slightly at my hooves “You were going to stun me, partially destroy the folder, and brainwash Bulwark into snapping my neck because he’d seen me trying to destroy evidence” my outburst was met with stunned silence “In fact I’m willing to bet you have multiple drones ready to sacrifice in case my Queen hadn’t sent me here with Shining Armour, after all why do you think Moonbutt and I had such a loud shouting match on the station platform” I was smiling as the anger started to fade to a stunned shock, the emotion hitting the ground, and spreading like a puddle of molasses.

“You cannot have planned that!”

“Your Queen’s end plan was to destroy My Queen’s Hive, absorb the remains of her swarm and then infiltrate Equestria to your own ends, most likely by fostering the political distance between Equestria and Chrysalis, before either having Equestria wipe us out, or doing it yourself, and making it look like we had just left, never to return?”

The anger had receded from my limbs, taking away the disconcerting weight that had pinned me in place, which in turn allowed me to twist around, glaring at her.

“Am I getting close yet?”

The infiltrator stared back at me, I hadn’t really noted her appearance during my helter-skelter rush from the archives beyond the brief impact of ramming her head into a filing cabinet; I should have done it harder.

She almost looked normal, almost; if it hadn’t been for the dull white eyes that were deeply set into her skull, or the cartilaginous snout that split open revealing a worm like maw, with rings of jagged looking, fangs that was hanging open in shock, lines of drool pooling on to the floor.

“Queens of Old, you’re the ugliest thing I’ve had the displeasure of seeing”, I never claimed to be subtle, I have claimed to be smart on several very ill-advised occasions, but I have never claimed to be subtle.

Which is probably why this caught her attention and managed to violently jerk her back into action.

“You think that you have bested us? That this was our only plan for your demise? Your Queen shall fall and her swarm will be as dust in the Wasteland! We shall take pleasure in reducing you to an emotionless husk and presenting the bounty of your heart to our Queen” the changeling was almost shouting, flecks of spittle and saliva flying through the air in front of it, and I shuddered in overly obvious revulsion, letting a little bit of the emotion flow out of me and slap the infiltrator across her snout, before putting my mental shield back in place.

I could feel her anger growing again, trying to grasp at me, and choke the life from my neck, even as my mental shield kept me safe, before the emotion disappeared, to be replaced by smugness.

“We wonder drone, her horn flared with green light, although now I had the time to pay attention I could see the white fire at the heart of it “how you will react to this?”

I barely had time to stifle my expression as the infiltrators telekinesis snatched one of the bank tellers, hovering the pony next to her. The mare’s sickly green eyes staring at me as her body started to twist around while her head was held in place; the slow motion accompanied by the popping and crackling would be expected of someling stretching their neck after heavy exercise.

“Drop your defences drone” the Infiltrator crowed smugly at me “or this pony will die, I assure she is feeling everything, trapped in her own head, unable to make even the slightest resistance, it will be no waste to lose this one, I have been feeding from it for months and it can barely drag itself from its cocoon in the mornings, I doubt it would live another week.”

That got my attention, but I kept my mental shield going, I could sacrifice one pony for my Queen’s Hive: I didn’t want to, but I could.

“Go ahead, she means nothing to me, you can just continue wasting my time with meaningless threats and keep digging your grave deeper, I wonder what the guards will think when they come in and find some poor pony dead on the ground, her neck shattered, rather hard to justify finding your targets corpse in the archives, and his victims in the foyer” I smirked coldly, praying that she would buy my bluff.

“We suppose that we’ll just have to modify the guard’s memories further then”

Well shit.

I could see her telekinesis brighten as the mare’s body twisted further, the grinding and popping of bones registering in the back of my head as my own magic built under my disguise.

It was a pleasant surprise when the bank doors flew open, late afternoon daylight streaming in through the overly large portal, followed, at a comparatively slower pace, by two ponies in the armour of the City Guard.

All eyes in the room turned to stare at them as they started to speak while I felt my disguise drop.

It might’ve been personal pride but I always said it to anyling that would listen; Transmutational Transformation is superior to any other method, no grand flash of light as the illusion drops, no period of readjustment as the enchantments rearrange your view of the world; just the release of magic back into the air that takes barely a second, the elastic rippling of sensation as I reshaped my body into how it was supposed to be, the coat & hat fading back into my solid chitin and tattered wings.

“The alarm went off is every…” the guards voices halted as they took in the decidedly unsettling plateau that they had just uncovered, before the Unicorn’s horn blazed with light and he sent a flare hurtling into the sky.

My disguise was still dissipating as I darted forwards, swinging one of my forehooves at the infiltrator who leapt backwards out of reach, her horn swinging the golden coloured bank mare directly at my side like an improvised club.

She didn’t notice my horn glow again as the new transformation spell rippled through my body.

It’s a very little known fact that most Changelings’ need a little in the way of physical nourishment, most ponies think that all we need is emotions, and while emotions do power our magic, we need a little physical nourishment to make our metabolism go.

My hive in particular grew Fungi as a food source; various very dangerous Fungi, several species of Fungi that would explode if mishandled, spike covered fungi whose spores could cover several kilometres.

Nature is so fascinating, explosive too.

The flash of ignition was mostly covered by the fact that I had my leg between my eyes and the pod on my limb, but the screech of pain as tiny little barbs started digging into the infiltrators snout was music to my ears, even if I had been aiming for her eyes, while the magic she had surrounding the hovering mare dissipated.

“Lay down on the ground, you have the right…” I could hear the Pegasus thundering as he pulled a heavy looking truncheon out from under a wing

“GET THEM!”

Green eyes turned to the two guards as wings unfurled, horns lit up, and hooves stomped against the carpet.

Then all Tartarus broke loose.

Good thing I was only paying minimal attention to that fight.

I refused to let the infiltrator get away from me, like she had gotten away from the guards before.

Darting in as she screamed with rage, I brought the same hoof to bear, green ichor trailing from the wound I had left on myself, my horn flaring again as she evaded again, a pale shield flickering into existence between us as I smashed into the barely there wall of force with all of my strength, splattering her shield with the ichor from my wound which was already starting to seal itself; her horn flaring as with light as she held me back.

Which is why she didn’t notice the grasping tentacle that uncoiled from my shoulder before it snaked around the wall of force and lashed at her wings. I had to ground her before she escaped.

Her sudden disappearance with a flash of white fire put paid to that idea as my tentacle whipped through thin air.

Well shit.

No smouldering ashes on the floor, so she hadn’t portalled out, a building like this should’ve had anti-teleport wards installed anyway.

I could feel my mind slowing as the haste spell wore down, my awareness fading as my senses dulled ever so slightly.

I barely managed to leap to the side as the shield burst with a thunderclap of force, the rush of air twisting my body around and staggering my landing, my hooves stumbling on the carpeted floor as I tried to regain my balance, a bolt of crimson magic shot past my retreating snout.

