Arrivals and awkward adjustments.

"Ahhh it seems more guests are arriving." Tirek said with a deep, throaty chuckle as he ran his hand over the lid of Catrina's coffin. He looked over the faded wood; the brass locks, gilded golden decorative pieces that adorned it. beside him stood Sombra and Chrysalis, both unaware of what...or who lay within.

"Tirek? may I ask why you saw fit to go digging around burial chambers." She asked before smirking at him and adding a snide comment of, "I didn't know you where into that sort of thing, I mean I'm into some freaky things but even I never..."

"It's not what your thinking Chrysalis; as you may learn before the night is out, my knack for the darkest of the arcane arts is one that isn't to be doubted...after all, I revived you didn't I...Sombra." He said placing a few fingers under the lid, the ancient wood creaking as his steel grip began pulling the long rusty nails free from the wood.

"I wasn't dead Tirek, but cast away by Celestia's little ragtag band of mares." Saying it didn't make the shame of his downfall any less embarrassing noticed by Chrysalis chuckling at him as he tried his best to make it sound like he'd been destroyed by the princess herself. Under the grip of his hands; Tirek finally made the wooden lid give, he tossed it away as a cloud of ancient dust blasted the three of them with the stench of death.

"She was quite the beauty in life you know." He said smiling as the royals looked into the coffin. There; sleeping in the eternal sleep of the dead, was a feline like skeleton. It was noticeably feline due to the large teeth that had clamped together on the jaw bone, the body wasn't fully skeletal, as bits of maroon and brown fur still hung in loose patches not covered by the royal red and white fur trimmed cuffed robes the feline had been buried in. Try as they might the embalmers couldn't preserve her flesh forever, nor could they halt the furs both of her own and the ones used to make her clothes being eaten by the few creatures that had crawled into the cracks of the wood over the centuries. However; her crop of blonde hair, still sat on the skull coiffed into a bun and tied with an elegant silver headdress.

"Who...pray tell is this?" Sombra asked trying not to choke on the grey dust that wafted about the dank air.

"Once, she was Catrina a rich heiress to untold riches, but she craved power and longevity more than wealth , she spend time in honing the skills and the drive to capture ponies and use them as labor, I admire that in a woman." He said reaching into the hide pouch. "She used the pony slaves to grow a rare grass that when processed into a drink could restore her beauty and provide longevity, but when they convinced her to change her ways and free her slaves...you can see the end result here." He ran his free hand over the cat lady's skull delicately.

"So you think she'll be a worthy addition to our legion?" Sombra asked.

"We're going to need all the help we can get my liege....ALL the help." Tirek replied taking what looked like a metal heart from his bag; the heart was crafted from bronze and embedded in the middle of it was black gem, engraved around the gem was a simple phrase. Call back a soul with the offering of another's. He used his sharp nail to wrench open the feline's chest; the cavity long hollowed and stuffed with bundles of linen and preservative salts and minerals, he took a few of the embalming bundles from Catrina's chest and made a space where her heart may have once been. He placed the mechanical heart in the space then closed the chest cavity back up. "Now watch closely."

Canterlot Castle

The both of them made their way down the passageway containing the holding cells, once the cells held the most dangerous monsters and nefarious villains Equestria had ever known, but they had defiantly seen more active days. Her golden clad shoes clanging on the stone floor, Princess Celestia made her way down the corridor with Discord in tow, a torch in his talon. "I'm telling you, I think he's escaped." Discord said with a slight tinge of worry as the shadows danced and flickered off the walls.

"Discord, I had Tirek chained up; had his cell surrounded by three types of rune traps, and put A Cerberus on guard duty every 12 hours, how in the name of all bucks I'd give could he have escaped!?" Celestia retorted at him still wondering why she bothered believing him. The two of them finally reached Tirek's cell the sight they saw was enough to make Celestia eat her words. The cell door had been blasted clean of it's tracks; the runes had gone off only to do more damage to the cell itself, and most grim of all, the guard Cerberus had all three of its head's torn violently off! their six eyes gazed in cloudy emptiness as the heads had been placed next to each other on the cell's bed, a message clear to Celestia, clear as her daylight. 'The gloves are off princess, Tirek.' He wrote it in the Cerberus's blood on the walls of his cell.

"Now do you believe me?" Discord asked before placing a lion paw over his mouth to hold back his urge to be violently sick. Never in his long life could he Discord have ever imagined his former master could be so...forward with his dark tendencies.

"Even you would never do something like this of your own volition Discord...and He's long gone, but I want not a word of this breathed to a single soul, you understand?" She asked bringing her muzzle to his face

"I understand Princess, I only hope you know what you're doing." He said blowing the torch out softly.

Midnight Castle.

Tirek stood over the coffin holding the body of Catrina; Inside another miracle of his skill in necromancy took place. The mechanical heart he had given her latched onto what was left of her body; it shaped the bundles of cloth, salts and minerals into new organs, and the black gem in the center called her soul back from the dead, back to the vessel that had carried it in its mortal run. Fur grew back and the patches of it where fixed up until the body had a luscious and soft (if morbidly so) coat of cat fur. The empty sockets that had once held her eyes; had the slit green cat eyes reemerge from the bones, as the nose and lips reshaped over the skull, finally her ears, having rotted from being soft tissue, grew back on the top of her skull, She looked to be merely sleeping now.

