Chessboard Gambits

Chapters

Preparation
Arranging Pieces
Opening Moves
Unexpected Diversion
Midgame
Castling the Black Queen
Endgame Moves
Checkmate

Preparation

A large withered husk, easily dwarfing the others in the room with it, begins to move as if in response to the sound of someone entering the room. Its bleary green eyes straining to focus on the new arrival hoping its appearance would herald food and escape in that exact order. Unexpectedly the eyes settle on a familiar mare who is smirking down at it.

“Hello Chrysalis. I suppose I forgot about you all didn’t I? How would you like to be free? Hm? It will only cost you a little.”

The green eyes begin to close once more before their owner knows nothing but darkness once again for a time. The last thing she notices is that her visitor has both wings and a horn.

Twilight hummed to herself cheerfully as she and Spike tidied up the library. It was just the usual routine for them after they had returned from a short trip out of town as Twilight could not resist taking an accounting of her books to make sure they were alright and if that happened they may as well clean while they were doing it. The two were just finishing up as a pink blur bashed itself into their door. That was surprising given that the door was open so they could sweep out the dust.

“Pinkie, any reason you decided to slam yourself into my door this morning?”

“Oh Twilight, I was just so happy to know you were back in town and I had to rush over but I guess I got my head stuck on going through your door and you know what it is like when you get so centered on a single idea that you go through with it even if you find you no longer need to especially when you are going at speed and have no time to process the ….” Pinkie’s line of random was cut short by Twilight using a bit of magic to muffle her voice.

“Good to see you too, Pinkie. Anything happen in town that I should know about?”

“Nothing really interesting to be honest Twi. The only thing unusual was Vinyl Scratch and Octavia have come to town and seemed to have been looking for you since they came here to the library at least twice everyday while you were gone.”

“Oh? Ah, I suppose they wanted to see me about those new music sheet collections that just came in. If you spot them before they swing by let them know I’m back, will you?”

“Of course Twi. Well, I have to get back to the bakery before they realize it’s just a shadow clone doing all the work. The work still gets done but the food doesn’t taste quite the same.” With those words said it was as if Pinkie had evaporated as she was no longer there in the entranceway.

“Twilight, if those two are here then that means something is up.” Spike turned to her after Pinkie had left and Twilight had shut the door.

“I know. This could be a good thing though. I need to get a message back home that I don’t have to worry about anyone intercepting and they were the best bet. Too bad the guard can trace your fire or I would have already sent it. Oh well, secret family business must be tended to.”

It was around noon just as most ponies were settling down to a nice lunch that the two expected mares made their way into the library. Twilight was finishing up reading a book and lamenting to herself over the lack of readership in this town.

“Heya Twilight. We thought we could swing by and pick up some music for Octy here. She’s been in a mood for some of the more transitional stuff between classical and the modern for some reason.” Vinyl, as always, entered a room and somehow centered all the attention on herself and her behavior.

“Vinyl, do restrain yourself a bit. Hello Princess Twilight. We were wondering if you had any thing interesting here and if we could take a moment of your time.” Octavia, too, seemed to be in usual form of prim, proper, and polished.

“Yes, I do believe I do.” Noticing that they had closed the door Twilight cast a subtle spell that would prevent anyone outside hearing what was discussed. “Alright you two, what message from my parents do you bring?”

Vinyl’s brash stance and attitude disappeared as she stood to attention even as a predator’s smirk developed on Octavia’s. These two agents of House Star, the last noble house of the Lunar Court of old, had very different personas when at work on their real jobs.

“Lady Velvet has sent us to check up on you and ask if you really are going to ‘demonstrate’ the limits of our current defenses.” Vinyl answered in a manner not unexpected of a very serious messenger.

“And Lord Light asks that we make arrangements to stick with you should you need us. We are to be at your disposal for the next while.” Octavia delivers her part of the message.

“Excellent. Are you two set up to stay in town for awhile?” At getting an affirmative nod from the two she continues with her own message. “Could you let them know that the plan is coming along well and already the first few pawns are being put in place even as we speak? By this time next week I should be ready to start our little game.”

The two nod in response. “Of course. Any message for your brother?”

“None. I don’t think he would like what we are planning and I don’t want him being pulled into it. You two are dismissed. Oh and here is your book.” Twilight levitates over the requested book from before as she dismisses the spell and sees the two out.

“Spike, I want you to send a letter to Zecora. I’m going to need something for headaches soon I believe.”

The little dragon salutes and sets about drafting a letter and sending it on its way. “Alright, it’s away. So what do we do now?”

“Now Spike, we set out to the Everfree. I’ve got a zebra to see about some medicine and a castle to study.”

Arranging Pieces

“Hello Lyra. It’s been awhile. I was wondering if you had time for a chat.”

Lyra stopped playing her music in the park to address the newest princess who had decided to take time out of her day to visit. “Of course Twilight.. err Princess… uhm?”

“You can just call me Twilight, Lyra. Just like back in school whenever we would have to work together. This shouldn’t take up too much of your time as I know you enjoy entertaining others. The problem is it’s a bit on the confidential side.”

“Oh? Well I’m always willing to lend an ear to anyone, Twilight. You know that. How can I help you?”

Twilight leaned next to Lyra as they settled on a park bench and then whispered into the green unicorn’s ear. “I know.”

Lyra stilled for a moment but managed to keep her usual happy and cheery disposition. “You know what?”

“I know about your uncle. Ein, I think his name was. Something of a scientist I’ve heard. I was wondering if I could meet him.”

Lyra gulped but didn’t panic even though this meant Twilight knew a bit more than she should. “Oh? How did you hear about him?”

“His employer mentioned him while I was speaking with her the other day. She said that he would be coming to Ponyville shortly and that I might be impressed with some of his work. You know I’ve wanted to help change Equestria for along time and if he is capable of what I was told I’m sure that together we could.”

Lyra now was terrified because Twilight all but said outright that she knew were the Queen was. This could not end well for Lyra and perhaps not even for the hive. “Okay. He sent word to me that he would be arriving in two days. I suppose I could direct him your way when he gets here.”

Twilight smiled as she stood up from where she had been sitting. “Thank you Lyra. I really am forward to talking with him. I’m sure we will have all sorts of things to speak of once he arrives, all four of us.”

“Twilight, how long?” Lyra called after the leaving alicorn.

“Since our second week of classes together.” The alicorn called over her shoulder before taking flight.

“Oh buck me sideways!” If Twilight meant what she said then that means someone had allowed the changelings to get as much information as they had. That would not speak well for her if nothing else. For now though she had no choice but to keep to her usual schedule and play. If the music happened to have a coded message in it that a nearby changeling could pick up and relay to the hive no one would be the wiser. Well, she hoped they wouldn’t be.

“That really worked well. Tell your shamaness friend that she has the compliments of royalty.” Chrysalis told Spike as the throbbing in her head had finally eased off with the last dose of the medicine she had been supplied. It would appear finally getting out of that little prison Twilight made for her and reconnected to the swarm had consequences on her during her weakened state.

The changeling queen, and indeed her few soldiers she had with her when she was sealed, seemed to have settled in nicely enough in Twilight’s subbasement all things considered. The small gems around the room provided a small scale sympathetic wavelength to that of the Crystal Heart so as to heal them up. She had already decided to help with the plans she had been informed of. At least she had for the moment as they looked like they would be interesting and it would provide her swarm limitless food.

“I’ll let her know. You sure you are alright now? We didn’t expect it to be that trying on you or we would have shielded you until we could move you and your ‘lings to the empire first.” Spike genuinely looked somewhat worried for the changeling queen which somewhat shocked her given their history. Then again she supposed some things were not what they had seemed given what she has learned over these last two weeks.

“Of course. Too much information trying to be processed in a short amount of time on an empty stomach can cause such things. I’m sure you’ve seen it before given who you work for.” Chrysalis smiled at the young dragon. Perhaps, she thought, when this is nearly complete I will keep this one after replacing Twilight.

“You don’t know that half of it. So I take it you’ve managed to get that scientist of yours to bring the tech Twilight was interested in? When you told her about some of the projects you were holding onto I was reminded of what she was like way back when and she found some candy she liked.”