The magic drew my eyes to the side and I managed to roll onto my back just as a Pegasus dove at me, my back legs intercepting its attack with a practised motion as I continued through the roll, before bucking it into the wall behind me. It would have been an extremely impressive manoeuvre if it hadn’t been for the Earth Pony that tackled me as I returned to my hooves.

It wasn’t an impressive tackle, as far as tackles go I would’ve rated it a 3/10, but in my unbalanced state it was enough to knock me to the ground and I scrambled to escape before the Earth Pony stomped down in the space where my ribcage had been, bringing both hooves down with enough force to shake the floor.

I didn’t even have time to try and trip him up before another bolt of magic flashed in my vision, and I continued to roll away, arcane darts shattering against the floor, each coming closer than the last.

This constant dodging was getting old; I needed to get under cover for just a second.

Breaking the roll I bounced to my hooves and charged the unicorn, their horn was sizzling with cream magic, wisps of smoke following it as her head turned to track my motion, before another flare of light and a maelstrom of miniature magical missiles screamed through the decreasing distance between us. My own green magic meeting the darts, trying to stop them while they crashed against my carapace; leaving scorch marks and bloody traces as evidence of their impact, even as my body rippled again before there was a pop, a rush of air, and I was the size of a hatchling and the remainder of the darts soared over my fins.

I darted under the unicorn, through the legs of a grasping Earth Pony, and over one of the bank’s counters, ducking behind the heavy wood as the rushed transformation dispelled itself with a flare of magic.

“Hiding will not save you drone” The infiltrator was sitting there, waiting calmly, her horn blazing with light.

Well shi...

My vision filled with green as the balefire smashed into my snout, lifting me from the ground, driving me through the counter and slamming me into the wall opposite. It was a lot less pleasant without my armour to take the impact for me and I could feel my carapace crack and splinter against the stone surface.

I barely registered the Pegasus guard lying next to me as I tried to pick myself up. Green blood trickled from my wings and barrel, I could feel my back plate crunch and shift as I tried to move, my horn throbbed like it had been stuffed with webbing, and one of my ankles twisted as I attempted to put my weight on it, before a group of ponies forced me to the floor with a sickening crunch, as I fought back the hiss of agony that pushed against my fangs.

I couldn’t feel pain, not now, I had to deal with this first, and then there would be time for pain. And maybe a drink to take my fractured mind off of the pain, a sweet honeyed drink full of excitement.

I continued to struggle against the ponies holding me against the floor, ignoring the noises that my chitin made as the Infiltrator strutted across the floor; her hooves clicking against the floor on a path outlined by green flames.

“You see drone?” I glared up at her as she looked down at me, smirking like she had already won “If you cannot hope to stand against me, how will your soft-shelled, youngling of a Queen hope to stand against the glory of our Queen?”

I continued to glare as a last ditch plan formed in my mind, something that I would have preferred to avoid.

“And even if you had succeeded here, do you think we do not have other plans for the pit you call a hive? Do you think your actions here have made any form of a difference?” She crowed in triumph, as I started to summon my magic, my will fighting against the wild pain howling in my head as the magic started to take shape.

“They know... you’re here” I barely managed to croak out against the throbbing in my head and the pain in my chest as I tried to buy just a few more seconds of focus, while she turned to the Unicorn guard in the corner of my vision, his hooves planted on the steps outside, his horn glowing as he held a shield over the open doors and the windows that lined the bank’s front facing.

“So what, with the love I’ll harvest from this room they may send weakling after weakling at me” she started to laugh as her horn lit up with green and white flames “And even if I fall it’ll be too late for anyling to save your pathetic Queen, there will be no love for your swarm anywhere in this weak land, you have lost and your essence shall feed the Swarm.”

The flames on her horn started to curl towards me, lunging like they were possessed of their own cruel will and I released my final spell up against them, white light bursting from the contact point between her will and my own as the magic in the air started to unravel with the force of a collapsing cavern.

I closed my eyes and let the light wash over me as the dysjunction fed on all the ambient magic in the air.

Even with my eyes closed, my vision turned white.

<~~***~~>

(Shining Armour)

I was about five minutes’ walk away from the bank when I saw the emergency flare go up. I knew the spot it had gone up from; it was right by the bank.

I didn’t have time to panic; Bulwark was down there, the bank clerks were down there, innocent ponies could be down there.

I felt myself break into a gallop, covering the distance far quicker than the messenger by my side; I was shoving my way through the crowds that stopped to stare in the sky as the red flare hovered in the sky, sending ponies to the ground in my rush. Frustration and worry rising in my throat as the crowds thickened; a plethora of panicked, pony pedestrians pushing against me as they ran parallel to my path, until I managed to reach a pair of guards who were either helping ponies escape in a calm and collected manner, or containing the curious crowd away from the bank, before an armoured hoof shot out to halt my progress.

“I’m sorry you can’t be here there’s an emergen…” the Pegasus looked up at me his expression twisting between relief and horror as he realised who he was talking to.

“I would argue that the fact there is an emergency is why I am here, what’s happened corporal” I tried to keep the humour out of my voice, this was a serious situation, but that reaction was almost too much after everything I had been through in the last five days.

“We don’t entirely know sir, The bank's alarm wards went off, Valiant and I secured this end of this street, CC and Line got the other side, Break and Idol went to go check the bank out and they’d barely opened the doors before Idol sent the flare up and covered the entire place in his shields, Break just ran inside yelling. We’re just waiting for reinforcements now to hold back the crowds while we work sir”

I was just about to ask if there was any information on who had set off the Bank’s wards when I saw a white light build behind its windows. A white light that set my teeth on edge and sent my horn into overdrive.

I didn’t even have time to throw my shields up; I just grabbed the Pegasus and flung him to the ground behind me as the white light burst from the bank, breaking the barriers cast over the bank like a gust of wind blowing away dust.

The enchantments in my helmet scarcely kept my eyes safe from the glaring light as it flooded over me, before they collapsed with a screech of noise, the light washing over the crowd behind me before blinking out with a rush of green flames.

I could hear the sound of retching from the crowd, and my own stomach roiled with a sudden bout of nausea and weakness as my legs trembled under the weight of my, suddenly, very heavy, armour; but it felt like I was looking at everything through a film of mist as my eyes watered from the flare of whatever that light was.

<~~***~~>

(Barbed Retort)

I would like to say that once the backlash of my dysjunction spell wore off I leapt into action, bravely restraining the now unconscious infiltrator with some hardened goop, checking on all the moaning bank ponies, making sure that the folder was still intact and all the evidence we needed was still there.

I would like to say that, but mostly I just lay there, adding my own moans to the concert of discomfort that surrounded me as I attempted to be able to see again without my visions filling up with flashing colours and patterns.

I’m not entirely sure just how long I spent warming the floor with my sides until I could see again but the clatter of armoured hooves on the floor, and the flood of concern that cut through the faint fog of confusion reminded me that I still technically had a job to do.

