Das Wiederaufleben

“Now then,” Scootaloo began, turning to her subordinates. “This is Nacht Fang. She’s our tech support.”

Fang smiled slightly, nodding at the acknowledgement.

“And this is Hit Marks. He’s in charge of the big guns.”

Marks sneered. “Yeah. You better remember that, Maggot, whenever you feel like starting something with m-AGH!”

Scootaloo bucked Marks with a mighty kick and turned to face him as he rubbed his cheek. “You’re out of line, lieutenant! Apologize now!”

“Tch... Sorry...”

Hermes nodded. “It’s okay, sir. I understand that you may have a stigma against my kind. I hope that my service will help alleviate any prejudices you have!”

The orange mare wrapped a wing around the cadet’s torso and pulled him in. “Ha! I like you, kid! We’re gonna get along great.”

His cheeks glowing with a green blush, Hermes smiled. “Thank you, ma’am.”

Twilight took a step forward, once again gaining the center of attention. “Thank you, Spike. Now that everypony has arrived, shall we take our seats?”

Chrysalis tilted her head. “Everypony?” She asked. “I take it Princess Cadenza and Prince Armor will not be present?”

It was Celestia who answered. “No. My niece and nephew-in-law both agreed that their bias towards this subject matter made them a slight liability to this negotiation.”

“And what of Princess Sparkle, yourself and Commander Scootaloo? You were all present during my failed invasion.”

Hermes’ eyes widened and he turned to his new commanding officer whose eyes were just as wide.

“Your majesty,” She said. “You remember me?”

With a chuckle, the Queen turned to the pegasus. “Of course. You made an adorable flower filly.”

Luna cleared her throat, speaking up. “To answer your question, Queen Chrysalis, Princess Sparkle and my sister were the catalysts behind our people’s alliances, and as such, they agreed that they should be present for this meeting.”

The Queen nodded. “Very well. Let us take our seats. I assume your general will be joining us?”

Spike stepped forward. “Indeed, your highness.”

“Very well.” Chrysalis said as she turned to her squadron still scuttling about on the ceiling. “My children, I ask you to leave us for the time being.”

Without a moment’s hesitation, each one of them saluted and hovered out the door.

Hermes almost went out with them, his wings buzzing before Scootaloo stopped him.

“Hey, buddy, you’re with us now. Not them.” She said with a smirk as she grabbed his hind leg.

Embarrassed, the young cadet nervously chuckled as his green blush returned.

One by one,the princesses and the Queen took a seat around the large table in the center of the room.

Spike, despite his gargantuan size, managed to wriggle himself into a specially designed chair, built to accommodate his excessive draconic bulk. Scootaloo, Fang and Marks all took up their positions around the table to maintain watch, Hermes sticking to Scootaloo’s side like a school pony tailing his teacher on a school trip. With everypony in place, Twilight cleared her throat to make her address.

“Alright. I officially call all parties present to present to the table all their terms, conditions and demands for the annexation of the changeling territories into Equestria. Queen Chrysalis, if you would like to present your demands.” The changeling nodded and turned to address the small committee.

“If I were to agree to annex what territories my people have claimed, I would like a more developed infrastructure and oversight of the areas within my control.” In reply, Princess Celestia nodded.

“A reasonable request. I’m sure we could gather a taskforce of volunteers to aid your people in building the beginning of a small city or town of your own. With time, perhaps we could even look into integrating our peoples within those settlements.” Chrysalis gave a satisfied nod to this proposal.

“I assume you have stipulations for us. Let’s hear them.”

Luna sat up. “Unfortunately, yes” she began calmly. “We do have to ask that, unless given authorization, changelings shall not use their shapeshifting abilities.”

Instead of a display of outrage, as Luna had expected, the changeling queen merely brushed a strand of papery mane away from her face.

“And what, might I ask, would be cause of said authorization?”

“Well,” Luna coughed. “If one of your people works in the field of law enforcement, shapeshifting might be allowed during an undercover investigation. That is of course, but one example. If the need arises, this condition can be negotiated further.”

“No, no.” Chrysalis said, waving her chitinous hoof as she dismissed the notion. “I understand. I find this condition acceptable.”

As the diplomats discussed and bargained, Scootaloo turned to her new cadet with a playful smirk.

“Also, Hermes. Wie haben Sie sich so fließend Deutsch Sprache?” She quizzed, giving the young changeling a cheeky wink at his stunned expression at her almost faultless Germane pronunciation.

“Um, well…” Hermes stuttered as he pawed at the floor with his holey foreleg. “W-We changelings have very good brains for learning different languages. Just part of the ability to blend in with other species, I guess.” Scootaloo chuckled and playfully barged him with her shoulder, making him stumble a little, only barely catching his balance again before he ended up kissing the cold floor tiles.

“Geez, kid, it’s like I’m babysitting for Private Pansy, here. We’re gonna have to toughen you up a little, cadet, or else you’re gonna get chewed right up and spat back out again.” She teased, making Hermes blush again with that all too familiar green glow.

“Geeze... How’d we get stuck with guard duty?” One unicorn stallion complained as he slumped against the stone fence.

Opposite the gate, another guard sighed. “Would it kill ya to stop complaining? We could be stuck cleaning the barracks.”

“What do the princesses even need guards for? They’re ALICORNS!”

“It’s just to keep up appearance.”

A third, nasally and young-sounding voice interrupted. “Uh. Hey? This is castle Friendship, right? Princess Twilight’s palace?”

The two guards sprang up, grabbing the spears and standing at attention. As they turned toward the source of the new voice, they found a tall, skinny teenage Earth pony stallion towering above them. His tannish fur stretched across his near skeletal face, his eyes almost yellow and cloudy and piercings covering his brow and muzzle. Though his thin stature wasn’t much to make him look physically menacing, his creepy expression and sheer height were certainly cause for concern to the guards.

"Sorry sir,” the first guard said in an authoritative tone, “but the grounds are currently off limits to civilians." The teen quirked an eyebrow and gave a sinister, cocky chuckle.

"Oh?” He questioned, amusedly. “Then who are those guys?" He pointed to the grounds just off to the left of the guards. As soon as they turned their heads, however, they found that there was nopony in sight.

“What are you talking abou-” CLANG!

The guard found himself cut off violently as several mechanical hooves burst out from under the ground and dragged him and his colleague under the soil, their wild yells of horror quickly muffled by the loamy turf. The pony smirked as he cackled gleefully at the terrified expressions on the poor guards’ faces.

"Holy bucking shit!” He roared. “Did you see his bucking face? That shit is priceless!"

One by one, several pairs of hooves dragged themselves out from beneath the soil like zombies, revealing black silhouettes of mechanical ponies, each one holding at least one high caliber assault rifle.

“Alright boys! Up and at ’em!”

One of the machines approached the teen and handed him a weapon, much to the young earth pony’s delight.

The teen walked towards the gate and cackled maniacally.

“Alright! Time to skullbuck that Sparkle slut! Let’s start a motherbuckin’ riot up in this bee-yotch!”