The changeling queen laughed a bit at that. “I had thought it was the pink one dressed up as her for a moment there. I’m still curious why she wanted the magnetic technology as its only good for transport.”

“I can answer that.” Twilight stepped into the room having returned from her meeting with Lyra. “That technology can be used to revolutionize our train system first of all which is obvious as that was what it was designed for. The second and more immediately important reason is that it can be used as a weapon. A weapon with some decent range, speed, and most importantly no magic signature involved. Something House Star has been looking for awhile now in order to handle foreign upheavals with plausible deniability and can be sent out with non-unicorns in the field.”

Spike and Chrysalis both go a bit wide eyed at this revelation. “I’m going to have to see this.” Chrysalis utters while Spike nods.

“Then stick around. It’ll take at least until after Ein gets here for Vinyl to be set to smuggle your minions to the Empire.”

It had been a long and trying day in Celestia’s court for all involved perhaps even more so for Admiral Oblige. He had to spend most of the day fending off rivals from other noble houses trying to get Celestia’s attention on the increasing amount of issues on a few of the islands that Equestria protected as part of its territories. The only day worse that he could recall was when he had tried to prevent that upstart House Star from trying to propose changes to how the ships the navy used were designed. Sure their designs might have been stronger and hold up longer but it would mean an entirely different process would be needed to build them. One that the shipyards his cousin owned could not meet and thus deprive his house of its monetary source. That had been quashed quickly.

As he remembered that day as a happy one in the end in order to help cheer himself up from this day he arrived at his home. He had some mail in the box which was somewhat unexpected for him. Sure he had an overstuffed box at work all the time but never really anything personal. Most all of his family lived a fair distance away from him and his wife was about seven years dead at this point. None of them were fond of contacting him since the poor old girl had been barren so they had not managed to have any children. This naturally was a sore point between himself and some of the rest of his kin since he was the current head of the family and he was refusing to name any of the others as the next patriarch after he passed on. Checking through his mail revealed an unexpected boon.

The letter in the blue unicorn’s similarly colored magic was marked as being from that musician he had been sending requests to for a personal concert. As he opened it and saw that it was a positive reception to the request, finally, and that she would be available tomorrow night. He would have to take the offer as she would not likely budge from it. A noble and admiral he might be but one could not really move those artsy types from their eccentric schedules once they made up their minds. He had learned that the hard way years ago.

With this in mind he eagerly slipped into his house in order to put his things away and then step back out. His girlfriend, a beautiful young orange unicorn, had been asking him if he couldn’t arrange for them a private concert with this particular artist and he had finally managed to work it out. Why she liked the earth pony string player he didn’t know but he would do whatever it took to keep her with him. Sure she was probably just a gold digger but he had felt so charmed by her the last few times they had met. Perhaps there was still time to show up the rest of his family yet and if not then at least he could have a bit of fun in his old age.

After securing the door again he left his house and set out to meet with his dear Sunset never noticing the slitted eyes watching him from a nearby roof top. The mysterious observer took flight on leather wings to follow his tail for the day. House Star always kept eyes and ears on those that crossed it after all and anything that made their rivals happy was something to know about.

Author's Note

Hello dear readers. I realize before I continue on that I might as well pop in and make sure of what you might need to know for future chapters. Something written in Italics like this will mean thought communication such as between changelings. I know its kind of intuitive but sometimes its best to make sure you've advised before hand. I was tempted to put odd squiggles around it but I wasn't sure if they would display properly for everyone.

Slow build up yes? Kind of has to be because once stuff starts happening it will go fast I'm afraid. Just sit back and watch as everything falls into place please.

Opening Moves

“Sister, you really should pay more attention.” Luna sighed as she read over the records of the day court. It would seem that their navy’s current admiral had not done too good a job of eliminating those pirates that had been assaulting the coastal territories. Indeed looking over the papers indicated that he wasn’t even aware it was pirates and just thought it was a minor tussle between islanders.

Shaking her head she turned to look at her nearest guard. “Guard, could you tell me where our admiral is right now?”

“According to reports relayed to HQ he would seem to be visiting with a young mare of his acquaintance. Apparently he just got a windfall from a musician offering to play for his date tomorrow night.” The bat winged guard relayed.

“Octavia by any chance?”

“Yes. She shall be playing for the couple tomorrow.”

“Oh my, they are moving fast.” Luna wasn’t talking about the couple of course and the guard knew it. “Still, I look forward to seeing how they’ll pull this one off.”

“The pirates are rather fond of goring those they wish to make an example out of. Rather unusual but then again what can you expect when they seem to be made up primarily of boars.”

“I see. Why fix what isn’t broken or break with tradition when nature gave you a perfectly serviceable weapon.”

“But it still it’s a bit barbaric isn’t it?”

Luna chuckled at her guard’s question. “Murder usually is. Still, consider this, if you were born a diamond dog and bore both fang and claw would a spear through your enemies quell those of the future or ripping them apart with the tools primal nature gifted you with?”

The guard caught onto Luna’s point quickly when he considered the effect of intimidation. Indeed his entire race was a result of Equestria’s own intimidation tactics; well Luna’s to be precise, millennia ago.

The Lunar Monarch simply sat back to watch what would happen. Surely those thousand years unopposed didn’t leave Celestia so soft she wouldn’t notice what was happening. If it did though, well that was another matter.

As the sun began to shine upon the world anew Celestia yawned and looked out over her country. They had progressed well over the years but she had noticed that there was some stagnation starting to set in. The last big thing was the technology from the movie theaters and it was going on twenty years since that was developed. Perhaps she should start to give serious consideration to those proposals of technological trade with some of the foreign powers out there. Then again the last time her side of the bargain, magical information, had resulted in a mad king corrupted by delving too deeply into himself.

Today she would be looking into what might be keeping her admiral from doing his job properly. Then again something else would come up as always and she would not get any of her actual intended tasks done for the day. A shame Twilight had not decided to stay in Canterlot. So much more work could have been done with her there to help.

After having taken a sip of coffee Celestia decided to read the newspaper for the day. Surely nothing could be wrong with the alicorn of the sun having a normal morning or so she thought. She noticed the article about a visit from a hippogriff noble from the Griffon Kingdom was going to be visiting to see an opera he had funded that had just opened up in Manehatten. She smiled glad to see that at least some cultural exchange was possible for her ponies if nothing else. Now if only she could get them to warm up to zebras. They had such a knack for natural remedies and could show some of the current crop of doctors how to do things easier.

Naturally this is when she was interrupted by a high pitched little voice outside her door. It would seem her day was going to go south much faster than usual if that was who it sounded like. After a moment her door was pushed open and in stepped the source of the voice.

A rather plump looking yet strong, judging by the three guards hanging off of her, pastel green unicorn mare stepped in. Her red hair somewhat eye catching given her coat color always drew the eyes to her face rather than toward her cutie mark for some reason. The fact that it was always covered might also be part of why one would ignore it Celestia supposed.

“How can I help you, Fuss?” Celestia asked calmly of the new arrival.

“You can help me by calling off your dogs and listening to me. I have word of something you will need to know.” Fuss Budget, full time conspiracy theorist and part time royal treasurer, answered her princess.

“Let her go fellows. She is…. harmless.”

The guards let Fuss go and stood up to leave the room after a nod from Celestia. “Okay, they are gone. What has you in a tizzy this time?”

“It’s those Lunar Court throwbacks. They are plotting something, Princess. I can feel it in my bones.”

Celestia was very tempted to give into her impulse to act violently, mainly by applying her face to the nearest wall or desk repeatedly until she was unconscious but held herself in check. What good was immortality if you didn’t learn a little impulse control after all? She knew this day was going to go down hill fast now.

“Fuss, two things come to mind. The same two things I tell you every time this comes up. One, the Lunar Court is not your concern. Second, their purview is pretty much all black ops and back channels to start with. Please, let this go.”

Celestia would be late to court that day by at least an hour trying to talk Fuss Budget down.

Twilight smiled as she rode into Canterlot on the train alongside Octavia, Spike, and a disguised Chrysalis. The Changeling Queen had assumed the form of a pegasus of the purple persuasion with black hair and yellow eyes bearing the cutie mark of a chrysalis. She had thought it funny as had Twilight when she had placed it there. In the cart with them were at least three unseen changeling guards and outside guarding the entrance were two of the bat ponies, or Noctourne as some named them.

