(Chrysalis)

“My Queen this is a terrible idea” Hidden Facet’s voice was panicked “please reconsider, we can just let her out now and take the love you’ve already harvested, it’s enough to last us years”

“We will not be abandoning the plan advisor” my own voice was imperious and hard, my worry had been completely suppressed after the first few days of infiltration “None of those ponies, not even the Princess of the Sun herself, have noticed anything wrong with their Princess of Love” I looked over at the heavy Rowan-wood door that had been set in the crystal wall, a silver lock held it with a single flimsy looking chain, a flimsy looking chain that had been set in place with my magic. “And even if they did we can offer the pretty, pink, princess of passion in exchange for clemency.”

“My Queen, please listen to me” my advisor was almost frenzied “you’ve been holding too much love for too long, it’s starting to affect you, please just leave it to the infiltrators from now”

“ARE YOU CLAIMING I CANNOT SEE THIS THROUGH TO THE END?” I roared, who was my advisor to tell me what I was not capable of, whom was he to tell me that I could not provide for my Swarm, who was he to tell me that I couldn’t hold my love.

“N-n-no my Queen, simply t-t-that it is not wise” he stammered back, edging away as he did so, a flood of nervousness, worry, and dread began to creep from him as I followed him towards the lip of a precipice that plunged deeper into the crystal catacombs beneath Canterlot.

“We will stick to the plan, I will impersonate her until after the wedding, then when we leave for the Honeymoon I have arranged it should be the work of a moment to exchange places again” I hissed as I continued to stalk towards Hidden Facet, towering over him as his hooves scrabbled at the edge of the cliff.

“My Queen, we already have enough love to keep the hive fed, and fed well, for a year at the very least”

“And when I pull this off we will have enough that my swarm will not have to hunt for decades, we will be able to live happily, maybe even attempt diplomacy with the Princesses with the promise of our stores to keep us safe if things go wrong” I could see all of the possibilities stretching out, all of the chances my swarm would have if I could see this plan through “I will not abandon this plan just because of your misgivings Hidden Facet, not when so much can be accomplished”

“My Queen, please reconsider” I could feel the mixture of fear and determination that surrounded his words.

“No, I will succeed, for my Swarm I will succeed” were my last words as I turned away, green fire washing over me as I took the shape of Princess Cadance.

<**~~~**>

(Chrysalis)

I woke up shivering to the noise of rain on glass.

I knew the dreams were inescapable, but that one always reminded me of the one choice I had made, the one choice I shouldn’t have made.

Pulling myself from under my thin silk sheets I felt downcast, there was no gentle caressing hoof, no scent of oranges, nopony besides me legs wrapped around my back trying to pull me back into the warmth.

The feel of my hooves on the cold stone floor made me shiver, I didn’t like cold; no changeling liked the cold, but it was a necessary evil.

I slowly made my way through my apartments towards to my personal bathroom, letting the sound of the ‘rain’ buzz through my head, my body acting almost automatically as I entered my bath, my magic twisting the taps that allowed a jet of hot water to come cascading down from the showerhead.

Slowly the heat started to soak through my carapace; the water plastering my mane and tail down as it washed the sleep away, taking with it the dust and dirt of my dark dreams.

Quite without realising I began to hum as the heat suffused through my chitin, my wings buzzing in harmony; while my horn glowed verdant green as I used it to lather soap on my chitin and massage shampoo into my hair. The soft melody was one that I’d heard the nurse-maids sing to the nymphs as they explored hidden nooks and crannies of the nursery, back when we had the love to spare on new hatchlings, back before the royal wedding.

The melody died on my lips as the memories came back as strong as ever, the warm water growing cold as it pooled around my hooves before draining away, taking away the soft white suds.

Allowing the last of the foam to be washed away I turned the shower off and started to towel away the water residue that clung to me, polishing my carapace as best I could while my wings flittered quietly, shedding water with the motion.

It was when I was towelling my leg-holes that I heard the faint knocking at my chamber doors; faint, panicked knocking.

