Into the Mouth of Hell

An island of light in a sea of black.

That was what Rainbow Dash felt like their team was like. Forty-two ponies marching through the darkness of the caves, led by the five unicorns of their crew, who were giving off lighting that, for stealth reasons, did not illuminate the entire cavern.

Bleue Pearl took point, something Rainbow Dash was surprised to see of the unicorn usually accustomed to staying out of the fight. She was also surprised to finally see him in uniform, even if it was just blue robes.

“So Rusty,” Rainbow said to the familiar burly stallion next to her. “What’d’ya expect out there?”

“Ah dunno,” Rusty admitted. “This is our first big battle, ah just know it’ll be intense.”

“I’m sure it’ll be fine, we’re capable,” Rainbow Dash said. “I mean we kicked some flank at that outpost.”

“That was only five griffins,” Rusty replied. “Besides, you seemed better at it than me. More…graceful when fightin’. Like you was dancin’.”

“Me. Dancing. You’d never see that happening,” Rainbow chuckled. “And come on Rusty, you were awesome too, you saved my life, and you never even used your sword!”

“Gits in the way,” Rusty commented, making Rainbow laugh.

“Y’know,” Rainbow looked at Rusty. “I used to think you were kind of a loser, but you’re pretty cool Rusty.”

“Aw, shucks,” Rusty Chop smiled. “Golly you seem nice today. Very…lively.”

“Could be all that coffee I drunk to stay awake,” Rainbow Dash said. “I don’t have the luxury Onyx has.”

“What’s that?”

“Insomnia,” Onyx walked over to the pair. “Wow Rainbow Dash. I’m kind of surprised you’re walking with us two.”

“Well, you’re my friends,” Rainbow Dash answered with a smile.

“How sweet,” Onyx said with a hint of embarrassment. “But I would’ve thought you’d be using this opportunity to talk to, you know, the Wonderbol-”

Rainbow Dash was replaced by a cloud of dust as she sped off to the front of the group.

Onyx sighed, “I regret saying that.”

Spitfire and Soarin led most of the group with the exception of the unicorns, who were making the light. It came as a surprise to Spitfire when a soldier suddenly appeared on her right.

“Hi Spitfire!”

She took in the sight in front of her. The mare was fully armoured with a kopis sword in sheath on her leg. It took a while for Spitfire to notice her cyan fur, rainbow-striped tail, and familiar magenta eyes.

“Rainbow Dash? Wasn’t expecting to see you here of all ponies,” Spitfire admitted.

Rainbow Dash squealed in a rather overly effeminate manner to hear she was remembered.

“But er, yeah. I joined up for the military, got into omega, pretty cool huh?”

“I imagine you’re doing well, being the fastest flier in Equestria an’ all,” Spitfire looked pleased. “Did any of your friends sign up?”

Rainbow’s ears flopped down. “No, they’re all either too busy or too…er…peaceful.”

Spitfire frowned. “That’s too bad, I’m sure Fluttershy would be formidable.”

Rainbow Dash nearly laughed, remembering Spitfire’s only real memory of Fluttershy was of when she helped bring the water up from Ponyville reservoir to Cloudsdale. Suddenly, Rainbow remembered the real reason she really wanted to talk to Spitfire.

“Um, Spitfire, I wanted to ask something about…trying to join the Wonderbolts.”

“Well I knew you were trying to do that, you do use every possible opportunity to meet us,” Spitfire smiled and rolled her eyes.

“Yeah, I guess what I’m trying to ask is, how do I get in?”

Spitfire shook her head.

“You can’t just sign up. Civilians can’t get in either, not usually anyway. The Wonderbolts started as a bunch of soldiers who happened to be good fliers. All these shows, costumes and celebrity statuses came later.”

“Well how do you get in?” Rainbow tilted her head.

Spitfire pointed at Soarin’.

“Y’know how Soarin’ got in? He destroyed the last remnants of the Himmelsupreme terrorist organisation single-hoofedly, or so we thought. It takes an act of extreme valour, an act of defence to Equestria and all it stands for. This job isn’t all flashy shows, it’s something more.”

Spitfire sighed.

“Sorry, I’m getting a little worked up.”

“It’s okay,” Rainbow Dash said. “I just want to ask, what do you mean by ‘or so we thought’?”

“Well, don’t you know how this war started?”