“Octavia, have fun tonight. Standard procedure should do well I think.” Twilight advises.

Chrysalis and Spike were discussing strange cravings their alternative diets gave them compared to the ponies they found themselves living amongst which actually cheered Twilight up to see happening. The poor boy never really got to speak with much of anyone who wasn’t also a pony and this would probably be good for him. As the train pulled into the station they wrapped up their conversation and everyone save Octavia got off immediately. Octavia was to hang back for a suitable time before leaving the train so no one would think she had been with the princess.

The changeling, dragon, and alicorn all made their way through town with Twilight pointing out this or that to the queen. Most of the time it was in relation to what passed for technology in her country and asking her about any thing her scientists might be working on. Eventually the trio made it to what passed for slums in Canterlot. Calling them slums would be misleading since here the houses only had two stories rather that expanding out into palatial mansions but it was what the nobility regarded the location. After a bit of walking toward the center of this section of the city they arrived at the door to a rather ordinary looking house. Twilight knocked a few times and the door opened allowing them inside.

Greeted the trio was by a homely entranceway and empty rooms. Passing through them toward the back of the living room where seated a large fireplace. Twilight’s horn lit for a moment and a fire started in it causing their shadows to extend out toward the wall behind them. A moment later the three were pulled via a shadow path into another location. Once their sight cleared they were in a secured room where a table sat holding a singular object. A curved red horn sat on display waiting under a few containment spells.

“So, you think you can help us glean anything from this? We’ve already managed to recreate the previous owner’s spells by the magic paths burned into the horn but any information we can extract will be useful.” Twilight turned to Chrysalis.

“Perhaps. I can already feel some emotions wafting off of it though this will be a bit trying. Anger is so saturated within it I’m sure even you can sense that. Still, a creature’s emotions tell their story so I will see about helping with this project while we wait for Vinyl to be ready. This will take hours though.” The response Twilight got back seemed to indicate at least something might happen so she decided to begin the experiment.

Even as the project began in the town above the trio, or rather the three changelings assuming their appearance continued to tour the town on the way to a library where they set up to read over a project Twilight had told them to read over as part of the cover. The one posing as Spike was the least bored because he was allowed to fidget and cavort about more freely than his cohorts. If those little escapades happen to have relieved the library of its forgotten copy of a book concerning changelings then it was all for the better.

Ein, Changeling Scientist Extraordinaire, was in a tiff. He had barely had time to so much as sleep while directing the nimrods that passed for his assistants pack up the rail project as well as the models for the improved airships and the schematics for a thing he liked to call a computer. The queen had requested he impress whoever she was working with as it would likely net the hive not only funding but whoever this mysterious benefactor was could help them feed freely.

Personally as a scientist he felt that last idea was suspect but a chance to show off his ideas directly and not through a proxy to someone he was assured would understand it had put him in a rush to be off. The message from Lyra about finding the Queen wasn’t unexpected in light of this though the fact that she was afraid her cover was compromised was. He had it relayed back to her to remain calm for now as the one who had informed her of knowing likely was who he was to meet.

“What is taking you lot so long? I need to get to Ponyville pronto to assure our agent there and to meet this ally of ours.”

One of the younger subordinates of the lab told him that they were just finishing packing up the small scale ship and then he could be on his way. He could tell they knew he was nervous for his niece’s sake so they didn’t mind much him being more aggressive than usual.

“All done boss.” reported another changeling not ten minutes later to the relief of their supervisor.

“Thanks boys. Help me get this to the train. We might as well all go as pegasi since it’s a bit of a trek.” The grey changeling altered his appearance to a rather common white pegasus so as be completely unremarkable to anyone watching him.

Evening had set in and Oblige was on his way to pick up his date for later. As he arrived at the rather nicely appointed house he saw her orange and red streaked mane as she waited for him on the porch. Seems she was as eager as he was. Stepping up to her he greeted her with a peck on the cheek to which she blushed. “Ready for our concert Sunset my dear?”

Sunset Shimmer looked at the older unicorn and nodded. “Of course. I’m so excited you managed to book a private show with her. My daddy has been trying to get one for ages but she keeps turning him down.”

“Well money won’t exactly sway those artsy types my dear. Shall we?”

“Yes, lets.” Sunset stepped off her porch with her date for the evening.

In short order the couple returned to Oblige’s house without incident and entered into one of the large music room it contained. An old holdover of his great grandfather’s time if he recalled as the stallion was a great patron of music during that age. A servant served them some drinks and informed them that Octavia had arrived only thirty minutes before them and was tuning and getting ready for the show. Oblige dismissed the servants quickly and set back with his date.

In just a few more minutes Octavia strolled into the room and set up her cello. She looked at the couple to make sure they were paying attention before she began to play. It was a lovely tune that relaxed the two that begins to perhaps, subliminally, make them more malleable.

After about fifteen minutes, or two different songs, in Sunset turns to the admiral with a spark in her eyes. “So, my dear admiral, my daddy tells me that we’ve been having some problems bringing in a shipment. Seems it has been held up by your ships as a result of their investigations in the isles. Is there any way you could help us get it through?”

The admiral wasn’t a fool and could tell he was being played to probably help bring in some illegal contraband. Still, what harm could it do in the long run and besides it would keep the young mare by his side for awhile longer if he played along. At least that was the motivation he told himself as he stepped over to a desk kept the in the music room and pulled out a piece of his letterhead bearing stationary and quickly wrote out a writ of transport on it. He asked her about the name of the boat and was told it was called the Eclipse. Thinking nothing of it he filled out the paper and handed it to her.

Once he had the music changed to something a bit more dramatic. Sunset smiled kindly at the admiral for a moment before her grin turns cruel. “Thanks ever so much, dear admiral. You’ve been a great asset.” Her form burns away in green revealing a changeling much to the admiral’s shock. “You are perhaps the easiest mark I’ve ever had.” She begins to chuckle at his destroyed expression before her attention is called away.

“Mesmer, get out of here already. You know that paper is needed.” Octavia reprimands the changeling who pulls back in fear of her comment before nodding. The changeling descends into the floor through green fire on her way to the caverns beneath the city. Octavia never stops playing during any of this even if her usual somber expression is changed to that of wicked glee.

“I’m sure you are confused my dear admiral. Don’t worry. You won’t be for long.” With a quick tap of her bow to the cello Octavia’s tool for music changed into something that did not look unlike two ivory tusks on the end of a spear. With a quick motion she used it to end the admiral’s life before it shifted back into being a clean bow. “Really, sir, you should have stayed out of House Star’s way. You brought this on yourself really. Oh and that paper will be put to good use I can assure you.”

The admiral faded from this world hearing the gloating voice of his assassin knowing he had been betrayed and played by what he considered his greatest enemies. After a few moments Octavia schooled her features once more before playing a tune on her cello. In response some magic transported three dead boars bearing all the markings of pirates into the room along with a few Noctournes. They proceeded to stage the scene while Octavia provided cover music. Once everything was set they were all teleported out and Octavia stopped playing.

Several servants come running once they hear screams and what sounds like some fighting coming from the music room. By the time they arrive they find their master dead alongside several of what appear to be boars. Looking around they spot a somewhat smashed up Noctourne standing next to Octavia making sure she was alright. The bat winged pony turns to them and begins barking orders to secure the place in the name of Luna as there has been an assault. It would seem that a mare was abducted at the same time as the admiral was murdered by whoever had done this. He had been passing by on patrol and heard the struggle. Octavia was positively inconsolable at seeing such violence.

Elsewhere in Canterlot Twilight smiled as she read a missive that materialized next to her from the shadows. “Opening moves have started it would seem.”

Author's Note

Hehehe, I was tempted to describe that last scene better but it would have required the gore tag and I just can't make myself do that. Hope everyone reading sticks around as Twilight is about to get her little shining moment of badass, barring the final chapter, in either the next chapter or the one after that.

Unexpected Diversion

As night settled and servants were discovering dead masters a small group of Solar Guard stallions followed the decoy changelings Twilight and company had set up. They were not very good at it if the changelings had been asked as they knew they had a tail not long after it started. Black cloaks hardly hid shiny gold armor from eyes that could see in the dark. They relayed back to their queen about the situation.