Sighing to myself I let the towel drop on the side of the bath, leaving my mane and tail to dry naturally as I began to approach the door, thinking to myself who it could possibly be.

Eventually I reached the dark wood of my door, where the knocking continued, much, much louder that it should have and I began to wonder if the spells I had woven on the wood to muffle anything beyond a certain level of noise were already wearing off.

Touching the locks with my horn, the metal bolts lining one side of the doorway jerked back with a sharp metallic clang as the unlocking spell snapped them open, before I pulled the door open to an unwelcome sight.

I could very rarely, truly fault Barbed Retort for what he did for the hive, and while his attitude was often unpleasant, his explanations of why he did what he did were often inexplicable, and my attempts to bring him back in line with polite standards had met with continued failure, but he cared, which was a good enough reason for me to overlook his issues to some extent.

One of the things I could fault him on was standing in front of me, breathing heavily, his eyes flickering about wildly.

“Spoken Softly, why are you hammering on my door this early in the day?” my voice was calm, collected, and kind, which apparently made the Behemoth standing in front of me flinch as though he expected to get struck.

A Behemoth who would shy away from leaves in the wind, who flinched at any form of contact, who was as timid as a foal, this was who Barbed Retort had chosen as his replacement while I sent him on a wild goose chase in Canterlot. I would never fully understand his sense of humour, nor did I want to.

“My Queen” true to his name the Behemoth’s voice was quiet; I had to strain to hear him over the noise of my wings buzzing and the nervous clinking of his heavy bronze armour “we have an emergency”

“Another one!” I yelled at him as he tried to make himself as small as possible at my sudden outburst “We have had nothing but emergencies for the last fortnight; it is enough to make me think that Faust herself is conspiring against me!” the Behemoth was leaning back trying desperately to not meet my eyes, too scared to speak, too scared to run, while I ranted.

“What is it this time?” my voice was acidic, I knew that Spoken Softly didn’t deserve it, but if Barbed Retort had suggested him then he could either deal with my temper, or my captain could clean up his subordinates’ messes.

“The rest of the Royal Guards have arrived my Queen” his eyes were flickering about like mad; the white dots dancing in a sea of blue, almost like they were trying to escape his body as fear cascaded from him, “They are demanding to speak to you, they barged past the scans and are refusing to allow any of the swarm near them”

Was this Celestia’s sense of humour at work? Was this some form of test? To see if I could work with the most recalcitrant of her guards, or was this all an unhappy coincidence that the universe had cooked up for me?

“Very well, where are these Royal Guards?” my voice was calmer, less volatile, but apparently still enough to set the Behemoth trembling.

“They are waiting in the reception hall; I did not want to leave them in the rain and they refused to wait outside” the behemoth tried to avoid looking me in the eye, the fear pouring off of him was becoming concerning, and I struggled to swallow my own emotions. Time to play the calm, collected, diplomatic Queen, which was an act I could play, and play it well.

“Very well, lead me to them” I spoke smoothly, putting a little bit of calm into each word, directing the emotion at the behemoth as he looked downcast at the thought of having to deal with the Royal guard again.

“Yes, my Queen” he turned around and started to trudge down the corridor as I followed him closely.

<~~***~~>

(Chrysalis)

Despite my earlier calm, I could feel worry creeping up on me, I could see a group of my Changelings waiting outside the reception hall, each of them looking pensive, but that was not the worrying thing. I could see some of the Ponies we had living with us and they looked no less apprehensive than the Changelings surrounding them and several of them started to walk towards Spoken Softly and I as we approached the crowd.

“Queen Chrysalis” they had already elected a spokespony, one I knew.

“Sponge Cake, what can I do for you today?” I asked the stroppy looking Earth Pony, she had come to the hive looking for a job, when we first opened the resort, and had proceeded to harangue, browbeat, and bully my Changelings into allowing her entry, something that would have been unnecessary had she simply brought examples of her tradecraft; the mare loved baking, the emotion saturating the dishes she made.

“What is the Royal Guard doing here?”