Unmoved; being all to familiar with the workings of necromancy rituals, the changeling queen adjusted her black robes and trotted of almost..nonchalantly so looking back at The other two with a smug grin. "You two can enjoy playing with dead cats, but if it's all the same to you, I am tired and in need of some freshening up. If you ever intend on having your little servants feed us Tirek, then send for me. Don't send for me for any other reason." She gave her cape a flip and left, he didn't quite understand why but Sombra suddenly found himself wanting to follow her.

"I'm going to settle in two, Best of luck with your new friend Tirek, hope she doesn't crumble to ash before you can say hello." He said with his own brand of smugness as the Minotaur ignored him, focusing all his attention on keeping Catrinia's body stable as she awakened.

The door closed behind her as her regalia hit the tiled floor of her bathroom, Chrysalis let out a relived sigh as it did as her thin screen like wings stretched and buzzed loudly. "Finally! thank Taurus I can finally relax again." She said trotting over to the tiled stall of a shower that Tirek had provided her; hardly befitting her royal stature, but it would have to do. At least the pipes and taps where silver with rubies and sapphires in the knobs and around the stalls edges. She turned the knobs to her preferred temperature hot and steaming so as to ease the soreness in her muscles that had formed from the solid shells she had been sitting on as her legion caravan-ed over the desert.

The queen sighed in contentment stepped into the streams of water; she didn't care much for getting clean, she was more focused on the attention the streams of water where giving a certain "region" that sh had neglected for some time. She reached up and aimed the shower head to where it would run along her lower haunches and her flanks. The changeling queen gasped softly as the powerful jets hit the base of her wispy and unkempt black tail. She brushed it aside shamelessly and closed her eyes. The jets began working on the lips of her aroused flower.

"Oh yes, that's just what I needed." She hissed letting her long; nectar sucking, tongue out in joy as her swollen black folds opened up exposing the pearl of her clitoris under it. She gasped and panted hard as the water pelted the helpless orb of her clit, her wings shuddered and buzzed wildly spraying water all over the room. She didn't notice the face slowly opening the bathroom door and watching her.

"Oh yes, just like that you naughty queen." Sombra said softly feeling a tingling in his armor; the feeling slightly uncomfortable in the confines of the steel armor, he didn't care. He opened the door only a little at first his arousal not unwarranted, he hadn't slept with so much as a concubine in ages, not even his hoof proving relief, as their simply hadn't been time before. "Now lay on your back you slutty queen." AS if she heard him; Chrysalis did just that, lying on her back on the tiles, eyes shut tight and legs in the air as the water now aided by her hoof as she rubbed the pink pearl of her clit, never penetrating but relentlessly rubbing the little nub with reckless gusto.

"MHHHmmm! MORE!" She cried out just as she got close to the point of no return; it was then Sombra made a fatal mistake. He unbuckled his greaves allowing them to fall and exposes his "Royal lance." However he had in his voyeuristic joy forgotten his armor was metal! Metal that hit the stone tiles with a clang loud enough to snap Chrysalis out of her bliss in shock. Her eyes snapped open with a gasp and they grew fiery red as she turned to see who dared intrude on her privacy. The fact that it was the king made no difference for they where on;y king and queen by title not marriage. Sombra had no right to gaze at her like this, he was so bucking dead!

She reared onto her hooves and charged at him pining him to the bathroom door her coat dripping wet as her fore-hoof wrapped around his neck hard, Sombra choked and sputtered for air under the queen's unusually strong hold.

"Killing me over a little free show Chrysalis? You're a mare after my own heart." He said with a chuckle as he struggled to breathe.

"I'm not going to kill you just yet Sombra." She said loosening her hold on him making him collapse in a heap on the floor, he looked up at the soaking wet changeling queen, water still dripping off her mangy black coat and sea foam green mane.

"So you're not mad? Maybe impressed by my actions." He said trying to spin the situation and avoid being on her bad side. He stood up his..."Lance" still noticeable to them both, he shamelessly stood there, pressing his luck and smiling at the idea of the queen wanting to turn a situation of busting him being naughty, into a little session in "royal negations." Chrysalis only laughed and then threw a towel at him which he proceeded to cover his stallion-hood up with getting the hint.

"Let me tell you this one time sire, if I EVER catch you gazing at my beauty while I'm bathing or exposed the way you got a view, I'll rip your bucking liver out and make you eat it raw." She said chuckling evilly and wrapping herself up in her own towel.

Neither said anything to one another as Chrysalis trotted over to her bed and lay down keeping herself well covered to avoid giving Sombra anything further to see. "Now shoo...I want to be alone." She nonchalantly as if she was merely dismissing a servant. He obliged but he concealed his deep resentment as he did so just before he closed the bedroom door he looked over at the queen and smirked smugly as he gave a parting word of "You know you loved it." Prompting Chrysalis to use her gnarled horn to send a table lamp flying at him as he closed the door to avoid the flying blow.