Which is why when I tried to stand up, I felt my one of my hind hooves collapse from underneath me; sending me back to the floor with a crashing impact, right on to my wounded wing.

Balefire, stagnation, and cobwebs; did that fucking hurt.

I managed to choke back a moan of pain as I lay there, my eyes closed with the effort of just not crying out. I could feel the scraps of love I had had left flicker and weave on my wounds, repairing what they could, and sealing what they couldn’t; and just felt thankful I was a Praetorian, anyling else would’ve been irreparably broken by that blast, I could just lie here and wait for the hurting to stop.

Oh Queen, how I wanted to just lie here and wait for the hurting to stop.

Which was why, when I felt a pair of hoofcuffs click shut around my wounded leg I started screaming bloody murder and managed to slug my captor in the snout with all the strength of an incredibly angry kitten.

“Commander, this one’s still conscious” A voice sounded out from above me and I gave another pained groan in recognition.

More armoured hooves clicking and clacking on the floor, how were they doing that on a carpet? Another barely seen presence hovered above me, although this one was joined by a voice I could put to a face.

“Name?”

“Barbed Retort” I mumbled back to him, it was the agreed on name, noling or pony in the city other than Shining Armour knew this name, it was the signal to make I was still me, never mind the fact that noling would have been able to copy my rugged good looks.

“Get the cuffs off of him, gently” I could feel him turn to me, and a wash of concern, actual polite concern, brushed against me, numbing my wounds enough that I could try to stand up again.

In thirty minutes or so, I didn’t want to repeat the last attempt that quickly.

“That the assassin?”

“I’ll assume you’re pointing to the other changeling lying somewhere in the room” as I gestured weakly at my eyes with one of my hooves “and the answer is yes, yes she is”

“This thing’s a she?” a new voice came from somewhere in front of me, it looked like a blurred lump of white and gold “I thought changeling females were supposed to be ethereal beauties, the likes of which mortal ponies couldn’t lay eyes on, this thing looks the west end of my wife walking east”

I choked out a wheezing laugh against the flood of humour that had little tingles of lust and love floating in it that I gleefully devoured for what little energy they could give me, as I heard Shining Armour sputter in shock from elsewhere in the room.

“I pray for your sake then, that the east end of your wife is that of ravishing beauty found only once in this fleeting mortality” I could feel my vision returning slowly, my other senses returning with it, the simple aura of humour mixing with deeply felt anxiety and denial; truly humour is the coping method of the gods.

“Only when she’s walking east” I almost wished I could see Shining Armour’s face at that comeback, his shock was almost a tangible thing matched only by the deep rumbling chuckle of the guard who was removing my hoofcuffs.

“Commander, we got a couple of casualties over here”

And there went the entirety of that good mood down the irrigation channels, any humour winking out to be replaced with anger and pain as the words cut through the joviality like a knife.

“If they are not in clear and present danger do not move them until the healers get here, what are we looking at?”

And this was the part of victory that I had hoped to avoid, when all was said and done, the celebrations had died down, and the broken things were being cleaned away.

“Earth Pony with a broken neck, possibly more, but still alive and a Pegasus I had to flip into a wall for the sake of my own health” I answered as I pushed myself back to hooves, my tortured limbs holding under my weight as I wobbled about just standing upright, “Probably a concussion and wing damages, but I pulled that punch.”

“YOU BROKE HER NECK?”

Oh hey, I’d actually missed Shining’s rage, pure anger mixed with the love of a natural born protector; it was like eating chocolate coated ghost chillies by the hoofful, good for short bursts, but Tartarus on wings for my gut the next morning when the burning started.

“No” I think I heard some of that old bitterness enter my voice, I’d been doing so well knocking it down to ‘just’ snark after we had been getting along so well, but sometimes he just refused to think things through. “I did not break her neck, that particular cruelty lies on the back of short, black, and ugly over there” a particularly heavy sigh pushed itself past my mouth as I started to limp over to where Bulwark was still lying undisturbed, the milky white film on his eyes had faded away and he was gently snoring away like he hadn’t just been the centrepiece to a fight that could’ve decided the fate of damn near all I cared about. “She took the mare hostage, threatened to snap her neck unless I dropped my mental shields against her drinking every single drop of emotion out of me like I was the last pulp fruit in the market, and framing me for her deeds with a plan that would’ve been shockingly competent if I hadn’t managed to figure it out and luck had been on her side, I bluffed with the idea that more bodies equalled more loose ends that would spoil her plan, and she did not buy it for a second. The only reason I’m still standing here is that I managed to set off an alarm I had no clue about and your guards responded in time to distract her from twisting the mares head off like a bottle-cap.” I sighed again, with a little more relief when I saw the folder I had stuffed under Bulwark laying there, safe and sound “But we’ve got what we came for, and thankfully nopony died, anypony that isn’t actually wounded will recover eventually, with love and care and chocolate and hugs, those two will recover quicker because their bodies realise they’ve been damaged and will do their best to heal themselves, everypony else is stuck in a limbo because they don’t know they’ve been hurt and they can’t heal without help, and I didn’t want to start punching ponies hard enough to reduce their bones to dust if it was at all avoidable!”

I stopped and just panted for a second, my rant apparently over as I glowered at the unconscious infiltrator, her outline only slightly blurred under the spots still dancing in my vision.

“But of course little miss ‘Our Queen Guides Our Will’ over there doesn’t care about the fact that she put a bank’s worth of ponies into what could be indefinite comas, she doesn’t care that we exposed ourselves to the civilisations of the world with the wedding, she doesn’t even care that her actions are destroying us in the long run, it’s that another hive is successful, another hive has love for the taking, another hive can be conquered and brought into the swarm so that the queen may be even greater” I picked the folder up with a hoof before limping my way over to the bank doors. “That’s why we were so damned secretive, not because we needed to hide from the Ponies, or the Gryphons, or the Diamond Dogs, or even that one coven of quite frankly charming Arachnes that have sequestered themselves so far into the Badlands you’d think they were trying to hide from the world itself, NO!” I turned and spat on the unconscious infiltrator as I passed her, my hooves were too sore to kick, and any attempt probably would’ve dropped me on my wing, again. “We hid because if a single word of us got out to those thrice damned, thoughtless, soft-shelled, single-minded, shit-guzzling, half-witted excuses for queens in the Wastelands they would’ve hounded us to the gates of Elysium, and now that we have ‘allies’ they’re targeting you too, because it doesn’t matter if they wipe out every food source in Equus to kill the last queen that isn’t them, all that matters is that they’ve killed the other queen proving that they are the best of the worst.”

The silence spread out behind me as if it was the wake of some all-consuming sea monster as I shuffled over to the door in a slow, limping gait, nopony daring to disturb me. The sounds of the street slowly filtering back into the room as my diatribe faded away, the clatter of a flying wagon landing on the cobblestone of the road outside, before a group of unicorns and pegasi burst through the still open door and made themselves busy checking on the comatose ponies, the softly snoring Bulwark, and oddly enough me, with a mixture of professional pride, selfless concern, and in my case, idle curiosity.