“Twilight, it would seem our decoys have picked up some guests. I’m about to tell them to shake them.” Chrysalis told her partner.

“Oh no don’t do that. Lead them here. I haven’t had fun in ages and this might be an amusing diversion for the evening.” The purple alicorn looked up from where she was recording down everything Chrysalis had informed her of Sombra’s past intentions based on his emotions. Spike began to laugh.

The queen merely quirked an eyebrow before nodding her head and relayed the request. Lead them to where we are. Sparkle seems to want to do something with them. “There, it is done. Why did you want them lead here?”

Spike continued to chuckle as he answers for Twilight. “Only two kinds of ponies stalk Twilight while in Canterlot. Those out to either rob or kill her or autograph hounds. Either way we are in for a show.”

Twilight finished up her notes and turned to the other two. “Let’s meet our guests, yes?” The three walk toward a dark corner of the lab and phase through it back to the living room in the house as Chrysalis assumes her previous disguise. Not two minutes later the decoys entered the room and returned to their usual appearance. They quickly latched onto the ceiling just in case they needed to act.

Twilight opened the door and stepped out while talking to her companions about something at random when she spots the group that had been following the changelings. Judging by the looks of things this was perfect for Twilight’s purposes.

The formation of the followers was arranged around the door to prevent escape which was to be expected but the military precision spoke of those where trained in this ruling out fans. There were two to either side and one directly in front of Twilight all of whom were pegasi. Directly behind the one in front of her was a unicorn that was apparently there to act as the group's caster if it came to that.

“Oh? What is all this?” Twilight looked them over without much concern while Chrysalis decided to stay quite and observe. If nothing else she could claim she was a hostage. Spike’s eyes narrowed as he had seen this arrangement before while Twilight was raising him. His right claws twitched at his side as he held back to watch as was the standard practice for this situation. Why draw attention to the very deadly baby dragon yet?

The leader of the group seemed to be confident his crew had found an easy target. A new princess who had lived the easy life of a pampered pet of the princess would be a cake walk for his men and himself. He almost felt like he was stealing from his employer’s with this job.

“Forgive us Princess but we really need you to come with us. There has been an emergency and we’ve been ordered to secure all important governmental officials.” The pegasus commander decided it would be best to lure her away from her companions. No need to kill more than he was paid for after all.

“I don’t think I will, commander. You have the stink of someone else’s gold on you and I’ve learned long ago that only means trouble. Seriously though, how long did it take until after my brother left for you to begin selling out to whatever noble would pay you to do their dirty work?”

The commander hissed at this not expecting his mark to see through him so easily. At a nod of his head his soldiers drew their weapons as the mage backing him up readied his defensive spells. “So you are as clever as your transcripts say. A pity we’ll have to kill your companion and the lizard but we’ll have to do what is necessary.” As he said this he drew a collapsible spear out from his side and readied it.

Just as he was about to yell for his men to attack he stopped being able to move as Twilight looked directly into his eyes. He felt fear begin to seep in and take over his mind to the point he couldn’t move even so much as a facial muscle to show his horror. Then his men also became rooted to the spot as Twilight began to speak.

“Commander, I’ve had assassins better than you trying to kill me since I was five. Your little ragtag group doesn’t even merit a foot note in comparison to those that have been sent by rivals to deal with me.” Her eyes shift to the mage behind the commander. “By the way, how does it feel to know that your entire unit is going to die here and now and you could do nothing to stop it?”

Before he could answer Twilight walked into the spear. The head and shaft disappearing into her barrel and yet causing no harm even to the hairs upon her leaving the group confused for only a moment. Suddenly something wet splashed on the back of the commander and he felt the fear spell that had held him in place recede only to be held in check by an even greater fear. As the mage gurgled from the spear protruding from the middle of his throat the tip of a spear head was just touching the commander’s rump.

Spike at this point was chuckling at Twilight using the old dimensional fold trick to redirect the weapon into and out of one of her opponents. Chrysalis was more or less floored at this display and could only watch in surprise. The other guards held their place as they could tell all it would take is one more step on Twilight’s behalf and their commander would be joining his mage.

“A shame it is that those transcripts don’t tell you any of my real abilities, wouldn’t you say commander?” Twilight simply reaches up a hoof and taps it into the commander’s snout before pulling away from him. “Now then, let me show you what I can really do.” The two pegasi on either end of the formation turned their weapons on their nearest comrade even as they struggled to control their own movements before falling on their own swords so to speak. “Really, no mind protection at all? Someone didn’t really want you to succeed did they? Are you just a distraction I wonder?”

Twilight walked around the commander and motioned for her company to follow her. Spike waddled along to catch up and Chrysalis paused as she passed realizing that the commander was dead too after careful examination. Oh his body was still fine but there was no longer a mind in it to drive the thing. Perhaps a double cross might be best if it waits was her thought as she walked on.

“Aren’t you worried someone saw that?” Chrysalis asked Twilight even as they approached the train. Chrysalis’s guards having caught up with them minutes ago after having taken the bodies from the front of the house and hiding them inside while relaying to their Queen there was no blood left to clean up when they had stepped back out.

“No. Spike if you would elaborate for our dear friend.”

“Basically one of the first things Twilight learned was how to cast a Not My Business field. It is fairly standard curriculum at House Star given what they tend to specialize in if you really think about it. She cast that spell as soon as she stepped outside. She has it down to the point that she could probably herd some elephants through the middle of Manehatten and no one would know.” The young drake seemed to be rather smug about what his adoptive mother could do.

Chrysalis made note of this even as she followed the other two onto the train as it set off. They just made it out of Canterlot before guards arrived to shut down the train station.

A commotion at the door woke Celestia from her slumber. As she stood up to see what was going on there was a knocking at the door. “Yes, what is it?”

One of her guards’ voice seeped through the door in response. “Princess Celestia there has been a murder. It would seem the admiral has been murdered in his home. Preliminary reports indicate the perpetrators might be connected to the issues with the isles.”

The solar princess muttered a curse to herself as she set about getting presentable. “I’ll be right there. I assume my sister has been informed?”

“Yes your Highness. She is already orchestrating a shut down of the city in case any of those responsible are still inside the limits. They’ve just closed the train station not five minutes ago.”

“Was there anything else I should know about?”

“Supposedly a mare was kidnapped too but that part of the reports has fallen under scrutiny.”

Celestia opened her door and stepped out into the hall to be lead by her detail toward the throne room. “Why is that?”

“The reports are that the mare was one Sunset Shimmer. All our information indicates she is still in that other world so we are trying to figure out who this supposed kidnapped victim was. For all we know it was a changeling collaborator to the assailants.”

“Great, possible changeling involvement always makes these disasters that much more fun.” The solar mare stepped out into the room with a sigh.

“Sister, I take it you’ve been informed of the situation. I can give you the reports I have here on what has been discovered.” Luna floated over a report on what was found at the scene of the murder and waits as Celestia reads it over.

“Do you have any sensor trained soldiers in your ranks Luna?”

“Yes, some of the Night Caste has been trained as such. Why?”

“There is some speculation that there might have been a changeling involved. We need to know if there was and if it was on the side of the attackers or if she was legitimately taken.”

“I’ll send word to my stallions to check it out. If you will pardon me sister?” Luna turned to leave and did so once Celestia nodded.

Luna took wing toward her tower and her favored communication medium, a mirror, to relay a message to her agents. Hopefully enough evidence of a changeling would be found to get the nobles up in arms. Not that the murder of one of their own would not do so but it would help push them further.

At sea not far off the coast of Equestria and sailing in from the isles was a small speedy ship carrying a bit of precious cargo. The Eclipse, as the ship was named, was to deliver a new kind of metal that had been found deep in the Boar tribe’s territory to port. Currently no ships were being allowed through unless they were inspected and this metal was definitely something that would get them stopped if it had been found.

Not more than a few more nautical miles were crossed before the boat was hailed and blocked by the navy’s inspection ships. A few minutes of exchange between the captains and a flash of a paper freshly arrived granting passage and the ship was on its way. The crew of the ship had been tense not entirely trusting the paper but it had checked out and got them through. Now they could only hope their cargo was worth the hassle that was involved.