“I usually get answers that don’t make sense, or contradict the other answers I’ve been given,” Rainbow Dash replied.

“Well it turned out Soarin’s final blow to the Himmelsupreme was unsuccessful. They took all of Stalliongrad hostage, made it look like an anti-Celestial revolt. Celestia and her most trusted pegasi and unicorns took control of the situation, but they discovered the G.K. endorsed the attack. So here we are, fighting back.”

“Hm,” Rainbow Dash simply nodded.

“Surprised you didn’t know Dash, those are the same terrorists that got your parents, you have a personal reason to fight this war.”

“Yeah,” Rainbow Dash looked forward. “I guess I do.”

“HALT!” Bleue Pearl exclaimed.

Rainbow Dash moved back in the group to where she was originally, next to Onyx and Rusty.

“They know our plan. The entrance is blocked. I think with some help I can clear it, but be prepared for what is on the other side.”

Bleue turned around.

“I hate to seem…patronizing, but many of you soldiers are new. Many of you joined up to fight this war. Tonight, at Hambeak, you will discover what that means. Prepare yourselves; I will release the signal for the rest of the troops that we are ready to attack as soon as we leave.”

“Wow, he sure can talk when he wants to,” Rainbow Dash commented.

“You’d be surprised,” Onyx simply stated.

Bleue strained himself, his blue magical aura now surrounding the boulders blocking the way forward. The other four unicorns were quick to join in, the aura becoming a mix of blurred colours as the rocks began to shake, and then suddenly shift forward and hover in the night air.

Rainbow felt the cold night air hit her as soon as she stepped forward. The night was indeed cloudy, and she saw the silhouette of a settlement.

Once her eyes were adjusted to the dark, she could see the city was mainly made of stone, just like the Commander had said. It may as well have been carved from the mountainside they were leaving, as the structure gave that impression. Looking down, Rainbow saw what looked like artillery cannons, aimed forward to the front of the city were the bulk of their forces would be attacking. Guarding them were griffin troops, many of which facing this way. Bleue had been right, their attack had been anticipated.

Bleue Pearl let off a jet of yellow light, which was replied from the main body of troops with a charge as earth ponies and unicorns began to storm the gates while pegasi flew in from the clouds, creating gaps letting silver slivers of moonlight through.

The griffin soldiers guarding the artillery had seen the flanking team, and had taken flight, advancing towards them. Bleue Pearl growled, engulfing the rock debris that was once blocking the cave within his exclusive magical grasp and throwing it at several of the griffins, some falling in midair from concussion or death, others going down with the boulders, creating a wet, red, feathery mess on the ground.

The battle quickly elevated, the ponies and griffins now engaged in total war. Chaos defined the battlefield, Rainbow Dash knew that much as she slashed her sword along the gullet of one of the birds, its single-spiked helmet falling off and dropping to the ground with a thud alongside its body.

Rainbow Dash found herself fighting dozens of targets in midair. The griffins were relentless, but did not have the agility of Rainbow. She danced between them, her sword slashing through their vitals before they could raise their spears. The ground below Dash may as well have been raining griffin entrails.

She was near unaware of the environment around her. It was her, her sword, and the enemy. Everything else seemed hazy, whether it be Spitfire and Soarin’ using shock and awe tactics to scare the griffins into easy kills, or the advancing forces upon Hambeak, it was all a blur.

It wasn’t long until there was a gap in their attacks of her. She breathed heavily and moved towards the ground, seeing many of the fallen dead around her. There were a few pegasi, but the majority of the dead were griffins. Looking up, she could see the battle still raging around her, on the ground and in the sky. She also saw something straight ahead, something she near hit herself for ignoring.

The artillery cannons.

In all the chaos of the battle, no one had managed to take them down.

Rainbow Dash bit down hard on the hilt of her sword, ready to go in again. She began to charge in on foot, ready to attack the gun operators, but she hadn’t looked close enough.

She only managed to catch a glimpse of the steel glint of a mounted machine gun before she could dodge behind a rock. The relentless noise the mechanism was making made Rainbow’s ears almost bleed. No machine like that existed within the Equestrian forces. The commander had been warned that the griffins had superior firearms strength but this was ridiculous. Rainbow could not so much as lift a wing from behind the rock without risk.

“Need some help?” a familiar stallion’s voice shouted over the sound of the gun.

“Rusty? I would appreciate it!” Rainbow Dash shouted back.