“When you take these husks in, stick them in a maternity ward or something, somewhere with a lot of love and life and the like, not an isolated room” I spoke quietly to the doctor who was watching as my final vestiges of love ran across my leg before flickering out, I’d still have to keep my weight off of it, just to make sure everything healed up nice and neat, but it was functional enough that I could throw it back under a wagon without the threat of actually losing it. “It’ll help them recover faster, and once that’s done send a team to this address” I opened the folder and gestured at the address, before closing it again “we’ll probably need more pick-up there.” I finished quietly before I turned to walk towards the doors.

<~~***~~>

(Shining Armour)

I barely had time to react before Barbed Retort walked out of the doors, pushing aside the doctor who was trying to hold him back

“Get a message to the princesses, stick the heaviest nullifier we’ve got on her horn, and try to get messages out to these ponies’ families before the press gets here” I spoke as rapidly as possible to the Pegasus that had originally stopped me at the crowd before following the changeling outside into the street, where he was standing at the bottom of the banks steps, completely undisguised.

Thankfully the crowd started to shy away as he began to limp down the street, the late evening sunlight barely reflecting off of his chitin, a wave of terrified silence spreading as he continued to move towards them, the only noise being the irregular sound of the changelings’ hooves on the cobblestones.

At least until somepony threw a stone.

It wasn’t a big stone, but I had dealt with enough riot situations to know that it didn’t have to be. It just had to be the ‘first’ stone, and it would inevitably be followed by a second, and a third, then even more until the number of thrown stones would blot out the sun.

My horn sputtered and sparked as it lit up, trying desperately to catch the stone in my telekinesis, whatever that light had done was still affecting my magic and it took all of my concentration to stop it before it could make its date with destiny.

Barbed Retort didn’t even notice as he just continued walking along, glancing disinterestedly at the hovering stone before limping past it, staring down at the crowd who had only just noticed me as my magic fizzled out and the stone fell to the earth.

It was weird, something about him looked different as he approached the crowd; he looked almost threatening, imposing, like a soldier utterly prepared to fight and kill. Tiny wisps of green mist flickered around his horn, congealing from the air around him before running down his body, hovering over patches of burnt and broken hide that slowly faded away to match his slate grey chitin.

Another stone flew from the crowd, faster than my magic could track it and struck the changeling in the eye before falling to the ground.

“If that’s your idea of trying to scare me off you’re going to need to try harder” his voice was cold as he continued to walk towards the crowd which backed away slightly before he stopped in the middle of the street, as I trotted after him, my armour clanking on my back.

“We ain’t scared of you, changeling” a voice called out from somewhere in the crowd, a wave of assent spreading out as more ponies hefted rocks, tomatoes, and other assorted debris; a wave of assent that broke against Barbed Retort’s quiet laughter.

“’Not scared of me’, why should you be scared of me?” his tone was light and when I managed to walk to his side I could he was smiling, even if smiling might have been a generous description, exposing his teeth would be a better fit.

“Cause you’re a monster,” another voice called out, and if I hadn’t been standing next to him, I would have missed Barbed Retort’s snort, his eyes narrowing and the false smile starting to turn down. “You kill ponies and replace them”

“I’m a monster, really,” all the ‘humour had drained from Barbed Retorts voice as he swept his gaze over the mob “that little bit of unoriginality is all you’ve got as to why there needs to be a lynch mob to stone me to death, for simply being a ’monster’ the great unwashed have decided to band together, take the law into their own hooves, and slaughter me in a manner that was considered outdated and barbaric before Celestia herself was born” he snorted as a glob of green blood fell from one of his nostrils.

I edged closer, just to be ready if he actually lost control, something about him was singing with violence, and I saw a few of the crowd flinch back as he snarled the last few words.

“So what monstrous things have I done since I arrived here yesterday then? What have I done beyond unmask and help arrest a murderer who was planning on using you ponies to wipe out my hive? What have I done other than remove said murderer’s mental shackles on fifteen ponies after she drained them dry of any emotion they might have ever felt? What have I done outside of helping an elderly mare get her cat out of a tree?”

The crowd had started to back away again as his voice continued to build, not in volume, but in certainty, but nearly everypony just stopped at the last action, a few heads tilting as the words sunk in.

A very quiet grinding noise brought me back to my senses and I saw Barbed Retort twist and scrape his uninjured hoof against the ground in one of the few displays of actual body language I had seen from him.

“Am I the monster that stalked, brutalised, and killed a divorce lawyer for saving her client from an abusive spouse? Am I the monster that falsely accused two mechanics of testing an unsafe device on trainee Wonderbolts to cover my own flank? Am I one of the many monsters that attempted to burn a zebra at the stake out of the fear that she might have been a witch? Am I one of the monsters that raped a nine year old FILLY?”

The crowd continued to shift away, none of the ponies meeting Barbed Retort’s eyes as he swept his gaze across them, either flinching away, or staring at the ground as though it would somehow spirit them away. I could feel my own gut growing hot with disgust, I remembered that particular incident and I still hadn’t found the cadets responsible, something that a few of the more belligerent nobles loved to bring up to the Princesses when they called for my dismissal.

“All of those monsters were ponies and yet I don’t see angry mobs hunting them down to lynch them” he turned and spat on the ground next to his hooves before he looked over the crowd again “so I hope you lot have a better reason for calling me a monster rather than the fact that I’m just a Changeling, or I will give you lot a fucking reason and damn the consequences”

The crowd was utterly silent, most of them hardly daring to breathe before he started to walk towards them again while they just sat there like puppets with their strings cut.

“Right, right, the show’s over, everypony’s got places to be, work to do, family to comfort” somepony said, and I only realised that it was me when every eye in the street swivelled to face me, their reverie broken. “No need for anypony or changeling to get hurt over a bunch of flared tempers and misunderstandings, or would the lot of you like to spend the night in the cells?” Did we even have enough room in the dungeons for an entire riot? I didn’t know; I just wanted to stop what ever was happening from escalating to the point of violence, Canterlot did not need to become the next panicked mob capitol of the world, right next to Ponyville.

It was that exact moment that the group of guards decided to arrive, trotting around the corner like they’d been waiting for that moment, the moment when they would be able to either calm the mob down, or clean up the debris they would have left behind them while throwing the rampaging ponies into cells.

Now they were moving through the crowd of ponies in pairs; talking to the ponies who could add to the official statements and subtly breaking up the mob by inches.

Say what you want about my guard’s combat abilities, but they were Tartarus on wings for dealing with the aftermath of those events, and I could feel just a little bit of pride as I watched them swiftly, professionally, and most of all, skilfully deal with the chastised crowd.

That little bit of pride being enough to distract me from Barbed Retort who had started stalking away, through the group of ponies who were now shying away from him, even as I hurried to catch up with him.