A bright sun shiny day started off in Ponyville and all was right with the world as far as the residents knew. A train was ready and waiting to depart toward the Crystal Empire around noon. It was just being held up by Vinyl Scratch’s roadies loading the oversized equipment she had on board. Stepping off the train was a brown unicorn that then offloaded his three rather large bags. As he hired a cart to carry them into the town he looked over the place. It would seem his niece had settled into a lovely town. Hopefully she could remain here and from the reassurances of his Queen he was sure she could. “Now then, where was that confectioner’s shop?”

Author's Note

Heh, what can I say? When I have a mage fight they tend to overwhelm and when I let the Element of Magic herself do so it goes a bit far, yes?

Midgame

Around ten in the morning there was a knock at the door to the library. Spike answered it to find the callers were Lyra and a brown unicorn. Next to the two was a cart containing a few suitcases. “Welcome to the library Lyra. I suppose this is your uncle Twilight was telling me about?”

“Yes. Good ole uncle Ein. I understand Twilight wanted to speak with him.”

“A dragon? How fascinating. Are you her familiar or some other sort of bonded ally?” Ein was all sorts of curious and muttering to himself about Spike and as such really didn’t give much of a hello.

“Yeah, come on in. She is down in the basement. Let me lead you two to her.” Spike lead the two down into the basement while trying not to be too weirded out by Ein’s inspection of his person from less than a foot away. Lyra unfortunately was left having to lug the luggage inside and down the stairs with them.

“Hang on a moment.” The dragon breathed a bit of green flame onto a candle in the corner causing what had appeared to be a solid wall on the south side of the basement to become transparent. “Alright step on through please.” The two unicorns would have done so even if he had not made the request as they saw on the other side their Queen having a conversation with Twilight.

“As such if he kept their wills broken it would have eventually built up enough despair and hopelessness so that at the next charging ceremony he could have spread it across the land. That way he could take over other countries without having to do much in the way of fighting.” The queen was saying to Twilight.

“So Sombra was something of a softie after all. Good to know. If you break your enemy’s will before hoof there is no need to fight and no loss of life. It’s always interesting to learn something new about history. Oh, looks like we have guests.” Twilight announced as noticed the wall shift.

Lyra just ran up to the queen and began to check her over to make sure she was physically alright. Ein stepped in and nodded to his Queen. Given that she had given him an all clear on her health before hand he knew she was alright but sadly Lyra would never know what it was like to be linked to the hive mind so had to see things for herself.

“I am fine Lyra, I assure you. Twilight has been helping us to recover from our imprisonment. It would seem she had need of my unique talents and some of our hive’s information.” The queen tried to calm her pony agent down.

“Are you sure? She was the one that trapped you to begin with.”

“Lyra, calm down. Your queen is fine and perfectly safe. The rest of your comrades that were sealed up are already getting set to be shipped out to a new home. With any luck the hive will have a perpetual source of food from here on out.” Twilight tries to assure her old schoolmate. Noticing that Lyra still appeared panicked she decided to turn her attention to the other guest instead. “Ein, I presume?”

“Indeed, Princess. Mind if I drop this disguise?” The unicorn requested.

“Go ahead. No one will see you in here.” As she said that Spike snuffed out the candle and the wall returned to a solid block. The dragon would return upstairs to oversee the library while they talked below.

With a sigh of relief the unicorn returned to his real graying chitinous self. “Alright, I think I remember Lyra telling me about you so I don’t think I’m going to have to dumb this down. You ready to see some of the projects we changelings could bring to the table for your country?”

“Of course, Herr Doctor.” Twilight grins in response even as Ein good naturedly frowns.

“First up is the revision to air ships. From what I’ve observed all the air ships your country have, and indeed most all of the countries have, are based on a blimp. Let me show you…..”

It would be hours before anyone left the basement that evening as Twilight and Ein discussed all the minutia and details of the three projects he had brought. While Twilight agreed to start a commission of a ship based on Ein’s designs, and a contract to a changeling held construction company in the process was discussed between them and the queen, the computer held her attention. The idea of a repository of information that could be easily used and uniform appealed to her immensely and she helped him work out some of the methods of taking those designs closer to being realized when she asked him about information crystals. Ein also was rather surprised at Twilight’s idea to weaponize the magnetic rail idea and how to apply it. While this did somewhat worry the changeling it wouldn’t be the first time a prospective client turned something of his into a weapon and had had learned to deal with it long ago. Lyra and Chrysalis were rather lost past the first five minutes of conversation as the two geniuses got to going at each other. They were pretty sure at one point the two were talking in pure numerical expression.

Lord Blueblood head of the Blueblood family and as he liked to think of himself king of unicorns looked over the documents left on his desk by his butler. It would seem that another one of the kill teams he had hired had failed to remove that upstart Twilight. He had become rather jaded to such reports over the years as he and those he could manipulate kept failing to remove that thorn in his side. At least this group had been so low on the pole that it would be impossible even to find the proxy he used to hire them never mind linking it to himself. He would have to step his game up soon before she had a chance to become more powerful as an alicorn. His idiot son would never manage to get rid of her that he knew was a certainty.

For now though he had some papers to fill out to notify Oblige’s next of kin of his demise so they could come to Canterlot and decide what to do with the family mansion. Perhaps the newcomer would stay and could be easily cowed into helping get policies he wanted passed through the courts. If not, well Canterlot could be a dangerous place for newcomers.

As twilight begin to settle in across the country and traffic into Canterlot had been restored Celestia paced inside her room. Perhaps Fuss was right after all given what had happened. It was time she checked in with her pony on the inside of the remaining house of the Lunar Court. The problem was going to be how to get a hold of them since House Star had locked down their section of the city during the security alert in order to make sure no outside threats could steal any secrets contained within. After a few moments she sent Philomena out with a letter in her talons to her mare on the inside. The phoenix never noticed the slit eyes watching its flight path.

The Eclipse docked without troubles and was met upon arrival by two rather well to do unicorns judging by their retinue of servants. As the servants stepped aboard to secure the cargo the captain explained what they had found to his employers. Night Light and Twilight Velvet both seemed to be rather understanding of the whole thing and paid extremely well. They even said he could keep a third of the metal to sell somewhere else as the amount he had brought in was more than they needed and they were feeling generous.

It never occurred to the captain that all the servants that had been hauling the cargo from the ship to a waiting wagon looked exactly alike or that of the ten that had shown up to help only nine left with the wagon and the unicorns. As he and his men bunked down for the night they didn’t know that come the morning customs would have questions for them concerning what had been found on their burning ship.

A train pulled to a stop in the Crystal Empire and began to offload its cargo of passengers and their stuff. Of note to those present was that Vinyl Scratch had apparently taken her tour here to the Empire and probably brought along a whole studio. Large containers likely holding speakers, turntables, lasers, and other equipment begin to be removed from the train and loaded onto various carts bound for the empire.

Within two hours the carts would stop on their way to release their actual cargo onto the tundra. The changelings that had been with Chrysalis during captivity begin to head to ground so as to start on building a new hive here. They had all felt the surge of energy the love in the air provided. It would seem that their former captor had delivered on her part of the deal and they could indeed make a home here with food for every ‘ling. It would be a glorious new age for their kind they knew. As they set to work Vinyl’s entourage continued into the Empire so as to set up her concert to entertain the masses. If her upcoming week of concerts happened to help cover some of the noise out on the wastes so much more the better.

Mesmer, now appearing as a pegasus maid within House Star looked up at the streak of red she saw coming towards her. It would seem Celestia needed her ‘secret agent’ to report to her about what the family was up to. She opened the window to allow Philomena in and accepted the letter. After reading it over she wrote out a report on the back side of the letter and gave it to the phoenix to return it to Celestia. If it was intercepted it would read as just a report on the usual day to day of being a maid but when held in direct sunlight certain letters would be highlighted due to the unique ink she would go over them with. The message though was that nothing unusual was going on here given the usual kind of strange one can expect in a house of spies and assassins.

The beauty of being Celestia’s agent was that she could always be truthful, something she could rarely be, while still hiding everything from her supposed employer. She would need to inform Lady Velvet and Lord Light later though that Celestia was snooping. After all, an outcast changeling gave its loyalty to those who took it in and that was first Twilight’s family long before she met the solar alicorn.