“Ah got a plan! He can’ shoot two of us at once! You’re faster; you go for him while ah take a different route and distract ‘im!”

“That’s suicide!”

“Hey, a’m lucky!” Rusty got ready on his feet. “Now let’s go!”

***

He was ready to take on this invading Equestrian menace; he was ready to defend his home from the hoofed barbarians wishing to burn it down. He aimed his rifle, his colleagues to either side doing the same, ready to release a surge of hot lead on the advancing ponies.

Suddenly, his rifle glowed red.

Looking at his comrades, the same was happening to their rifles. Then their rifles moved from their claws, turning around so every griffin was looking down the barrel of their own gun. Before they could react there was the sound of many shots at once, and a thud as seven feathery bodies fell to the ground.

The seven rifles cocked themselves as Archmage Solarius trotted slowly onto the scene, a red hue on his horn. With him was General Thora followed by Shining Armor.

“Y’know, that gun-turning trick of yours really creeps me out,” Shining pointed out, looking at the bodies the tactic had killed.

“We were deceived, they knew we were coming,” Thora said, letting her hammer hang by its strap from her mouth.

“Think we can figure that one out later Thora? We have a battle to win,” Solarius replied.

“What I’m saying is that Thunderstorm’s flanking troops are probably in trouble. I’m going to the other side of the city, give a little aid to them,” Thora began to sprint away, swinging her hammer around her, carving a path in the griffin forces; Shining Armor also followed, stabbing multitudes of enemies with two telekinetically-controlled spears, one his, the other taken from a griffin.

***

Bang.

The bullet of Rusty’s revolver went straight through the skull of the last artillery operator. Rainbow Dash and Rusty Chop had spent a great deal of time dodging machine-gunners, but it was finally done. The Griffin artillery in Hambeak was officially non-functional.

There was no silence, the air was filled with the noise of the battle around them; the sound of screams, squawks, shots, and magical discharge. And yet, Rainbow felt like there was a silence of sorts. It was probably the break in the battle, the fact that she and Rusty had just taken out a major section of the griffin defence.

She turned to Rusty, and looked at him. His eyes were a certain breed of dark green, nearly reminiscent of Applejack’s light green irises. Rainbow Dash could not help but find them familiar, a sign of acceptance about them.

Moving closer, she opened her mouth to say something but was immediately interrupted by a rock wall of the city falling over next to her, General Thora having crushed through. A griffin, feathers black as oil, was advancing on her, along with two others of similar colour. In his beak was a familiar leather strap, off which hanged Thora’s rock hammer.

“You von’t be needing this,” the black griffin said, throwing the hammer aside, his Griffanian accent showing. “This unjust var should at least be halted by your death, pony general.”

“Sorry to disappoint you mister Griffin, but there’s someone else in line for my job,” Thora spat, breathing brokenly. She could barely move. Looking Rainbow guessed the griffin had broken her legs.

“At least halted,” the griffin replied. He looked up, seeing Rainbow Dash and Rusty Chop, who already had his revolver ready to fire.

Click. Click, click, click.

“Darn, outta bullets!” Rusty swore.

“Tötet die pegasi, soldats,” the black griffin murmured, as the two griffins at his side leapt into action.

One of the griffins ran towards them and threw his spear. It nearly hit Rusty square in the body but he managed to get out of the way, though it ripped off his cape, pinning it to the ground.

Rainbow Dash suddenly felt a knock on her helmet, pushing her back. The other griffin had shot her, nearly hitting her in the head, but instead grazing the helmet. Rainbow took it off, as its dent from the shot made it near impossible to wear, and began to run up to the griffin, sword in mouth, dodging the birds’ shots until she was on the griffin, her sword deep in its neck.

Looking over she saw the griffin that had attacked Rusty also lay slain by Rusty’s back-hooves. They both turned to face the black griffin, charging at him.

The griffin shook his head, revealing a strange-looking rifle and aiming it at Thora.

“No!” Rainbow Dash near shouted, getting between Thora and the griffin, taking a bullet that she could not feel due to shear adrenaline rush.

The griffin fired again, but the shot went wild as he was tackled to the ground by Rusty Chop, who turned his rifle on him, firing several times. The rifle was semi-automatic, something Rusty had never seen, but there was little mystery to its operation.

He fired until the rifle would fire no more, and then dropped the weapon. He turned around to Rainbow Dash, who was now approaching him with a slight limp.

