Prologue—The Subterrestrian Council
Deep in the heart of the world, in a shining palace of jewels, a set of heavy metal doors slammed shut with a resounding bang. In the room behind the doors was a large, curved table inlaid with ornate designs depicting great triumphs in the history of the kingdom. The wall of the room sloped upwards, coming to a point at the center. The walls shone brilliantly, testament to the polishing maintained by the staff of the palace.
At various points along the great table sat eight imposing immortal figures.
"This meeting of the Subterrestrian Council is hereby in session," said one of the figures, a majestic alicorn, as she slammed her beige hoof on the table like a gavel.
The other occupants of the room stopped shifting around in their seats to look at the alicorn as she spoke.
"We have called this meeting to order to discuss the situation in Equestria. As we all know, Chrysalis' spies have reported a number of disasters occurring in Equestria in quick succession as of late. These catastrophes have had negative effects on our own kingdom of Subterrestria. This meeting hopes to come up with a viable long-term solution for dealing with these disasters.
"We will start by hearing Queen Chrysalis' report on what her spy network has observed."
The alicorn settled down into her seat as the tall, regal changeling queen stood up.
"As Princess Terra has said," began Chrysalis, "there has been an unusual increase in the amount of magical disasters in Equestria. So far these events have been triggered by the appearance of a magical entity. The appearance of an alicorn in a town called Ponyville was the first. My spies noticed an unusually long 'night' on the eve of a holiday known as the Summer Sun Celebration.
"A short while later, a powerful pulse of magic was found to have erupted from the town. This pulse shorted out our power systems for almost two hundred hours. We had to work tirelessly to get the network up and running again, and it still wasn't quite fully functional for another two hundred hours after that.
"After that disruption to our routine, there was a short period of peace, followed by a small burst of chaos energy one 'night'. Though this minor amount of energy had no effect on our way of life, it was followed by the appearance of one of the ancient draconequui. This draconequus' mere presence caused mass chaos and confusion in Equestria, and that chaos spread to our own fair Subterrestria. The wild magic of the Abyss spread throughout Subterrestria, and with it, the evil beasts that lurk within. Our citizens became twisted caricatures of themselves and the laws of reality snapped.
"This madness finally stopped with yet another pulse of magic, and we experienced our worst power outage to date. Our systems were non-functional for almost five hundred hours. Lady Yōuya will surely agree with me when I say that it was the worst financial disaster to ever strike Subterrestria. On top of repairing the damage caused by the chaos magic, we also had to expend countless silver eyes* fixing and replacing the gems in the power lines, and providing relief to the citizens.
"We lost countless crops during the power outage, leading to mass food shortages and exhaustion, which was only compounded by the fact that we had to demand a more frequent and greater magical tax to try and repair the power systems. Our economy is still recovering from this catastrophe, and I for one will not stand here and allow the goings-on of the world above to interfere with our happy lifestyle," finished Chrysalis, punctuating her statement with a bang of her chitinous hoof.
She settled back down into her seat, out of breath from her long-winded report and closing rant. The rest of the room's occupants glanced around at each other, murmuring softly under their breath. A gold-scaled, winged kirin doe stood up and cleared her throat with a dainty cough.
"I suppose that honour demands I speak up here, does it not?" she said in a regal sounding voice. "I must say, I had quite the bit of trouble allocating funds for the various repairs. The emergency treasury was stretched very thin, and I've had to raise taxes to compensate for this disaster. The sheer volume of damage was monumental and it has had far-reaching consequences that we are still feeling at this very hour. I had a great deal of trouble attempting to convince aristocrats to part with some of their fortune to help fund the relief efforts. But I'll quieten myself for now. I'm sure our dear Ironclaw has something to add, doesn't he?"
As the kirin settled down, her majestic antlers shining with a soft light, Lord Ironclaw started upon realising he had been called to speak. Casting a glance at the kirin, who merely shot him a mischievous smirk, he stood up.
The large, rust coloured diamond dog quickly attempted to save face. "As Lady Yōuya has said, our resources were stretched thin, and I'm not just talking about silver eyes. We lost a great deal of crops as the power flowing to the lighting gems was cut out. Our unicorns and kirin were overworked trying to compensate, but it still wasn't enough. Our miners were also worked to the brink of exhaustion, as they not only had to work overtime to unearth new power gems, but they also had to do so in very unsafe and unhealthy conditions."
Ironclaw sat back down as Princess Terra rose once more. "In light of this information," she said, "our duty is now to make a decision for the benefit of all of Subterrestria. Are there any suggestions?"
"We should march in and shatter their country," barked a large, silver coated lycan. His fangs gleamed as he snarled. "Let them taste our righteous fury and know the true price for crossing the kingdom of Subterrestria!"
"Now, now, Wildheart, let us not be hasty," said a soft-spoken old earth dragon. His off-white scales were softened throughout, and many were missing, but he still carried with him an air of reverence.