Author's Note

I'm using this author's notes space to tell you I have no notes for this chapter. I really don't like empty space okay?

Castling the Black Queen

Celestia’s morning started off with a notification of a ship having been found on the coast containing some suspect materials. According to the report the boat contained a metal that all tests indicated might have been from the isles just a bit further off the coast of Equestria. She signed papers to have it transferred to a specialist that could verify the probably source of the metal even before she left her bedroom that morning. If this proved to be true it might be the cause of the trouble at sea. It wouldn’t be the first time a mounting incident with a more aboriginal tribe had happened due to her sometimes overzealous ponies. Hopefully they would be willing to negotiate a truce but that would have to wait.

Since her agent had indicated nothing too unusual amongst the Lunar Court she was still looking into the murder and the kidnapping. According to Luna’s soldiers there had been traces of a changeling at the scene and Celestia couldn’t help but feel that perhaps they had staged the whole thing to help promote a war between Equestria and the boars that her own ponies had likely started the groundwork for. Sometimes it felt like her work never stopped. Maybe one day she could take a vacation.

Lyra had returned home late yesterday evening after she had seen enough to know she was not going to be handed over to the authorities by Twilight. Chrysalis mused that she rather wished she had thought to join her as she had had to spend the night with Ein and Twilight discussing plans and inventions and was about ready to pull out what little hair she had. It would seem the dragon wasn’t far behind her though he seemed to fair a bit better. When she had looked at him in wonder he had simply explained that it had always been like this growing up with the unicorn/alicorn.

Chrysalis was rather thankful that she would be escaping this torture today as she was going to set out to her old hive to begin getting them ready to move to the Empire. Once there they would join the ones that she had already sent ahead to finish up a hive where they would get all the free food they could want. She would also be out from under Twilight’s eye so as to better plot how to get back at her. The plan of Twilight’s for the swarm to help bolster the defense of the empire and to help cultivate it was a good one that she would likely stick to even if she might be plotting against her. It would be comparable to a shepherd tending his flock of sheep she felt.

Ein was sore about setting out again but he needed to return and start getting his teams ready to work on the projects Twilight had proposed. The influx of money from the alicorn’s royal patronage would help bolster the hive for quite some time and he would be able to realize some of his creations much sooner than anticipated. The fact that changelings would have a controlling interest in Equestria’s major modes of travel could pay off over the years in more ways than just money too. He really hoped the Queen would keep on the up and up with the alicorn for the next little while.

The two changelings set off that day not too late in the morning in the form of two pegasi. In the queen’s opinion it had not been a moment too soon as that pink terror had popped in to visit Twilight no more than a minute after they had left. Chrysalis and Ein discussed a few of the things that were about to happen and agreed that things were looking up for them now with their current ally. For now it was best to go with the flow and see how well things worked out for them.

Deep within the mansion of House Star several members were hard at work preparing the new metal the heads of the family had brought in last night. According to the designs and information they had this would be used to design some form of necklace. The metal they were working with seemed to be rather good at holding an enchantment and as such it was going to be used to make quite a few little trinkets. Several necklaces that would then be enchanted by others with in the house seemed to be the assignment though some had been set aside to be forged into a weapon.

Luna checked over the reports of a fire at the docks that had happened overnight near the southern coast of the country. It would appear that what had caused the start of the pirate raids was a raid by ponies into their territory to take a precious metal. She pondered how they were going to placate the boars just as she received a message that there had been an issue at sea. Several of the navy’s ships had been set adrift this morning as a concentrated effort of the boar pirates to try and get onto Equestria soil had managed to break the blockade. The dead on the water ships were suffering due to a weakness that they might have lacked if the ship designs had been updated like Luna had tried to help arrange months ago.

She began to make her way toward her sister’s throne to begin help coordinate rescue efforts for an embarrassing number of their navy. The fact that this distracted from the hunt for the changeling kidnapping did not escape her notice. “It’s almost like someone planned it.” She says to herself with a smile as she made her way.

Spike cleaned up from the breakfast with the changelings and Pinkie’s visit to the library to invite them to a birthday party for that one pegasus whose name he could never remember. She had that odd green and pink hair coloring however in spite of her odd appearance she never did anything to actually stand out. He supposed it might make sense if you had a natural coloration that was that unusual you would learn to not draw attention to yourself.

As he finished up his job he turned to Twilight to ask her about the plan so far. “How long will it take for the magnetic rail travel to start?”

“About five years at the soonest and that will probably only be between places like Canterlot and Manehatten. It’ll take longer to get it throughout the country once they see how much faster and efficient it is. We’ll probably have working full sized airships based on Ein’s design first though the military will probably get first crack at those.” Twilight answered absently as she began to read over a book about binding spells.

“Well you can at least do something about that one. Get you an airship made based on his designs with your new royal authority if you catch my drift. You know we are going to have to have a better way to get around the country than rail eventually after all.”

“True. I’ll see what I can arrange. It might be fun to get to play up the whole overbearing noble/royal for once while I’m in Canterlot trying to get it commissioned by one of the shipyards.” She smiles at the thought. “Still I wouldn’t want to push it much and actually cause too much of a panic attack. By the way, did they find out who sent that kill squad?”

“According to the information that was sent in last night it would seem it was Blueblood’s dad again. Really need to do something about him as not only has he been an annoyance but he is beginning to get sloppy. Then again I suppose most targets don’t have necromancers on their payroll that can get the dead to talk.”

“Ugh, I swear once I get this mess straightened out he’ll be next on my list. For now I suppose we have to head to Canterlot to offer our services. Its about to come to a head with those pirates I believe. After all they have surely decided to heed the advice of their prince at this point and began to attack the weak rudders of the Equestrian Navy. If we move quickly we can negotiate a peace between us and them by the end of the week which will be just in time for the party.”

“Already booked us tickets to Canterlot and have sent word to Mesmer to play attendant during the whole thing.”

The alicorn nodded her head before returning to her book.

“Speak of the devil.” Spike coughed up a scroll requesting Twilight head for Canterlot today in order to help deal with an incident. The two set out to do their duty to their country.

Grey Earl, first cousin to Admiral Oblige, received a letter that day informing him of the death of his cousin. It would seem he had been murdered during a home invasion by some ruffians who might have been terrorists or revolutionaries or something as the letter wasn’t exactly clear on whom it was. By tradition it would fall on him to set out to Canterlot to take over the house and start the laborious process of overseeing how things would be broken down. As Oblige’s closest relative he would handle devising up his holdings throughout the family while also overtaking the role in the noble courts. A shame on some levels he couldn’t also take over being admiral but that wasn’t a hereditary position and he really knew nothing about ships beyond that they floated on water anyway. Of course if you were to ask him that meant he knew about as much as his departed cousin.

He packed up and begin to set off for Canterlot by coach as he was not about to share public transport with the common ponies. It would not be wise to consort with them given all those germs they had. It would be unsanitary enough going this way but it couldn’t be helped.

As Twilight arrived in Canterlot to discuss things with the princesses and made arrangements to visit with the king of the boar tribe to work out the problems he had with Equestria Mesmer set out to Twilight’s suite of rooms in the castle to await her arrival. At the Hive Ein set about working on making a computer with the information Twilight had provided that would help make them viable. Some of the older changelings in his lab he rounded up and began to prepare them for the task of setting up a small business to operate in Equestria that would be overseen by Twilight. The business would be how Equestria would be introduced to the joint creations of the two and would probably be a permanent assignment so he recommended they think on it before accepting the assignment.

Night set in as dreams of revenge floated in Chrysalis’s head conflicting with dreams of a greater changeling nation that might have come to be integrated into Equestria should she hold back. She tossed and turned throughout the night trying to decide which the better path to follow was.

Fuss Budget died that night from such a frightful nightmare. It would seem all those years of worrying had made her heart a bit weak and whatever she had dreamed was just too awful for it to take. Even with Luna’s return she could not get to every nightmare before they caused harm it would seem. If purple eyes watching her final moments from the shadows had been her final glimpse of life no one would ever know.

Author's Note

Hm? Slowing down now as we draw this play to a close. Two, maybe three, more chapters to go.