The two of us continued down the street, the crowd dispersing behind us as ponies disappeared back to their lives, the temporary panic forgotten as they could attempt to put their thoughts back in order after the hysteria.

It was only more glaring now as I walked alongside him now, but something had changed about the changeling. He had forced me to spend enough time with him in the hive that I knew there was a difference, I just couldn’t place it, and after his set of speeches I was hesitant to try breeching the topic.

The glowering silence only continued as we walked side by side, moving slowly through the streets as he led the way. I could feel the looks that ponies were giving us, the nervousness almost palpable even to me, thankfully the fact I was wearing guard armour seemed to prevent any more angry mobs from forming.

“So do I want to know why you just walked out and faced down an angry mob without any disguise?” I asked quietly as we turned off the main market streets and started to follow a winding road downhill.

“That dysjunction spell took pretty much everything I had out of me, probably more than that to be completely honest” he snorted lightly, spraying flecks of congealed ichor that hadn’t been shaken loose during his earlier rants, from his nostrils “I couldn’t put up a disguise to save my life at the moment”

“That wasn’t an answer.”

“It’s as close to one as you’re getting” he winced slightly as one of his hooves turned on a loose cobblestone, before turning down another quiet side-street and doing his best to bring the uncomfortable silence back.

“Care to explain why you know your way around here so well?” I asked as politely as the situation allowed.

He turned to face me, and I expected to see the raised eyebrow, but he stared at me blankly.

“I lived here for fifteen years before the wedding” he stated blankly, before looking away again, I was about to ask what he did here before he started talking again “I went to the university here solely on the strength of brainwashing my way in, completed a doctorate in record time, got a job, made friends, some of which were in that crowd just now, was somepony’s special some’pony’, acted as the protector slash organiser for the harvesters we had here, got another job by royal appointment, lied to your princess about my knowledge of Changelings in the build-up to the wedding to help the original plan go smoothly, tried to stop my queen from altering the original plan, failed, tried to salvage what I could when the new plan fell through, failed, and then finally got violently thrown out by a shield that was made out of love so pure it tore me apart and healed me at the same time, making it the second most painful experience of my life” he stepped out from the side street we had been walking down before stopping in front of what seemed like a random house. “Here we are, the den of all evils, also known as storage unit A-1, also known 42, Founder’s Way, Lower Cliffside”

It looked almost completely identical to the average Canterlot house; white stone facings with average sized windows and amber coloured shutters, a set of flags hanging over the door with the owners ‘cutie marks’ and pelt colours fluttering in the evening breeze, and a pair of planters that ran along the front of the building, filled with a mix of unkempt Orange Mock shrubs and a bed of wilted and scraggly looking Gardenias; but something in the building just seemed slightly off, I half expected to see eyes peering at me from the windows and even the flock of pegasi that had followed us refused to land on the building to watch us from above.

“Aww queens, they didn’t even bother to water the plants” he swung a hoof at the two planters that stretched across the buildings front, huffing exasperatedly as he did so “I put some of my heart and soul into growing those beauties when I lived here and they’ve just been left to rack and ruin”

I stopped and stared, the pegasi stopped and stared; I think I could feel the invisible eyes of the princesses stop and stare at that particular exclamation.

“What, I like growing plants” he paused for a second before pulling a loose stone out of the step to the front door, stone clinking against the key underneath “is it weird that I have a hobby?”

“Yes, yes it is, gaze upon the fearsome personal bodyguard of Chrysalis herself, watering his begonias with the blood of his enemies”

His muttered response was muffled around the key in his mouth as he went to push it against the door, which just swung open the moment he put his weight against it, the key falling from his fangs and clattering against the wooden floor.

I think he said something in mock outrage, but to be honest I didn’t hear him as the door slowly swung open; shadows, terror, and dread spilling out from that opened portal like the very legions of Tartarus had been unleashed with that simple act. The ancient creak of rusted hinges their herald, the cold breath of the building billowing out before their presence as a red carpet would for the princesses. I could hear the panicked flapping of some of the crowding Pegasi as they simply launched themselves into the air, leaving Barbed Retort and I as their sacrificial victims as that empty doorway loomed over me.

I swear I could hear the building itself groaning in hunger as Barbed Retort turned to look at me, and the shield I had reflexively put up, before he just shook his head disbelievingly and slipped into the shadows, his discoloured carapace disappearing into that darkness.

“Seriously, what’s with you ponies” I could hear him muttering from further inside as I walked up the steps, dismissing my shield “it’s just a bit of Anxiety and Apprehension, nothing to actually be worried about”

I would have vocally disagreed, but I kept my mouth shut, something about the idea of stepping through that doorway scared me to my core; it scared me worse than facing off against Sombra, terrified me more deeply than my training expeditions in the Everfree, petrified me more thoroughly than watching Cadance walk up the aisle during our wedding.

“Stop mincing around out there and get in here” Barbed Retort’s buzzing voice rang out from inside the shadows.

I gritted my teeth, lit my horn, and braced myself to face down the chthonic horrors that would surely await me inside the barrier of shadows and despair as I stepped through that damned portal.

Only to be met with the view of an utterly average, if neglected, suburban house, the weight of trepidation lifting from my shoulders as my mind absorbed what I was seeing.

“What was that?” I didn’t shout, well-trained royal guards didn’t shout when they met the unexpected, they remained calm, and dealt with the circumstances with complete professionalism.

“Emotional barrier,” Barbed Retort had his eyes closed as he answered; his head swivelling around as though he was looking at something didn’t require the use of his eyes. “Looks like she built it straight off the emotions that had already stagnated here, otherwise it could’ve been much, much nastier, imagine suicidal despair instead of apprehension”. I don’t think I imagined the smirk he had as he opened his eyes, but he turned away too quickly, his hooves echoing on the dirty wooden floor.

“What do you mean emotional barrier?” I kept my horn lit, even if it wasn’t the all-encompassing, soul-crushing, hope-draining darkness I’d seen from outside, the house was still poorly lit and my eyes strained against the gloom that struggled to pierce the drawn curtains and grimy windows.

“I already explained all of this to Bulwark and I do not enjoy repeating myself, but I’ll do it just for you” I scowled at the smugness in his tone as his horn started to sputter with green mist. “It is entirely possible for a physical object, or place, to collect emotions, such as wedding medallions being suffused with love and hope, dentists’ offices with fear, or a nursery with foalish joy; any sort of cherished foalhood toy that a pony still owns into adulthood is a common example, this emotional infusion builds up and seeps out creating a sort of empathic resonance” I immediately thought of Miss Smarty-Pants, Twilys old study doll “Because we Changelings can sense and manipulate emotions, we can absorb concentrated good emotions from these objects or impart bad emotions to a place in amounts that would never naturally form, while being immune to the effects ourselves, hence a ward made out of Anxiety that makes you remember all of things you were scared of doing at the same time and paralyses you with indecision while I just waltz on through with nary a care, good enough?” He turned away from me and walked further into house, following a trail of dirt that led to an open doorway, downwards stairs just visible in the gloom beyond.

