Chrysalis was not happy.

Celestia had managed to get the magic for world-hopping done before she had. Of course, the Equestrians did have a slight advantage - After all, they had the finest minds in the world, while she mostly had drones - But she had been working on the spells and technology for far longer.

Celestia had just barely beat her last time, and that was only with the magical abilities of an Alicorn with love-related magic on her wedding day. It was basically cheating. In any other circumstance, she would have destroyed any force that stood in her way, taken over the city, and became the supreme ruler of the world

Then again, that position was still open...

She paced in the throne room, eyes tracking miniscule cracks in the black stone floor. Universe-hopping had no guarantee of success, especially for Celestia. Her changelings could easily feed on a universe's love, creating a breeding ground in order to add to their numbers. Normal ponies couldn't do that. They would have to hope that the universe had a sentient race that was willing to become allies with them - Or, at the very least, contained resources that were useful. Neither option was guaranteed to happen. It might be a good idea to launch her assault now, with a Princess out of the way. Then again, if she did go on the offensive, she was extremely vulnerable to a counter-attack if the mission did succeed. The changeling nation probably couldn't take a defeat like that.

The whole situation was a total mess. She had put everything she had into the wedding invasion. Everything was perfectly set up, perfectly planned, and then one stupid unicorn had to screw everything up. Maybe she shouldn't have taken the risk in the first place, instead biding her time until she was sure she could destroy Celestia. Of course, if she had truly made a judgmental error and not just have gotten unlucky, Celestia had probably made the same error when she sent Twilight away.

The changeling queen slowly paced back to her throne and sat. The hard stone wasn't exactly comfortable, but it was intimidating. She had actually grown rather fond of it. It always made interrogations easier.

"Guards!" She barked, although there was nobody in the room. The changeling nest was sensitive to vibrations, and would carry her voice throughout.

Sure enough, the door quickly slammed open, a guard rushing through. "Yes, m'lady?"

"Tell the science department to give me a new estimate on how long it will take us to break the universal barrier. I need it for my planning."

"Yes m'lady. Right away m'lady!"

The guard scurried out of the room, leaving the Queen to her own devices.

* * *

In another throne room, Celestia too paced. Twilight had been gone for a few days, so obviously she hadn't had to panic and return immediately. That meant that whatever universe she was in was hospitable to her. Or that they were expecting her and she teleported into a mareaday cage and she couldn't get back and she was being tortured and it was all her fault and chrysalis was going to invade and take over and it was goi-

Celestia was mercifully cut off from her thoughts by her sister entering the room, clipboard levitated in front of her. "Well, according to this, radiation levels are all normal - No side effects of transport, as we modeled."

The princess of the sun nodded in the direction of her nocturnal counterpart. While she still wished that she could monitor Twilight in some way, the knowledge that Equestria wouldn't be destroyed in a horrible radioactive holocaust did ease her nerves a bit. Of course, she would have liked to also know that Equestia wouldn't be destroyed in a horrible changeling holocaust - which was why she had given Twilight the mission in the first place.

She didn't really trust anybody else with the job. Well, she had asked her sister, but Luna had refused, thinking herself unqualified. Something about "social awkwardness" causing her to be a bad diplomat. Celestia, if she was going to be honest with herself, agreed with her sister's assessment. While Twilight wasn't the best with other ponies, she did have a certain eager charm that caused most to warm up to her rather quickly. She was also highly unlikely to do something reckless or stupid. Overall, Twilight was definitely the best choice for the task, but Celestia still felt horrible for sending the new Alicorn on such a dangerous mission. It was an awful lot for somepony with such little experience to take on.

"Furthermore," Luna continued, oblivious to her sister's inner monologue, "The scientists claim that the way certain particles interact around the genesis point of the teleportation indicates that the time difference between the two universes is negligible at best, so that eliminates a lot of worries."

Celestia nodded.

"Anything else?"

"Well," Luna replied, magically flipping though her clipboard, "There is increased Changeling activity in all regions of Equestria. Counter-intelligence also indicates that Chrysalis knows our experiment went through, although our Science room remains uncompromised."

The Princess of the Sun pondered the news. Increased activity... Never a good sign. Perhaps Chrysalis had decided to go on the offensive early. She'd discuss it in her war room later.

"Thank you, sister."

Luna nodded in reply, before trotting off to attend to other business. She was rather enjoying this whole project - It was certainly more fun than raising the same moon every night or the same boring dreams - and she wanted to get back to work. Besides, the look on her sister's face was enough to tell her that she needed time to think.

And think Celestia did.

Author's Note

I'm sorry for "mareaday cage." I really am.

Also, this is 100% unedited. Figured you guys deserved an update. More to follow.