“Straight to the point as usual I see” I stared down at the mare that refused to flinch away from me, maybe she thought that I couldn’t feel all of the terror and guilt that was oozing from her. “The Royal Guard are here because your Princesses wanted to help me in securing this place in preparation for the upcoming Diplomatic Summit, I notice you didn’t raise this question at the arrival of Captain Shining Armour and his guards”

“That’s different”

I cocked my eyebrow upwards at the response, but I didn’t wish to get dragged into an argument with the irate mare, not now at least.

“I assure you, the Royal Guards are here on Celestia’s orders, just to make a show of might, and let the press write their headlines on how we can all work together” I wished I was as confident as I sounded, but at least the mare settled down as I continued to walk through the worried crowd before I noticed a pile of wooden crates left lying by the door to the reception hall.

“Spoken Softly, what are those?” I asked, pointing a hoof at the crates as a pair of Changelings opened the doors to the reception hall.

“My Queen, I do not know, the Royal Guards brought them in when they arrived and attempted to deflect my attention every time I asked” I was more amazed that the nervous Behemoth had been insistent enough to push for an answer than I was curious to the contents of the crates, but before I had the time to make any kind of remark we turned a corner to an extremely unwelcome sight.

A quartet of Royal Guards flanked the door to my office, a pair of my Praetorian Guards standing on the opposite side of the hallway, a mixture of anger and disbelief on their faces, but the worst thing of the whole situation was the hatred pouring from the royal guards. I didn’t know how I hadn’t felt it walking through the doors of the building, I don’t know how I hadn’t felt it as I had approached the building itself. It was like walking into one of the wild desert storms that still rolled into the Badlands on occasion; I could almost feel parts of my chitin being peeled away, and my eyes started to water in sympathetic agony before I could arrange my mental defences.

I continued down the hallway, blinking the tears from my eyes, planning my next step for dealing with such blatant hostility, before I directed my thoughts at the Praetorians.

Guards, leave, I will deal with this

Our Queen, please reconsider they answered in stereo, their thoughts buzzing in my head.

You have been dealing with this storm of emotions too long; take a break, I will have Spoken Softly to assure my protection. The two Praetorians glanced at my ‘Captain’, exchanged a glance between each other, before mentally sighing, and leaving, they brushed past me as I reached the door to my office, and pushed the ebony wood open, revealing a most unwelcome sight.

A unicorn was sitting behind my desk, his grey eyes staring at the now open door, the polished gold suns on the flanks of his armour marked him as a member of Celestia’s own personal Solar Guard.

And there he was, sitting behind my desk like it was the most natural thing in the world.

I felt Spoken Softly wings flutter behind me, suddenly I could feel his nervousness again, the erratic emotion cutting through the consistent waves of hostility that pressed in against my mind.

Spoken Softly, please wait outside, if I need you I will call.

Yes my Queen.

I felt the Behemoth walk backwards, carefully, before he pulled the door shut behind him, cutting off the hostility of the guards and leaving me alone with the grey eyed unicorn who continued to stare at me silently, his hostility crashing against my mental shields.

I met his silence with my own, just thinking on the best way to handle this; Barbed Retort’s methodology of conflict resolution would do me no good, I happened to enjoy keeping my dignity, and anything done carelessly could be a diplomatic nightmare.

“Good morning...” I looked over his armour for any insignia of his rank, or any sort of name tag, finding nothing I continued “Captain…?”

“‘Solar’ Captain Steel Shod” the unicorn's voice was well enough controlled that I couldn’t hear the bitterness, but the emotion was easy enough to sense, sometimes I wondered if these Ponies forgot that we could sense emotions.

“Solar Captain Steel Shod” I repeated, as pleasantly as I could “it is reassuring to see that Princess Celestia has sent her best to aid us in these momentous times”, his only response was a deeply unpleasant snort, and a continued glare “so reassuring that I may in fact overlook the fact that you are sitting behind my desk”

“Oh you’ll overlook it will you?” the unicorn’s voice retained all of its control but his eyes flashed with hatred as he leant back on my chair.