Endgame Moves

About three days after Twilight had arrived in Canterlot there had been a break in the missing mare from the murder of Oblige. Luna had been given a report from her guards that they had found a scene of a fight where some of the Solar Guards had fallen in a battle with something and the copious amounts of changeling resin in the room lead them to believe it was a changeling. Even as she reported the findings to Celestia backed up by some of her own guard’s delivering a similar report she had to admire Twilight’s thoroughness at staging these scenes. No one would ever know that one of them had his mind ripped out if they did not know beforehand.

It was officially ruled that the changeling who had been at the scene had probably been trying to lead the admiral on and then had been caught up in the scuffle. She had probably escaped her captors to be found by the soldiers and had fought with them in a panic misunderstanding their intentions. While this did resolve the issue of the kidnapping they still needed to prevent a possible incident with the boar king. Twilight was going to be meeting with him on one of the isles off the coast as a neutral location given that the boars had no officially recognized nation or embassy and his lack of trust in either of the two sisters.

Twilight set off that evening to meet in the morning with the king and his son. She took with her Spike and her maid but before she set off her parents dropped off to give her a necklace. One that just happened to contain a small pendant on it made of the metal they had arranged to smuggle from the boar’s lands. They also gave her a box containing a peace offering for the king in good faith.

The following morning Twilight met with the boar king and his son in order to hash out the issues of the pirate raids. While the king denied any knowledge of any assaults by his people within Canterlot he did recognize that their raids on the isles were perhaps not the wisest of reactions but his people had been outraged at their lands being disrespected and plundered. Twilight apologized on behalf of Equestria for the greed some of its citizens displayed and discussed for a time about possible ways for the country to perhaps pay for what was lost. As the king was about to accept the proposal the light happened to catch the pendant Twilight was wearing just right so as to draw his attention.

Realizing what she was wearing the king grew angry and attacked. Twilight’s maid, the disguised Mesmer, got between him and her mistress taking the goring wound to her midsection. Twilight froze up in shock at the death of her servant and the king began to take advantage of it only to wind up shocked himself as claws capable of slashing through crystals sliced through his neck. “No one touches her.” The last thing he heard as he faded away was the anger of a dragon in rage.

The king’s son had been frozen in his seat unsure of what to do. He could not hold it against Equestria even as he too realized what the pendant on the alicorn’s neck meant. It did not help that the dragon was the one to kill his father as dragon attacks had been ruled as acts of nature ages ago by the other races of the planet given their somewhat aggressive nature and lack of concern for the other races ways of life so he had no legal way to blame Equestria and only a soon to be dead fool declares vengeance on a dragon, baby or not. In light of this event the talks were called off for a day so they could clear their heads and arrangements could be made for the dead.

In Twilight’s suite of rooms at the hotel that was hosting the meeting she walks over to the bed holding her maid. After a moment or two of Spike verifying no one was spying on them she nudged it a bit and then projected some energy into the lump on the bed. After only about a minute the lump stirred and began to move as Mesmer set up and used the love energy Twilight was projecting to heal her damaged shell.

“That went better than expected. You better clear on out of here, Mesmer. We’ve already got your retirement lined up. You’ll be replacing a noble by the name of Grey Earl. He had an accident on his way to Canterlot involving some rather nasty weather and a flash flood. Here is his file so you can read up and know who is important to him.”

“Thanks mistress. That did a bit more damage that I expected when I volunteered for this.”

“Thank you. Now we can officially tell Celestia her spy on us is dead while no blame falls on us, you no longer have to run around pulling in marks for us and in exchange get a cushy long term job and Equestria profits from House Noblise being under our control. Now get on out of here.”

The changeling nods her head and takes the form of a pastel pink unicorn with yellow hair before leaving the room through a side door. Not ten minutes later another side door opens and the prince of the boars slips in.

“Ah, nice to see you Princess Twilight. I can’t thank you enough for helping me out.” The boar bows his head to her.

“It was nothing, dear King. I trust our deal will hold yes? We put you on the throne and you help pave the way for better relations with our people?” Twilight smiled at the now current king of the boars.

“Of course, Princess. The deal will go through. I’ve already got things in the works to help warm my people up to a less isolationist viewpoint. I hope not many of your ponies died while mine assaulted your navy. Thanks for that information by the way.”

“Nah, most of the sailors made it out fine with no more damage than their pride. There were a few that had some complications from dehydration but nothing too severe. Oh, here by the way.” She levitated the package her parents had sent her to the king.

He opened it to find it contained a very ornate ceremonial sword bearing quite a few gems each of which glowed with an inner fire. He noted it was made up entirely of materials native to his homeland though obviously Equestrian crafting was used in its formation and the spells engraved into it. He smiled up at her in gratitude.

“I and my people thank you for this. It shall become one of our treasures to the crown I think. A symbol of the unity of our people, if you will. A shame I’ll have to hide it for a few years yet.”

“Take care of it, yourself, and your nation, young King.” Twilight recommended to him.

The boar nodded and then said his goodbyes before leaving. Tomorrow the two would carry on the charade of negotiations that were resolved years ago between them when he had been an exchange student in Canterlot and then be on their way. Spike’s dealing with the king had prevented other countries from calling foul on Equestria even if it had pained Celestia to hear that the king had tried to attack Twilight and that she had lost her agent once Twilight had returned home and reported what had happened.

Twilight and Spike had not informed their friends of what had exactly happened during the negotiations and only told them that there would be no pirate raids as some of the more trashy rags had been trying to stir up a panic over. The boars had only been reacting to a wrong done by some greedy business ponies and they had gotten somewhat out of hoof. They had managed to resolve the whole thing but had to leave the poor admiral’s death as officially a sad loss as there would be no accounting of who was responsible for it.

The night after they got back to Ponyville they joined in with the rest of their friends in a grand party celebrating the birthday of that pegasus that Spike still couldn’t remember the name of. Shortly before leaving to the party Twilight had found two letters on her desk awaiting her. One from Ein telling her about their new business and where its head quarters was located in Ponyville so Twilight could set them to task and another from Mesmer as Grey Earl officially entreating House Star entry for House Noblise into the Lunar Court. A secondary letter written in invisible ink on the back informing her of Blueblood’s rather heavy hoofed attempt at coercing her into backing him was unpleasant but not unexpected. It was time to deal with him Twilight thought.

The party lasted long into the night and Twilight simply kicked back and enjoyed time with her friends. It was good to finish a job that she had been working on for years finally. At one point during the party though she needed to take a moment to herself and clear her head as someone had slipped something in the punch.

“Legon, prepare the conversion room.” Chrysalis orders to her right hand general.

“Are you sure this is wise my Queen? Surely she will resist.” Legon looked up at his Queen as she stalked about her throne room.

“It is the best way. This way I have my revenge and keep an ally. She’ll just have to remember that I’m in charge not her. Besides, it would be a shame to lose such a powerful one.” The queen began to prepare a letter to invite Twilight to the hive to celebrate their alliance. She would have it passed onto Lyra who would deliver it to Twilight.

“As you wish my Queen.” Legon answered as he set out to do as he was bid.

“As you wish my Queen.” Twilight repeated with a smirk on her face as the green in her eyes faded. Hijacking a changeling was rather easy once you had torn into their physiology as many times as Twilight had with her disguise removal spells. Well that did not take too long Twilight thought though at least Chrysalis wasn’t going to kill her. Seems she would have to pay up to Spike on that bet.

Author's Note

Hehehe, epilogue next I think. Might consider an alternate end but I'm not sure.

Anyone keeping a running tally of kills? There will be a quiz later.

Checkmate

It was the next evening that Lord Blueblood received a visit from his son which was somewhat unusual as the prince rarely bothered to visit his father. However when his son showed him a vintage bottle of wine from around 507 AN he understood. One needs company when they are enjoying fine wine after all. He sat down with his son and engaged in small talk for awhile. As he finished his last sip from his glass he noticed a sad look on his son’s face.

“Father, why?”

“Why what my son?”

“Why did you have to keep crossing her? You had to have known she would eventually get around to dealing with you.”

Before he could ask his son to elaborate his vision swam and darkness claimed him. Prince Blueblood looked forlornly upon his father before corking the drugged wine and opening a window. He stepped out before he could see slitted eyes or hear the sound of leather wings.