“And of course she set up shop in the creepy basement” he turned his head to smirk at me again before speaking “would the Captain of the Royal guard like me to hold his hoof to keep the scary darkness at bay?”

All I did was glare at him and his smirk slowly died being replaced by nervousness, as the white points on his eyes shifted to the sides.

“Okay, odds are good that there is going to be something nightmarish down there, and basements tend to hold negative emotions really, really well” his ‘pupils’ flickered back to me before looking down the stairway again as I walked next to him, “try not to freak out”

“I am a Royal Guard,” I said with mock pride, a smirk covering up the growing apprehension I felt, “I don’t ‘freak out’.”

“Just don’t say I didn’t warn you” was the muttered reply before he looked away from me and started to walk down the narrow stairway.

I snorted before following him, and even as I passed through the doorway I could feel cold air pressing against my pelt, my breath misting and the sweat caused by the events of the day growing cold against my skin.

It wasn’t a long staircase, maybe only twenty steps or so, but by the time we had reached the base I was shivering under my armour, and Barbed Retort looked at me as he paused just in front of another door, his hoof resting against the old wood before he pushed and the entire thing swung open silently.

What awaited us behind that door was like nothing I had ever seen.

In some strange way it was a reflection of Jet Set’s study, four walls, a desk, what looked like a magical fireplace had been built into one of the walls; I twisted my head and even saw something that looked like a rudimentary bookcase; although several of the books had rotted away from the neglect they’d suffered, Twily would be mad if she saw it.

What set it apart where the racks of shattered waxy orbs that were covered in some sort of colourless ooze, only a few still intact and glowing with pink light, and the rows of glowing pods that were stuck to the walls and ceiling, bathing the entire room in a pallid green light in such a way that cast almost no shadows.

I could feel my breath catch in my throat as I looked over the number of pods, counting silently in my mind as I did so.

“Twenty seven, how in Celestia’s sunny flanks did they manage to replace twenty seven ponies without us noticing something out of place”, I whispered in some form of awe as I edged closer to one of the glowing cocoons, trying to peer through the murky slime to focus on the features of the pony inside, the wings showing it was a pegasus, but anything else was too obscured to fully make out. I was about to turn to the next pod before the rustling of paper caught my attention and I turned to see Barbed Retort flicking through the pages of a tattered book that had been sitting on the desk.

“Is now the time to catch up on your reading?”

“Infiltrator journal” he shot back almost immediately, “She mentioned other plans and I know from experience that it is remarkably hard to keep everything straight all the time, hence…” he gestured at the journal, before turning a page “you keep checking those pods, see if there’s anypony you recognise in there”

“And that’s not going to be in code, why?”

“Because she was setting us up for a frame job, parts of it are in equestrian, other bits in really poor dual-hempid” I opened my mouth to ask as I checked on the next pod, an earth pony in this one “and no we do not have time for me to explain it, maybe when this mess is over.”

He fell silent again as he flipped another page, while I moved on to another pod; earth pony, earth pony, pegasus, earth pony, the pattern was unsettling to say the least.

“There are no unicorn’s here” I said before continuing to the next pod.

“Makes sense, aura colour is difficult to change, the fact that Chrysalis could do it was enough of an ego boost for us to even start planning for the wedding, if these guys are as competent as their ‘leader’ has shown herself to be, I doubt that any of them were capable of that particular bit of disguise work” I heard the rustle of paper as he flipped another page, before a shocked intake of breath and a chittering exclamation.

“Bad news?” I asked as I looked into the next pod, my eyes widening as I finally recognised one of the ponies inside the green prisons.

Barbed Retort turned to me, his eyes narrowed as I met his glare, before we spoke in perfect unison.

“They’ve infiltrated the royal guard”

Author's Notes:

FINALLY, sorry for the wait guys, am going to get to work on Chapter 9: Purgatory ASAP.

Thysania (the Infiltrator) is acting extremely like a changeling, strange words, odd turns of phrase, yada-yada, how did nopony pick up on this? Easy, she can act like a pony, but it makes her feel sick to do so.

It’s mentioned in the supplementary materials chapter, Swarms do have small physical differences based on the Queen, alongside, Eye/Back-Plate colour. In this case “The Leech Queen’s” (as Queen Hirudinea is impolitely known) Swarm have the maws of “Jawed” Leeches, an unclean, dull, bone white colour to their eyes and Back-plates, and can actively drain their victims of their life force, rather than just their emotions. Several Legends point their Queen having outlived four to five generations of other Queens, and being somewhere in the realm of ten-thousand to twelve thousand years old. She was a fairly large power in the Wasteland changeling council when Chrysalis left. And yes, when a Changeling joins a hive it loses its old idiosyncrasies, and gains new ones.

I’m making a lot of references to Emotional Concepts (Such as anger or revulsion) performing physical actions, this is kinda the Changeling version of body language, it’s mostly metaphorical, although really powerful emotions can (and often do) impart some form of physical impact to Changelings, it’s why the love bomb was capable of throwing every changeling away, otherwise the shield spell would’ve let them in when they were in danger of being crushed against something solid; it was designed to be non-lethal, and that includes not crushing ponies in the way of its expansion. The love gave it the “concept” of Embracing ponies (so not pushing them around at all) and rejecting Changelings (so just pushing them inexorably) to the point where it turned them into greasy smears against the floor.

Say goodbye to Shining Armour kiddies, he’s not going to be a POV from now on, and will not in fact show up until the epilogue, he’s got infiltrators to hunt down, and now that his XO is out recovering from mind magic, he’s got training exercises to run, he’ll be a busy little bee.

Chrysalis is about 75-80 years old here; she’s basically a Changeling Queen teenager, who has had no advice beyond her mother forcing her to leave the wastelands as soon as she was able to. She is at once desperate to stand on her own 4 hooves, and be validated by her Swarm; this explains her thought processes behind the Canterlot Wedding Fiasco.

Once again more information on ranks: Shining is the Captain of the Royal Guard, this is a “Title”, his actual rank that he has according to any charter is “Commander in Chief of the Equestrian Guard”, this takes up more space on his invitations, and as such he’s almost completely ignored it, except when he works with city guard, who all have their own captains which is a separate rank from the Captains of the Princess guards. It is a confusing and byzantine system made worse by 2 out of 4 princesses coming into their official power in a roughly 2 year period of ancient monsters, attacks, and Discord, which has had the side effect of messing up all of the official paperwork (which is still being fixed).

Praetorian Sturdiness is less a matter of them being hard to hurt (they are, but that’s because they are trained in combat, which involves being hard to hurt) and more a matter of their personal restorative abilities. It’s nothing on the inbuilt skills of a healer drone, but beyond actually having something partially torn off, or a weapon jammed through a vital organ, they’ll survive and heal, relatively quickly depending on the amount and types of emotive energy they’ve got in storage, even if they’re left battered and bruised.