“Yes, I think I will, your Princess was kind enough to grant my Swarm some leniency, and I see no reason as to why I should not do the same” I was keeping my words pleasant enough, just adding the right amount of inflection to make sure that the meaning behind them was clear; so I was surprised when the unicorn reared out of the cushioned seat, slamming his hooves onto my desk.

“You think you are in a position to grant me leniency!” he all but roared, his fury building against my shields, before I answered.

“You are no longer in Equestria, Captain Steel Shod, you are in my home, my hive” I brought myself to my full height looming imperiously over the unicorn “It would behoove you to act with a modicum of manners”

“I am not some mindless drone for you to play with, I will act as I see fit!” the unicorn stalked around my desk before pulling the doors open again “I have several tasks from the Princesses and I intend to carry them out, follow me”

I could feel my temples throb as I attempted to force my immediate response of ripping the unicorn's horn from his skull and beating him about his head with it, it would be satisfying, but only in the short term, and I wasn’t going to jeopardise my swarm’s existence on a moment of carthartic pleasure, no matter how well-justified it might be.

Silently I followed the unicorn, Spoken Softly and the four guards following behind us, as he led me back towards the reception hall’s entrance where the rest of his guards waited alongside the ten that Shining Armour had brought. The pair of Praetorians I had sent away were nowhere to be seen but I could feel their presence and I assumed that they had faded into one of the shadows in the room; most likely one on the ceiling.

I watched as a pair of Guards, Earth Pony stallions, pulled the doors to the Reception Hall open and Steel Shod sauntered out, his head held arrogantly high, while I walked at his side not wanting to appear at all deferential to the high-hoofed unicorn.

As we stopped outside the door I could see the crowd of my changelings sway back, looking alarmed, curious, and apprehensive, the waves of hatred coming from the seemingly smiling pony standing next to me were almost enough to make them ill and I could hear their worries being broadcast through the ‘hive-mind’, while the ponies mixed in could tell that something was wrong from the reactions of my changelings.

“Former Ponies of Equestria, residents of the Badlands” that was not an encouraging start “I am Solar Captain Steel Shod and I bring great news, the Princesses of Equestria, your Princesses, have decided that the Diplomatic Friendship Summit, which was last held in Ponyville, in honour of Princess Twilight Sparkle, will be held here” the unicorn stopped in order to wait for a decidedly absent wave of applause, although I did hear a couple of unenthusiastic coughs and chirps from the back of the crowd. I didn’t smile openly, while the unicorns visible expression dropped to one of cold neutrality, his inner turmoil growing more and more violent by the second.

“To make sure that these proceedings go as planned, and to keep the ponies of Equestria safe, all residents of the hive are required to wear identifying tags at all times until the summit, we are unable to judge the threat that changelings present to these proceedings, and as such have deemed these measures appropriate” this announcement was met with something, a roar of outrage that washed over the armoured pony whose expression changed to match the thunderous turmoil he was holding in.

I could feel the clashing emotions, I could feel the panic of my changelings, the outrage of the pony residents, I felt some hope that I would stick up for them. My brain started to whir, I had to make a decision, I had to calm the crowd down before they did something they would regret.

“My Swarm, My Changelings, My Pony Friends, all of you who call this place home, or those who are just visiting for the services we provide” so far so good, the crowd was still angry although my Changelings were listening closely, and the ponies were not shouting any more “I share in your outrage, and I am aghast at the behaviour of our visitors” so far so good, the anger had simmered down, although I could feel the hostility at my back, scorching my carapace as I continued to speak “And while I believe this to be an extreme measure that I will not require you follow, I ask that when the Princesses and their retinues do arrive we all wear one of these identifying tags, not as a way of showing that we are a threat that must be curtailed; but as a badge that demonstrates we can work together” the crowd still seemed uncomfortable but my words had had the effect I wanted. The ponies were no longer shouting their protests, my Changelings were no longer buzzing in agitation.

I lifted the first box in my own acidic green telekinesis, before peeling it open, revealing stacks of blank identification slips, plastic holders, and cloth necklaces, and hovered the open box to the crowd who were now forming into an orderly line using thought-speak to organise themselves efficiently, more changelings working on handing out the contents of the crates.