Rainbow Dash stopped walking a foot from him, and said nothing, simply looking at him, staring into his deep green eyes once more, moving closer and closer.

“Wow, that was a close ca-” Rusty’s words were muffled by a sudden, but soft kiss. He closed his eyes, allowing himself to enjoy the feeling of her lips against his as their tongues danced.

Rainbow Dash finally broke off the long kiss, opening her eyes just slightly, smiling dimly.

“R-Rainbow,” Rusty stuttered, obviously never having a mare make such an advance, especially in such a dire situation. “You’re bleeding.”

Rainbow looked down to see a hole in her back left leg where a bullet had hit. There were a multitude of other injuries, but that one was the most obvious, the blood loss looking dire. But Rainbow Dash felt nothing, she felt almost drunk, although she wasn’t so sure why.

“Hey, it can wait,” Rainbow replied, bring her hoof up to remove his helmet as she closed her eyes, moving in agai-

“Very cute privates, but I could use a little help here,” General Thora coughed. “Maybe get a medic or something. I don’t know, drag me to safety would you?”

“Seems like a good idea,” Rusty said, chuckling, but not seeming his usual nonchalant self. “Rainbow you stay here, I’ll get help.”

Rusty flew off into the air. The sounds of battle suddenly seemed quieter, the moonlight peeked through holes in the cloud created by the fighting pegasi and griffins. Rainbow felt numb as the world began to blur away…

***

“Ponies! We’re losing time, wake up!”

Twilight Sparkle was the first to wake to Drone’s Colgate voice, followed by Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Fluttershy and Rarity.

“The off-road trip is back in town!” Pinkie Pie near-shouted as she immediately stood up upon waking, her bags already ready.

“Um, you could say that,” Drone groaned and continued. “Ponies, we are very close, it’s best you have your breakfast and we keep moving; we need to get there soon.”

It wasn’t long until they had all hesitantly got up. They had all packed a tedious amount of sandwiches due to Applejack’s insistence they would all ‘die of hunger otherwise.’ Twilight was digging into her dandelion sandwich, watching Drone as ‘she’ sat outside the group, staring out into the mountainous scrubland and sparse forest that had replaced the flat desert.

Twilight moved over to Drone, eventually settling beside the mare-formed changeling.

“I know you’re there, what do you want?” ‘she’ said.

“I just, want to know if you’re okay,” Twilight answered, taking a bite of her sandwich.

“Hmph, I’ve been better,” Drone groaned.

“To me you seem pretty angry,” Twilight noted.

Drone’s eyes instantly turned from blue to green as ‘she’ turned to Twilight, voice suddenly becoming croaky and echoed.

“And what’s that to you, pony? To you I’m a disgusting, evil monster; you could never understand me.”

“Try me,” Twilight replied, now determined to know what was wrong.

Drone’s eyes returned to blue and ‘her’ voice was Colgate’s once more.

“It’s just...isolation from the colony isn’t good for us. For months I’ve lived in pain in that prison cell, and maybe it’s just because we’re close to the hive, but now I’m really getting impatient.”

“What does isolation do?” Twilight asked.

“When we’re part of the colony we have the collective knowledge of every changeling in that colony, and power beyond anything I have now. We managed to take out your royal guard very quickly because we were united. But without that…well…imagine having immense knowledge and power and having that just taken away. That’s what it’s like. Then we start to develop other things: individuality, more emotions, things you ponies would approve of, but to us they are alien, and they hurt us. Makes us feel alone.”

“I…well…we’re nearly there, Drone,” Twilight reassured the changeling.

Drone chuckled. “Funny, that name, Drone. Changelings aren’t supposed to have a concept of names. I guess that was another side effect of isolation. It doesn’t even make sense. I’m a soldier changeling, not a drone changeling.”

“Maybe you’ll feel better if you talk to me about the ranking system of your hive?”

Drone smiled. “Can’t believe I’m saying this but…thanks, Twilight Sparkle.”

***

Commander Thunderstorm pulled his spear out of the griffin’s beak, its blood staining his ivory armour with yet more red.

“Clawed brutes,” he grumbled, looking down at the city. The army was flooding through the streets, the griffins soldiers becoming outnumbered.

Soarin’ came flying out from the city up to Commander Thunderstorm, looking tired, but not uncomfortable.

“Commander, we’ve won. Nearly are griffin troops are dead or captured and the mayor of the city has surrendered.”