"And why should we not be?" growled Wildheart, "Those surface-dwellers have caused us no end of troubles over the years. We should just destroy them and be done with it."
"Has it not occurred to you that perhaps our troubles were not intentional? Perhaps this whole situation has merely come about as a result of poor circumstances. After all, the kingdom above has no knowledge of our own land," countered the dragon.
"You're as weak as your namesake, Softscale," said Wildheart in a low voice. "Too afraid to enter the fray of a battle? It doesn't surprise me, I'm sure any half-competent warrior could shatter you into a million pieces."
"Was that a threat?" asked Softscale.
"Perhaps," said Wildheart with a dangerous grin.
"Well now, boys, shouldn't we turn our anger towards the source of our problems? I hate to see such charming and promising young men such as yourselves arguing with one another," said a mare who at first glance appeared to be another alicorn, one with a blue coat and a mane that flowed like water. Closer inspection would reveal that her coat shone with moisture and her long, elegant tail was that of a dolphin.
Softscale laughed, his previous aggression forgotten. "I have not been called young in quite some time, my dear Uisce. I admit I do find myself warmed at the idea of you taking a shine to me. Though I suppose you kelpies have always been adept at the art of trickery."
Wildheart bared his teeth at Uisce. "Your sad attempt at manipulating me will not work today, Uisce. I am in the mood for war!"
"Oh, you wound me," said Uisce, putting on her best look of betrayal and holding a hoof to her head dramatically. "However shall I go on knowing that dear Wildheart has such disdain for me? Oh woe is me!"
"You won't have to if I get ahold of you." said Wildheart. As he made movements to snap at Uisce, he suddenly found himself on the receiving end of a strong slap on the back courtesy of a burly minotaur.
"Calm down, you ol' mutt. You shouldn't go around bitin' the ladies," said the minotaur. He grinned and winked at Uisce. "Unless it's in the bedroom of course." This drew a laugh from all but Wildheart, who growled a bit but otherwise remained silent.
"Ooh, now that can be arranged, my dear Swordshatter," said Uisce in a sultry voice with half lidded eyes.
"Ahem," said Terra, causing attention to return to her once more. "We are not here to banter with each other. We are here to discuss solutions to our problems with Equestria."
"I still say we should battle them and make them suffer," said Wildheart.
"I haven't had a good battle in years, but I'm not so sure that's a good idea," said Swordshatter.
"And why not? According to Chrysalis, Equestria is a land of peace. They will be ill-prepared for war if we strike first," said Wildheart.
"But as I've said before," said Chrysalis, "Equestria has many allies it can call upon in times of need, not to mention whatever powerful artifacts have been causing these pulses."
"It is my humble opinion that funding a war would be unwise. We simply do not have the silver eyes required to mobilise our forces and train new recruits," said Yōuya, shaking her head.
"Not to mention that if the Equestrians find the only point of connection between us, they could very easily ambush us there and pick us off as we're funnelled through at a slow pace," added Swordshatter.
"Well then what do you propose?" asked Wildheart.
"Perhaps we could find some way to make the power lines resistant to these pulses?" suggested Softscale.
"And how long is that going to take, old-timer?" spat Wildheart.
"With all due respect, Softscale, we don't have enough silver eyes to fund your research. I've already had to make extensive budget cuts to allow for your experiments. Any more and we risk seriously harming the citizens," said Yōuya.
"Perhaps Softscale isn't so wrong after all," said Ironclaw, scratching his chin. "We might not be able to fortify the power lines quite yet, but if we just sealed off the point of connection, we could place wards designed to stop these pulses in their tracks. It's only a temporary solution, but it might hold long enough for us to make permanent fortifications to the power cables. Not to mention that with the point of connection sealed, it's highly unlikely that any surface threats would be able to make their way down here."
"That might work," said Terra, nodding slowly.
"There's a problem with that, however."
All eyes turned toward Softscale as he continued speaking. "While Ironclaw's suggestion might work, it will almost certainly draw the attention of the two alicorn rulers of Equestria. The level of magic required, both to perform the sealing and to cast a ward across all of Subterrestria is massive. It will take a bit of time to prepare the necessary gems and collect the necessary mana to cast the warding. When all of that energy is released at once, it will undoubtedly be noticed by the alicorns. Though the ward will be powerful, the alicorns may just be able to force their way through, and that would be disastrous.
"We need to find a way to cover up the extreme magical output. Something to draw their attention away from us, or to misguide them into thinking it is something else."
Softscale swept his gaze across the room. "In short, we need a distraction."
The room was silent for a moment until Uisce spoke up. "What kind of distraction are we talking about here? Something violent? Something strange?"
"I say we go for something violent. That'll shock 'em, and they certainly wouldn't dare to try and attack us afterwards," said Wildheart, his eyes lighting with passion.