I stared at the sight for a moment, suppressing the smile I felt, before turning to the irate looking unicorn besides me.

“This is not Equestria, you are here to help, not make demands that bring about riots” I hissed, matching his wrath with my own, before I raised my voice again “Vigil, Hyacinth” the guards jumped as the two Praetorians faded into existence by my sides “please show the Captain and his platoon to the barracks and help them get settled in, if the Captain needs me he knows where my office is.”

<~~***~~>

(Severed Bonds)

I could feel the love pouring from the old pony as we lay together in the grass of the residential park. The grass was still damp, I didn’t mind, and judging by the emotions that the old unicorn was emitting he didn’t mind either. He was happy just to sit and hold me, his ‘wife’, and I was happy to sit and be held as his ‘wife’.

Kick-Back shifted slightly and I could feel him nuzzling me, a gesture of affection; I had never really understood, I knew how much he loved his ‘wife’, he didn’t need to tell me in any other way.

Regardless I nuzzled back, the creaky old bones of my disguise clicking and popping as I stretched my neck out to push my snout behind his ears,making him whicker in surprise and pleasure.

“Aye, you’ve always known how to make a randy auld stallion like me happy haven’t you” he spoke quietly as he dragged his neck backwards along mine, leaving small kisses in his wake as his lips brushed along the underside of my chin, leaving little hotspots of love pressed against me.

I shivered in pleasure as he drew away, his orange eyes locking with my own grey gaze as we just sat there, lost to the world with each other, or at least he was, I was lost in my own thoughts.

Sometimes I thought the act was needlessly cruel to him, I wasn’t his wife and he knew it for most of the times we spent together; but for the moments he forgot, the hurt would only return all the harder. Finding the old stallion bawling like a child had been hard the first time, and only grown more painful since; even if it wasn’t my fault, it was my fault.

“Your not thinkin’ about Manehatten are you?” His voice cut through my thoughts, he had noticed my distance, time to play damage control.

“Just a little darling” I never enjoyed using the clipped lawyerly tones of my disguise “I feel so bad that you lost your friends for me”

“Feck ‘em” the stallion's voice had a hint of venom to it, and his mood started to sour “They weren't there the first time around, they weren’t there for you when it happened”

“I just want you to be happy”

“I’m happy to be with you” the stallion leaned in and nuzzled me again, his emotions lifting as he put his hooves around my withers, hugging me tightly his weight resting on me “Nae matter who you are”

I returned the embrace gingerly, my joints creaking under the force of the stallions emotions; his love bolstered by a terrible loss.

I didn’t know long we spent like that, it could have been a minute, it could have been an hour, until we were broken out of our fugue by the nearby rattling of armour.

“Aww, isn’t that sweet, two little snuggle bugs” I twisted my head around to see a trio of guards looking down at the pair of us, each of them emitting their own cloud of hatred and disgust.

“Aye, and what can we do for you?” Kick-Back responded laconically, I could feel his hooves shifting underneath his body as he started to stand up.

“ID please” the guard’s tone was pleasant enough, but even if I couldn’t feel his emotions I could tell by his eyes, he knew our answer and he had something planned.

“Yon Queenie said we didn’t need to wear them badges til’ the Princesses arrived” I started to get my hooves underneath me, cursing the rickety old bones of my disguise; Kick-Back was lucid at the moment, but the old unicorn was stubborn, and dropping my disguise with the Royal Guards around would be a bad idea.

“Your Queen isn’t here Bug” the Earth Pony stallion spat back, all traces of good humour dropped from his voice, “Identification, now!”

“Go feck yersel’ ya twist-minded gobshite” Kick-Back spat back before I heard a loud ‘crack’ and he fell to the ground.

I could hear the guard speak again, but the words sounded far away, even as he stepped over the unicorn, who was moaning in pain, a thin stream of blood dribbling from his snout.

Armoured hooves stepping over him as he lay on the grass, I could feel the wave of pink force pressing in on me, it would take him away, like it had before.