Lord Blueblood awoke to crimson. At first he thought it had been the décor of the room he found himself in but realized it was not the moment he found the body. There on the floor were the torn apart remains of a hippogriff. The same one he remembered seeing a picture of in the paper a noble from the griffon kingdom no less. This was not good at all as he had no memory of how he even got here. He managed to calm his initial panic and started to think of how to cover this up. It shouldn’t be too hard as he had more than a few skeletons in his closet he had put there himself.

Just as his heart rate had steadied the windows of the room blew inward and a team of Noctournes entered the room in full armor with weapons drawn. It would seem there would be no time to cover this up and everyone knew you could not pay off one of Luna’s guards even if you offered a mountain of gold, a side effect of their training. “Uh, I can explain?”

In short order he found himself in chains and carried out to an armored and barred wagon. The door in the back opened and he was tossed bodily inside. It took only a second for Blueblood to realize he wasn’t alone in the prison cart. There, sitting calmly on a bench waiting for him was Twilight Sparkle with humor shining from her eyes.

“You. You did this, didn’t you?”

“I have no idea what you are talking about Lord Blueblood. I’m just here to inform you of what has happened. I unfortunately drew the short straw you see. Take a seat if you would.” Twilight answered the irate noble with her laughing voice.

“Humph.” Blueblood took a seat across from the princess and waited to hear what situation she had put him in.

“Ah, there we go. Much more comfortable than the floor I’d imagine. Now then to business yes? As we speak Solar Guards are looking through your house for anything that might explain what has happened here. A division you have not managed to buy off by the way. They are going to find evidence that you have been funding Diamond Dog terrorists. You know the ones right? The ones who have been causing trouble in the Griffon Kingdoms as I’m sure you’ve already guessed.” Twilight was practically purring as she luxuriated in the hatred of her pouring off of Lord Blueblood. “Naturally this will lead to your son having to disavow you and perhaps a permanent tarnishing of the Blueblood name. Don’t you worry though; your son isn’t going to be left to languish for long. My family will be offering him sanctuary and protection from retaliation should any come about due to your despicable actions.”

“No, he will not. I’ll kill myself first before I let my family name be destroyed and my son has to go running to you ponies of all possibilities.”

“Funny you should mention that.” Twilight dropped a dagger from her wing onto the bench beside herself. “I suppose that would be the honorable way out. Prove you were stallion enough to pay up for your crimes by your own hooves, perhaps? Still, I wouldn’t recommend it.”

Lord Blueblood’s eyes narrow at the implications. “You’re going to kill me and make it look like a suicide.”

“Oh no, I couldn’t do that to you. That would be terribly unjust after all. No, I’m just going to leave that here. Your son sends his regards and apologies for the wine. He said it didn’t agree with you. ” She levitates the dagger to Blueblood’s side and then stands up so her muzzle is near his ear. “Yes, that’s right. Your son has been my bitch for years. When I say jump he holds still until I tell him how high and in what direction. Quite an unexpected boon that murder attempt of yours was back at my birthday party, wouldn’t you say? A hoof delivered prince all for the low low price of a slaughtered wet team and his innocence.” She pulled back laughing as Blueblood snapped and yanked the dagger up with his magic and tried to stab her. Even as he attempted it he realized that she wasn’t really there even before the dagger drove itself deep into the wood of the other side of the cart.

“Oh, temper temper. That’ll get you killed one day.” Twilight’s projection begins to fade away. “By the way, that dagger can only kill one pony and it’s not any of the guards outside. Have fun.”

Lord Blueblood began to realize how much trouble he really was in. The griffons would demand his blood and their executions were not exactly clean or pain free. Perhaps that dagger was a better choice for more than just honor’s sake.

Twilight sat back and observed the stars that night on her library balcony. Spike slept in the background and provided her a soothing tone to relax by. After a moment she felt the telltale ripple of an incoming visitor. She immediately bowed even as their form solidified.

“Well done, Twilight Sparkle. Well done indeed. You have made allies, crushed your enemies, and secured advancements for our ponies.” Luna said as she made a motion for Twilight to rise out of her bow. “None of that now. You need do it least of anyone.”

“I am still a part of the Lunar Court so I must do it at least upon meeting you without prying eyes.” Twilight rose up to smile at Luna. “I thought you would like it. This plan took some time but I knew it would be what the country would need for the most part. It’s a shame about the griffon problem.”

“Worry not about it, Twilight. We’ll placate them with Blueblood’s hide. I’m going to have it fashioned into a cloak for their current ruler and he’ll let the whole thing go as its one more trophy of his defeated enemies. It doesn’t hurt that we’ve provided him a list of all those gorilla strongholds of the Diamond Dogs.”

“Excellent. I was hoping placing that information would help win them over rather than letting this incident cause too great a stir.”

“Yes, it will be regarded as an isolated event caused by a griffon hating unicorn with too much time on his hooves. You did well throughout all of this and my worries about you being able to handle this have been assuaged. Are you sure you do not wish to establish your own court? You’ve more than earned the right.”

“No, Luna, not yet at least. Maybe in time but I’ve still got things I need to do here. Live this life with my friends for awhile at least. Spike and I will be around for a very long time so I see no reason to rush it.”

“Perhaps that is the wisest choice. Well I must return before Celestia notices I’m gone. I look forward to your continued work.”

The alicorn disappears once more into the night as Twilight turns and gets ready for bed.

Twilight answered the summons from Chrysalis readily enough and brought Spike along with her. Once she arrived at the hive she was led inside and brought to a room made over for a party where she and Spike, along with several of Chrysalis’s guards and the queen herself, tore it up into the night for quite some time celebrating their alliance. Sometime after midnight that night though, when Twilight seemed groggy from exhaustion, drink, and conversation was when they made their move. Twilight was held up by the guards while Chrysalis loomed over her with a smirk.

“Oh Twilight, my dear delightful deceptive friend, I’m going to enjoy this. I have been plotting for some time how to get revenge on you but your recent actions for my people have stayed your execution but I must punish you. I finally figured out an alternative though. I’m going to turn you into a changeling. This way your mind and powers are still on my side and I can be assured you won’t turn on me. The fact that I can cause you pain with a thought is just a nice bonus.”

Twilight’s grogginess fades as she stares Chrysalis right in the eyes. “You made two mistakes. One was letting me bring a dragon in here.” Green flames enveloped the changelings holding Twilight in place reducing them to ash. Chrysalis tried to back away but found she could not. “The second was going through with your inevitable betrayal. Don’t worry though Chrsy, I can understand it. In fact I’ve found that I like you so much I’m going to keep you. Indeed, I’m going to keep you locked inside your own head while I work your body like a marionette. Feel that numbness spreading through your body? That shrinking feeling as reality starts to fade out around you? That is my magic. Welcome friend to your new eternity. You and I are going to be working closely. I really do feel bad about this but it assures me of your loyalty.”

Twilight and Spike left not too long after as Chrysalis announced to the hive their move toward the Crystal Empire and that they were to be considered friends of the hive. All the while she was making this announcement to her people deep inside her mind she was screaming for help. Whatever Sparkle had done it had shut her off from the hive mind. That was perhaps the greater hell of what she had done

Twilight met with Celestia shortly before all the princesses were supposed to meet to discuss the state of their country. She shared with her mentor everything she and her friends had been doing lately and listened as Celestia explained the latest bit of trouble they had been having. While things had worked out with the griffons and boars there were problems with the buffalo tribes aside from the one that had resolved its issues with Appleloosa.

Celestia hated to do it but she decided to ask Twilight if she and her friends could not help resolve it since they had been instrumental in the last snafu with the buffalo and are familiar on a more personal level with the culture of the nomadic tribes. Twilight of course agreed as she followed her beloved mentor. After all, Twilight was the faithful student and would get whatever Equestria needed resolved. Even if that meant she had to play a long game and secure her own allies for future events. Two nations backing her and control over the most of the transportation would not hurt given her plans for ten years from now.

Author's Note

Heh, end. And just in time too. Did you keep a tally of who killed who and what factions were either outright removed or taken over by a puppet everyone? I know I did. Remember to study the events that occur ten years later too for it will be on the quiz.