“Just in time too,” Thunderstorm said, looking over at the horizon. The sun was rising over a new Hambeak, controlled by them.

“Get the pegasi to set up a guard around the city.”

“What do you plan on doing sir?”

“I plan to find General Thora; don’t tell anypony, it’ll cause panic, but she’s gone missing. I have an idea of where she might be…” the Commander flew off to the other side of the city, leaving Soarin’ in confusion.

He saw the city was clearly under their control. An earth pony stood at the top of the town hall, waving the flag of the royal sisters, which made him smile.

He landed at the outskirts of the back of the city, and was pleased to see twenty pegasi immediately point their swords, spears, rifles and revolvers at him. Their capes flew the insignia of omega. It wasn’t long until they all lowered their weapons.

“Good to see you omega, where’s the rest of you?” the Commander asked.

“Some of us got scattered, the griffins deployed a hell of a lot of troops back here once they realised we were coming,” a familiar clear-voiced white unicorn said, standing out from the pegasi.

“Good to see you’re alive Bleue, at least Solarius won’t try to skin me alive,” Thunderstorm replied dryly. “I need you all to search the area. We have missing troops around here, including the army general! If you find her report to me immediately!”

A chorus of neighs came in reply.

They’re getting better at that, the Commander thought, as he walked over to the griffin artillery.

The weapons had been sabotaged by his pegasi; griffin gun operators lay dead of sword slashes and bullet strikes around the cannons. This reassured Thunderstorm, and also solved the mystery of why there were so few artillery attacks later into the battle.

A dirt-coloured pegasus flew in from the sky and landed on the ground heavily. He was an omega pegasus, the Commander could tell that even if he had no cape, and clearly he had been fighting with no rest for a long time.

“Private Chop, good to see somepony in my platoon survived.”

“Then a got more good news for ya Commander,” Rusty breathed heavily and coughed. “The reason a was gone was to get help for two wounded back there, unfortunately everypony was too busy fightin’ to help, A’m scared they’ve died while a was gone.”

“They’ll be safe now,” the Commander reassured him.

“One of ‘em might interest you,” Rusty remarked as they went around the corner.

Thunderstorm first saw General Thora, who was unconscious, her back legs twisted badly.

“Thora!”

He ran over to her and shook her, making her cough and wake up.

“Gosh ‘storm, don’t try to kill me, my legs are broken,” Thora said, clearly in a sour mood. “Good to see help arrived anyway.”

“I’ll make sure you’re fighting soon, Thora,” the Commander reassured.

Looking up, he tried to see the other wounded, who Rusty Chop was standing over. He walked over and found himself stepping in a pool of blood.

Rainbow Dash’s blood.

“By Celestia, we need to get help now, she’s been shot, not sure how long she’s gonna last.”

Thunderstorm looked up at Rusty.

“Bleue should be in the area. If he took my advice he brought medical supplies with him, get his help.”

Commander Thunderstorm ripped off his golden cape and put it over Rainbow Dash’s wound. It was immediately soaked red, but at least helped to stop some bleeding.

“Don’t die on me, Private…”

***

“Stop.”

Twlight Sparkle, Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie all stopped immediately in their tracks at Drone’s order. There was a green flash, and Drone transformed back into his original form.

“We’re here,” Drone croaked, nodding his head at the field of burrows ahead.

“Holy moley that’s a lot of holies!” Pinkie Pie quoted herself, looking around in shock. “We don’t have to do the fishing thing again do we?”

There was a long pause, broken by Drone.

“What?”

“Don’t ask,” Applejack murmured. “But how exactly do we get in there?”

Drone didn’t reply, instead he went over to the edge of one of the holes, holding his head low to the ground. It was hard to tell was he was thinking due to his insectile face and unblinking eyes, but he lifted his head with a definite look of satisfaction.

“The others shall help you of course.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Rarity asked, and her question was answered by four changelings flitting out of one of the holes.

“Oh, that’s what it means,” Rarity gulped and cringed as a Changeling grabbed her body with its rotted-looking legs.

The other three changelings and Drone did the same for the other four ponies as they all flew down the hole they came up in, plunging them into complete darkness.