I didn’t feel my magic build up, I didn’t feel my disguise drop, I didn’t feel the backlash of the force I released.

I felt fear.

The wave of force took the guards by surprise, their expressions changing from hatred to shock in a moment as my telekinesis blasted them off of their hooves and carried them away over the park before I heard the noise of them hitting the ground, and the faint sound of their dazed moans.

I heard the old stallion besides me groan as he spat up a blob of saliva and blood and suddenly all of my anger was gone, replaced with panic.

Chrysalis had trusted me with Kick-Back, I had to protect him, I had to keep him safe and happy, I had to keep him safe and he would keep us fed.

I had to keep him safe.

I didn’t notice the groaning guards picking themselves up as I wrapped my legs around the old stallion, my buzzing wings lifting both of us into the air without any effort, he was so light when I was like this.

I didn’t know where I should go, all I knew as I had to take the old stallion, my old stallion, somewhere safe, anywhere safe.

Author's Note

Okay, before anyone goes "Wind King" you douchebag, you're totally straw-manning the royal guards into being unlikeable dickwads, there is a reason behind their actions, all the clues are there, alongside some red-herrings, and it's up to you to either wait it out until I reveal the truth (chapter 10 or thereabouts on the current plot-speed), or makes theories, if you go theory making don't expect me to validate them until the reason is revealed.

Also, getting Lovedrunk is a very real condition, it includes making smoochy-smoo faces at particular females, abandoning your bros, and being whipped. (please don't hurt me, I thought I was being funny )

If anyone is confused by how Shining Armour is the Captain of the Royal Guard, and Steel Shod is the Captain of the Solar Guard it works like this (also I’m bad at military/police ranks so don't get mad, educate me).

The Royal Guard is split into, currently, 4 divisions: Solar (Celestia), Lunar (Luna), Crystal (Cadance), and Aetheric (Twilight Sparkle). Each of these divisions have a two full “commanders”; their captain, and the relative princess.

However in the case of a disagreement between the relevant captain, and the relevant princess there needs to be a third voice, enter the captain of the Royal guard.

Technically Shining has command over every division, but only if a captain is taken ill, dead (so severely ill), or otherwise indisposed, and the relevant Princess is also ill, dead (unlikely), or indisposed, until the captain's second in-command can be found and promoted as they are rarely ever deployed to the same assignments to avoid a complete command loss. As a coup d'etat in this manner would require the murder of several powerful combatants and the immortal Princesses, it has never been a high concern to put failsafes in place.

Normally the Guard Captain functions semi-autonomously, to make sure that the rules and regulations are followed, and peace is kept, so making rotas, organising training, investigating crimes, yada-yada; until commanded by the relevant princess, if there is a disagreement between the two which could cause harm, the Royal Guard Captain is called in to settle the dispute, essentially meaning that the Royal Guard Captain has very little real authority at peace times, but a lot of political clout as his word is enough to countermand even the Princesses in matters of the Guard, and their rules and regulations, hence why Shining and his Lieutenants have to be incorruptible, and there are several geas’s in place.

Current Captains & Seconds, and their locations

Shining Armour = Captain of the Royal Guard (Currently in Canterlot with Barbed Retort)

Bulwark = Second of the Royal Guard (Currently in Canterlot for training exercises)

Steel Shod = Captain of the Solar Guard (Currently in the Hive for diplomatic purposes)

Lamplight = Second of the Solar Guard (Currently in Manehattan for an inspection of the local rescue services)

Last Watch = Captain of the Lunar Guard (Currently in Yakyakistan on a ponyhunt for a rapist)

Noctilucent = Second of the Lunar Guard (Currently in Hayseed as potential reinforcements for the guards in the Hive)

Sapphire Entropy = Captain of the Crystal Guard (Currently in the Crystal Citadel for training exercises)

Prismatic Opal = Second of the Crystal Guard (Leading an Expedition into the Old Kingdoms)

Standard Array = Captain of the Aetheric Guard (Currently working with the ROSC on a Ley-Line mapping exercise)

Scroll Shield = Second of the Aetheric Guard (Currently in Ponyville for training exercises)