"Must you always resort to violence?" said Yōuya with a sigh. She shook her head. "I have already said that we cannot fund a war right now. It simply isn't within the limits of our budget."
"Violence is not always the answer, Wildheart," said Terra, also shaking her head.
"Wait..." said Swordshatter looking at Wildheart. "Maybe the mutt isn't so wrong after all. While we can't fund a war, surely we can fund something more...subtle?"
"Subtle how?" asked Yōuya and Uisce at the same time.
"Well, if we were to launch an attack without actually revealing ourselves, it would sow enough chaos that the alicorns would be more focused on that than anything else. If we make it look as though the problem originated in Equestria, then they won't even think to look elsewhere. There's no chance of being discovered," said Swordshatter.
"Good idea, dear, but how are we to manage that level of subtlety?" asked Uisce.
"I thought it was obvious. We use her!" said Swordshatter, pointing at Chrysalis. "She can be anyone she wants and the Equestrians will be none the wiser. And she leads a whole army of shapeshifters specially trained to do exactly that. She's perfect! She can sneak into some large event, screw it up, and then vanish right as we complete the warding."
All eyes were on Chrysalis, who glanced around a bit before speaking. "I suppose I could do that. It wouldn't be too difficult. My spies have reported that several events are coming up soon. I can sneak into one and destroy it. Make it look like an inside job. They'll be so busy fighting amongst themselves that they will just attribute the magic burst to that," she said.
"Ah, but what if they don't?" asked Wildheart. "What if they correctly assume that it is another nation? Then what? They will discover our wards, and then we will be done for. Not only will our carefully built secrecy be shattered, but we will have also identified ourselves as hostile. We will be at their mercy!"
"What do you suggest, then?" asked Ironclaw.
"I suggest that we use Chrysalis' acting skills and manipulative ways to trick them into believing that the changelings are a nation of their own. They will be so busy searching for the 'changeling kingdom' that we can perform the warding right under their noses."
"But if they are searching for another kingdom, will they not think to search below the earth as well? The changelings are vaguely insectoid creatures. The first place I would look if I were an ignorant surface-dweller is in the places insects like to hide...underground," said Uisce.
"I'll try not to take that as an insult and agree with you," Chrysalis deadpanned.
"Hmm...a suggestion, if I may," said Yōuya. "What if we were to utilise our dear Queen's acting skills in another fashion?"
"What do you mean?" asked Terra.
"I mean that if she were to appear as a hostile kingdom, and then appear to be defeated, she could simply teleport herself and her changelings to safety as we performed the warding. The alicorns would not bother searching for her if they thought she had been slain."
"In what way would that distract them from the warding?" asked Swordshatter. "If anything, wouldn't it make them more suspicious of a sudden burst of magical energy?"
Softscale began chuckling. "Well done, Yōuya. Very cleverly thought out."
"Mind filling in the rest of us?" asked Ironclaw.
"Tell me, my fellow Counsilors. What would happen were any of us to fall in battle?"
"Our magical energy would all be released in a sudden burst..." said Terra. Realisation dawned on her features. "Are you suggesting what I think you are?"
"Exactly that. If the Equestrians believe that they have defeated Chrysalis and slain her, then a great blast of magical energy would not be unexpected. In fact, it might even be celebrated!" said Softscale.
"Well, Chryssy? Think you can play dead?" asked Wildheart.
Chrysalis grinned. "I most assuredly can. How long will it take to assemble the magical array to set up the ward?"
Softscale quirked his head in thought. "Perhaps several cuig cead**, given our current resources. Most of our our gems and magic are being used in reconstructing the power lines, and we do not have much to spare."
"I may be able to help with that. I'll allocate more gems towards creating the array," said Ironclaw.
"Silver eyes are a bit tight, but I shall see what I can do," said Yōuya.
"Well, in about five cuig cead, there is a royal wedding being held in Canterlot, directly above the connection point. Will you be ready by then?" asked Chrysalis.
"I think we will," said Softscale with a nod.
"All in favour of the proposed plan?" said Terra, raising her hoof.
All eight of the room's occupants raised their paws, claws, and hooves into the air.
"Well, it seems as though we have reached a decision," said Terra. "In four cuig cead, we will reconvene to discuss this plan, which has hereby been dubbed as 'Operation Gate Crash'."
With one final bang of her hoof on the table, the eight occupants rose, and began to exit, formulating plans for the upcoming 'battle'.
Author's Note
* Silver eyes= Subterrestrian currency. They are small silver coins with an image of a gemstone on one side and the Diamond Spire on the other.
** Cuig cead= A Subterrestrian unit of time. They don't have days or nights, and so they instead measure time in hours. A cuig cead is 500 hours, roughly equal to 20 days.
This is a story split into acts. Though we won't really be getting into the Adventure until act 2, Fimfiction wouldn't let me have both Slice of Life and Adventure.
I aim to use this story as an effort to get into a regular writing schedule, but there's no guarantee of success.