When the darkness ended and the five ponies felt like they could open their eyes, they were flying through a huge underground structure. The walls were lined with green pod-like eggs and holes, probably leading to other passages, or perhaps homes. Twilight had never asked about how Changelings slept. The most magnificent thing in the subterranean hall were the platforms carved from the stone and dirt poking from the underground lake that dominated the bottom, serving as  pathways across. Buildings of a strangely artistic combination of stone, dirt and green goo were everywhere, looking like hut-sized beehives.

Looking around, Twilight saw not all the changelings had horns and wings. Some lacked horns all together, and scurried busily from place to place. She assumed those were the “drone changelings” that Drone told her about.

It wasn’t long until the changelings dropped them off on a long platform. Soldier changelings stood at either side and behind them, pushing them along until they reached the end. There was a well-carved stone throne room there that they found themselves standing in, waiting for something to happen.

“Submow f’a ser glorack’stay d’ei Ma’trach Chrysalis d’ei Fir’agn!” a soldier changeling said. Their language was croaky, filled with clicks and stops.

The changelings bowed, and a familiar, tall creature walked into the room, her green eyes examining the ponies that had entered.

“You’ve got to be kidding,” her echoed, venomous voice stated.

“We’re not here to defeat you! In fact…I wasn’t even sure you’d be here, we come in peace,” Twilight forced herself to curtsy to the monstrosity that had imprisoned her in the crystal caves under Canterlot.

“That wouldn’t matter, if you tried you wouldn’t be in the best position to fight back,” the Changeling Queen narrowed her eyes.

“For now you are my guests; but be quick, you’ve already put me in the most awful mood.”

Fluttershy had shrunk into the smallest shape she could possibly assume, curled into a ball on the floor.

“Well, um, we were just here because we thought you were impersonating Celestia, and, um, you’re…not, we should go Twilight,” Fluttershy said very quickly.

“No, Fluttershy, we need answers, Celestia’s actions are downright strange!” Twilight Sparkle near shouted back.

“You know, maybe ‘Tia’s just gone coo-coo in her old age,” the Queen chuckled.

“Listen, Changeling Queen-”

“Call me Queen Chrysalis, ‘Changeling Queen’ will get old fast,” Chrysalis replied.

Twilight started again.

“Listen Queen Chrysalis, I know you’re up to something, not many villainous creatures can manipulate like you.”

“Twilight,” the Queen narrowed her eyes once more. “I’m tired. I’ve barely recovered from my rather…over-ambitious project to invade a nation. For now I’ve been sticking to feeding my subjects on simpler loving relationships between normal, everyday ponies just so we can survive. I don’t have the strength to try something like messing with royalty again.”

“A likely story,” Twilight rolled her eyes.

“I’m serious, do you really think my life is all about plans of world domination? No, I try to feed my hive, that’s it,” Chrysalis walked past the five ponies, looking over the magnificent underground city that her children had created.

“Frankly, her behaviour confuses me too. My children have been living among you ponies since the fall of Discord, and never has she been so imperial. It is a similar story with Luna, at least back when she had more power.”

The Queen looked back at Twilight.

“It could be another changeling leader, you know.”

“What?” Twilight was confused. More changeling queens? Maybe changeling kings?

“Did you seriously think this was the only changeling hive in the world? Oh, no.”

Chrysalis approached the five ponies as she talked.

“Changelings are an old and varied race. The only thing we share is our ability to change into similar-formed equines. I may feed on love but other changeling monarchs may feed on different emotions: humour, for example. King Chucklescales was a popular comedian in Equestria for centuries, taking different identities every once in a while. I’m pretty sure he’s still doing it.”

“I knew Sillywing was different!” Pinkie Pie stomped a hoof.

Chrysalis shook his head. “He never was good with names.”

“Wait, so are y’suggestin’ this is the work of some different changelin’s?” Applejack asked.

“Unfortunately, yes,” Chrysalis sighed.

“Wouldn’t you be, I don’t know, happy about one of your kind succeeding?” Twilight questioned.

“Listen, as hard as it is to get you ponies to believe, I don’t like war. I feed off love, which tends to occur in a peaceful environment.”

“Not what y’said when y’tried to invade Canterlot,” Applejack retorted.

“That was different. It was a stupid idea to try and intimidate more love into Equestria,” Chrysalis replied angrily.

“I’ve realised it works better it if comes naturally. Unfortunately, not all Changeling colonies have such peaceful concepts to work with.”

“What do you think these changelings feed on then?” Twilight asked.