Look up Mock Oranges and Gardenias in flower language, there’s a reason to why they are the flowers planted in front of a Changeling den, I was also tempted to put in Snapdragons, but then anyone who knows even a bit of Flower Language would get the joke at that point.

Chapter ???: Suplementary Materials (Completely Optional, updated 06/02/2016)

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So yeah, this'll be a chapter dedicated to events, knowledge, exposition, and other such things that are going to be referenced in the story, but you DO NOT NEED to read this, this is optional, and just here in case someone gets curious.

The Changeling/Equestria Treaty

In exchange for an official pardon from their royal highnesses, Princesses Celestia and Luna of Equestria, for Queen Chrysalis of the changeling swarm, for invading Equestria as part of her attempt to overthrow the aforementioned mares from their seat of power, the following stipulations are demanded.

1. Until such time as the Princesses believe that integration between species is possible, the changeling swarm is banned from setting hoof in Equestria. Non-negotiable

2. Failure to comply with the prior stipulation will result in the immediate eradication of the changeling swarm. Non-negotiable

3. While the Equestrian government shall officially sanction the Love Hotel and The Paradise Resort, in no manner shall it advertise its practice and/or purpose. Non-negotiable

4. This pardon has both the changeling swarm and the kingdom of Equestria officially recognize each other’s existence.

5. Should unforeseen circumstances necessitate cooperation between the kingdom of Equestria and the changeling swarm, stipulations 1, 2, 10, and 11 set forth by this pardon may be rendered null and void until said circumstances have come to pass.

6. The stipulations set forth by this pardon apply only to changelings that are affiliated with Queen Chrysalis and aren’t indicative of possible relations between Equestria and swarms not affiliated with her.

7. Should anypony who makes use of the services provided by the Love Hotel or Paradise Resort, come under physical or mental harm by Queen Chrysalis or her changelings, pending an investigative query to determine where faults lie, the changeling swarm will once again be considered enemies to the safety of Equestria and eradicated. Non-negotiable

8. Territorial acquisitions for either Equestria or the Badlands buying a section of land from the other are hereby prohibited.

9. Queen Chrysalis formally apologizes for her attempted invasion of Canterlot to the Equestrian government and Ponies in a public ceremony. Non-negotiable.

10. All Stipulations are timeless until such a time as Queen Chrysalis can prove herself reformed, or Princess Celestia & Princess Luna deem the Changeling Swarm to hold to the best interests of Equestria and its Citizens

11. All Changelings, alive or dead, within the borders of Equestria, at the time of signing, shall be returned to Queen Chrysalis and her hive immediately for safekeeping or grieving.

SIGNED

Princess Celestia: Princess Luna: Princess Twilight Sparkle: Princess Mi Amore Cadenza: Queen Chrysalis

WITNESSES

Prince Consort Shining Armour, Captain of the Crystal Guard: Prince Blueblood, Commander of the Royal Ordnance Surveyor Corps: Raven, Royal Secretary: Applejack, Element of Honesty: Rarity, Element of Generosity: Cloak, Captain of the Queen’s Infiltrators: Dagger, Captain of the Praetorian Guards

Queen Talents, an excerpt from "The Memoirs of Queen Aceso, Queen of the Marshland Changelings, Leader of the Blackrot Swarm, Killer of the Twelve Headed Beast"

It is a strange quirk of fate that our species, in our constant changing of forms, has almost no connection to the forces of Harmony.

One could say it is because we are not at harmony with ourselves, and it is true that few Changeling Queens will co-operate seeing other Queens as a threat to a hive's food source, especially in the wilder locations of this world, but I prefer to believe it is because a single hive is one living organism, from the might of the Queen to the lowest of the Drones, the swarm moves as one.

This lack of harmony has manifested in our lack of what the ponies refer to as Cutie Marks, although my old library holds mention to something called "Sparks of Destiny" which served much the same function, and the change in name might have simply been something as simple as the changing of language through the ages.

All creatures have access to these "Sparks of Destiny" in some way, although it manifests in different manner dependent on species, such as Ponies and their aforementioned Cutie Marks, Zebras and their much more limited, but flexible, tribal marks, Griffon's have been known to have destined songs, from simple ditties to sweeping operas; and the Diamond Dogs tell tales of Birth Stones, a single gemstone chosen from a pile at a young age that can foresee a pup's future.

As, in several philosophical writings of Queen Cliothalia (who headed the Masque Hive), the swarm can be considered, a single living entity made of many, my belief is the closest thing to a Changeling's "Spark of Destiny" is something referred to as "The Queen's Talent" a gift chosen by each Queen at the moment of their ascension as a Queen, these talents is gifted to the Queen's entire swarm, whether the Changelings in question are adopted, from a dead hive, stolen during warfare, or children of the Hive. This talent is one of the Queen's greatest secrets, alongside harvesting grounds, nurseries, and the Hive's Love Pool.

Several talents I have seen in my years as queen have both been abominable and beautiful, and even centuries after the fact I fondly remember the Crystal Queen of Rainbow Falls whose talent was her wings of shimmering light, or the Leech Queen, my seemingly immortal elder, whose own life is supported by her extracting of vital essences from Ponies and enemy Changelings alike. As I approach my final years I put thought to my Talent, the understanding of disease, knowledge, not prowess, has allowed my Changeling's to integrate as Doctors, Nurses, Caretakers, and I have grown old and fat on the love gathered from this simple knowledge, and this knowledge has kept my hive safe by allowing my swarm to fight my enemies with insidious plague and terrible disease.

I doubt that we Changelings have been fully turned away from Destiny or Harmony, these Talents demonstrate that each of us are indeed unique in our own manner, but that we are truly part of a greater whole, and I wonder what it is that destiny intends for us.

The memoirs end here, despite several intended chapters being referenced earlier in the collected works, Queen Aceso died in the night before finishing her completed memoirs. The original copy of this work was found in the ruins of her hive by her daughter Queen Simulacris, who passed it on to her own daughter, Queen Chrysalis. A hoofful of copies have been made and are currently stored in the Canterlot Archives, and the Great Library of Ponyville

A (very) Short Guide to the Various Castes of a Changeling Hive - P.Face (First Draft)

As it falls to me to explain the differences between the members of our species to our visitors, I shall endeavour to keep it as simple as possible.

The Queen

The Queen is the cornerstone of the hive, she organises the hive, manages the emotional energy stores, maintains the thought-link that binds us together, and feeds the swarm with gathered love. Should the Queen die the Swarm is not far behind unless another Queen is able to take the queenless swarm into their own.

A Queen's power grows with both, the amount of Love that she has stored and the size and/or strength of her swarm, and as the Swarm is reliant on the Queen to survive, the Queen is reliant on the Swarm to be able to feed.

A Lone Queen could survive on the love of a Single pony with no complications, but as her Swarm grows the amount of love that she needs to harvest grows.

The Drone Caste

Drones are the run of the mill Changelings, rarely larger than the average pony, they have wings, a curved horn, and while numerous and weak, they still form the backbone of any hive. They are capable of any task that they put their minds to, and can be found with several advantageous alterations to their basic physiology such as Soldier drones who have grown thicker Chitin and adapted their internal magic to better support combat magic, or Farmer Drones who have grown to mimic Earth Pony Biomancy.

The Healer Caste

The Healer caste are rarely seen outside of a Hive as they as they are important to the well being of the Swarm, and they need to be ready to respond to any injuries, all Healers have white abdomens.

Healer's are capable of digesting the emotional energy and food they consume to create several Goops, Resins, Salves, and Unguents that have exceedingly powerful restorative properties, similar to a cocktail of medicinal compounds. However this process is draining and it is not unheard of for Healer's to be drained completely dry during emergencies.

Very rarely Healers who have been exposed to large quantities of pure love can create a substance known as "Ambrosia" that is said to restore one's youth, however this process has not been seen in millennia, and remains a myth.

The Infiltrator Caste

The Infiltrator caste are the caste responsible for the harvesting of love. They look remarkably similar to the drones, but usually grown slightly leaner and taller.

Infiltrators are naturally talented in the usage of magic, which they use to form their disguises in a manner to use as little energy as possible, and can alter their own magic to be nearly indistinguishable from Pony magic, only an expert in the field can identify an Infiltrator's magic from a ponies magic.

Experienced Infiltrators may moult further if allowed by the Queen, a process that strengthens the Infiltrators natural abilities, and further improves their ability to handle magic, this process is not without its risks, and the Infiltrators that survive this process are known as the Queen's Assassins, and will often command small groups of Infiltrators for the Queen.

The Behemoth Caste

Behemoths are the largest changelings known to the hive, standing taller than the Queen. However despite their size and strength Behemoths are naturally more inclined towards defensive fighting rather than offensive, and can be found performing brute labour in all areas of the hive.

In addition to their natural predisposition towards protection, Behemoth's rarely if ever leave the hive due to their inability to take forms smaller than them. This limits them to taking the shape of Buffalo (for smaller Behemoths), Bears (for average behemoths), or Elephants (for larger Behemoths), and several grow large enough that they are incapable of changing their size to a suitable disguise.

Oddly, the Behemoth's of our hive have developed a talent for Floramancy, similar to that of Earth Ponies and can be found working in the farm district alongside Drone Farmers.

Due to their size, and lack of magic, most Behemoths have a considerably more physical diet compared to the emotional diet of most changelings.

The Praetorian Caste

The Praetorian caste are the elite soldiers of any hive, and are often considered the Queen's personal bodyguards.

Fierce, Strong, and Loyal, Praetorians will rarely if ever leave the Queen's side unless ordered to do so, and any attackers have discovered the Praetorians natural ability for transmutational transformation and camouflage means that even if the Queen looks like she's alone, she isn't, and any assassin thinking that she was is in for a rude awakening.

Much like the Infiltrator Caste, Experienced Praetorians may moult further with aid from the Queen, although this is rarely done as the process is even riskier than the Infiltrator moult, and is often reserved for the Captain's of the Queen's Praetorian guard. This process enhances the Praetorians shapeshifting abilities at the cost of increasing their diet.

A good start Poker Face, however you need to remove any mentions to secondary moults, or adaptations, as these are hive secrets, secondarily, separate the Drones section into Builders, Soldiers, and Farmers, and for the love of the Swarm remove that mention of Ambrosia, I don't want ponies knocking down of hive trying to find the secret to eternal youth. Chrysalis

Author's Terminology Notes

Okay so this will probably never come up except in Author notes attached to other chapters, but there are several names of a gathering of group of changelings.

A singular Changeling who does not belong to any hive (whether due to exile, or the death of a Queen) is known as a "Drone", regardless of caste (due to the dull noise that their wings make).

A small group of hiveless changelings is known as a "Buzz", and larger groups are known as a "Noise", these groups can hold their hive minds together for short periods, but rapidly lose their ability to co-ordinate as a Hive Swarm would, and will often find themselves joining hives.

A singular hive changeling is known as a "Voice" in their hive, and a "Drone" in other hives, while small groups are respectively known as a "Song" or a "Conversation" and a "Susurration", while large groups are "The Swarm" & "Mindless Noise".

These terminologies are in part due to the way that hive mind links interact with each other, while hives CANNOT directly interfere with another Hive's thought-speak (makes for a very good way to catch infiltrators, HEY LISTEN!) they are 'audible' on the edge of a Changeling's Thought-Link when they use their own thought-speak, due to "Arcano-Psionic" (Magi-Technobabble) interference.

Hive Territories - A list of Sites In Equestria thought to be home to the Ancient Civilisation of Changelings (taken from the research notes of Sharp Tongue, the research is dated for some time before the Wedding Incident, the original copy was found in a state of extreme disrepair).

The Southern Equestrian Badlands - While old evidence points to this being an unlikely location for a Changeling hive, the desolate landscape, and abundance of natural caverns do point to the possibility of something having inhabited the area, the area that would need to be covered by any expedition is preposterously large, and the most likely areas would be towards the fertile lands where the Badlands meet the San Palomino Desert

The Crystal Mountains - As what evidence we have of the Changish Civilisation points to them being Philiaphages (Lit - Ancient Equestrian for "Love Eaters"), and the old texts that point to the crystal empire being a place of forgotten love magic; it would make entirely too much sense for there to be old hives in the area, however the disappearance of the Empire, and the cold nature of the area, combined with the Changelings rumoured insectile biology would make the cold climate unsuitable without a readily available food surce.

Froggy Bottom Bog - While several pre-equestria pieces of literature point to the existence of a Hive in the Froggy Bottom Bog area, the hostile environment is likely to have destroyed all traces any potential Changeling Hives, and the local megafauna makes any exploration far more dangerous than it should be despite it's relative proximity to Canterlot.

The Everfree Forest - Go ahead, explore the depths of the Everfree, I need a laugh.

Very good Praetorian 23, a cunning piece of misdirection that should allow our Infiltrators to return safely under the guise of Archaeological expeditions, do not forget about Queen Aceso's references to "The Queen of Rainbow Falls" as a potential additional dead end for the ponies to follow - Queen's Assassin, Freedom

Chrysalis' Paradise Lost

by The Wind King

Chapter 1: Paradise on Earth

Chapter 2: Trouble in Paradise

Chapter 3: An Ill Wind Blows

Chapter 4: Where Do The Dead Go? (Implied Gore Ahead)

Chapter 5: Elysium for the Weather, Tartarus for the Company

Chapter 6: Paradise Crumbles

Chapter 7: Chasing Shadows From Elysium...

Chapter 8: ... And Into Tartarus

Chapter ???: Suplementary Materials (Completely Optional, updated 06/02/2016)