“I’m hoping it’s not conflict,” Chrysalis looked away. “I would rather not face Mars again.”

“Mars? Like the planet?” Twilight asked.

“No, like the chocolate bar,” Chrysalis sarcastically replied.

“Oh boy! Mars bars!” Pinkie Pie hopped up and down.

“Wait, there’s a chocolate bar called Mars?” Twilight thought aloud.

“It’s popular in Prance-Oh for love’s sake! Are we seriously going this off topic?” Chrysalis groaned.

“Originally there were not very many Changelings. We were a race that came about during the confused evolutionary structure in Equestria created by Discord. He saw the original changelings as a ‘wonderful race’, named them after planets in the sky. Nearly all of us managed to escape the harmonising of Equestria, and since then we have evolved into many different types. I personally, am a direct descendant of Venus, one of the original Changelings. In our hive, queens can only have one child that can grow up to be a queen like them, and they can choose her name. In the hive of Mars it is different. They have a King, and every King must have the same name.”

Chrysalis started to pace around the throne room.

“I have met Mars and his changelings. King Mars the Forty-first, as his ridiculous title goes. He feeds off conflict, which usually means taking the form of debaters, or struggling marriages.”

“And you think he has…become Celestia?” Twilight asked.

“The changeling hive of conflict has never been very ambitious, sticking to traditions of staying out of major business like this, but perhaps Mars has finally swallowed his pride and started a war,” Chrysalis frowned.

“I’m surprised you’re so bothered by this,” Twilight noted.

Chrysalis turned to look Twilight in the eye.

“Not only does this cut down on the amount of love in Equestria that I can feed on, it also means that there is an incredibly malicious creature with total control over the ponies I feed off! For all I know he’ll send the armies to me once he’s done with the griffins!”

“You’re…scared?” Twilight said reluctantly, hoping her inquisition would not backfire.

“Why should I not be? There’s a ridiculously powerful changeling king controlling an army of not only ponies, but also changelings near drunk on the amount of conflict going on in Griffannia!”

Twilight sighed. “Chrysalis…I’m sorry.”

“Huh?” Applejack exclaimed, but she said nothing further.

“What do you mean?” Chrysalis replied.

“For giving you such a hard time when we arrived, I’m not saying I approve of what you do, I just think I misjudged you.”

Chrysalis sighed. “If we’re going to be like this, I’m sorry for trying to trying to take over Equestria.”

Twilight gave her a drab look.

“Oh, and imprisoning you and Cadence while brain-washing your brother.”

“There we go,” Twilight smiled.

“We’re still not friends, you do realise that, right?” the Queen replied. “Like, I’m not going to hug you or anything.”

“I’d rather you didn’t either,” Twilight replied, smiling. “Although I’d like to ask for your help. We plan to bring down this Mars guy, who’s with me?”

The other four ponies cheered, but it stopped as soon as it started.

“Wait, how are we gon’ take this feller down?” Applejack asked.

“I’ll work out something,” Twilight answered, before addressing Chrysalis again. “Anyway, Queen Chrysalis, will you help us take down Mars?”

“I’m afraid I can’t help so…directly; but, I can help. My changelings are dispersed all over Equestria. Many are busy harvesting love, but a great amount are spies too, examining the state of the world and looking for couples to sabotage. They can help you in your cause, and will always be able to find you.”

Twilight couldn’t help but find the idea of replacing someone’s loved one to feed off their love for them disgusting, but she held back her criticism; she wanted to get on the Queen’s good side.

“I’ll keep that in mind. Thank you, Queen.”

“You too, Twilight Sparkle,” Chrysalis nodded in acknowledgement. “I’ll get some changelings to escort you out and back to Appleloosa where you can take the train back to the main body of Equestria. I understand not all of you can fly.”

It wasn’t long until they were grabbed by changeling soldiers once more, and flown through the vast cavern again, up one of the tunnels that led out of the hive and into the open air. The changelings flew in formation close to one another as they raced along the scrubland, nearly back in the desert at this speed.

“A…did not see that comin’,” Applejack turned to Twilight. “It’s safe to say that was the most surreal experience of my life.”

“I agree, never saw that coming either,” the changeling holding Applejack croaked, earning him a rather grim look from Applejack.

“Hey, I’m just saying!”

Twilight spoke up.

“It’ll be late when we’re back in Ponyville; we’ll get some rest, meet the next day. We have a lot of planning to do.”