Chrysalis was in her potion room, carefully crushing a sprig of thyme for a potion with her mortar and pestle, when a somewhat faraway explosion shook the ground and the Hive with it. It was fairly subtle. Chrysalis chose to pay no mind to it, because this sort of thing wasn't uncommon in the Wastelands, where her mother often tried out new spells. This was nothing to worry about, right?

She was just about to find out how wrong she was. In the next twenty minutes or so.

This new potion would be sleep inducing, making sure that whoever drank a sip of it would sleep deeply and have nice, neutral dreams. It was inspired by Jade's potion, but while the poisonous potion was made from the Verderia plant, Chrysalis's potion would be made of natural herbs and liquids and powders. She already had shelves and shelves full of corked potions in her private potion room, which was right next to her bedroom.

Two small glass bowls, one holding powdered lavender and the other filled with chamomile powder, rested next to Chrysalis's mortar and pestle on the long worktable in the princess's potion room. She'd ground the herbs herself. Lavender, chamomile, and thyme were calming herbs with nice, fresh, natural scents.

Chrysalis dumped the newly powdered thyme into a bowl identical to the others and turned her attention to a larger glass bowl on the table. It was half-filled with: fresh, clear rainwater, which she had collected at Equestria's border with the Wastelands; several tufts of clear white cloud collected on a sunny day in Equestria and dissolved in the water; and thirteen drops of sweet golden nectar. The result was a clear, watery liquid tinted with gold from the nectar.

She levitated a glass vial over to the bowl. It contained liquid rainbow, which was, of course, collected in Equestria – there were never any rainbows in the Wastelands. Pulling out the diamond stopper, Chrysalis carefully dripped precisely seven drops of the liquid rainbow into the mixture in the bowl. The half-finished potion slowly took on a warm golden-pink hue.

Next, she took the bowls of powdered thyme, lavender, and chamomile, and poured all the powder into the brew. She stirred it counterclockwise with a large glass spoon. The potion bubbled and fizzed and turned rose pink with a hint of purple. Now it was complete. With great care, Chrysalis poured the finished sleeping potion into a glass bottle and corked it with a pink cork. Instead of setting the bottle on the shelf with her other concoctions, she decided to show this latest potion to Emerald.

Her talk with Mother must be over by now. Chrysalis trotted to her sister's room, potion in magical grip, and lightly knocked on the door three times. When no answer came, she pushed the door open. The room was empty. Hmm. Perhaps she's still with Mother, Chrysalis thought, placing the sleeping elixir back in the potion room. Oh well. I'll go check on them.

When Chrysalis got to Queen Thysanura's rooms, she knocked on the door. "Emerald? Mother? Are you in there?" she called.

The doorknob glowed green, turned, and the door opened. The Changeling queen stood there, alone, a strange look on her face. The expression vanished before Chrysalis could make sense of it. She craned her neck to look into her mother's sitting room, and just like Emerald's bedroom, no one but Queen Thysanura and Chrysalis were here. Add Emerald's mysterious disappearance and the queen's look, and what do you get? Suspicious.

"Where is Emerald, Mother?" Chrysalis asked her mother flat-out. "I thought she was with you."

Thysanura's odd expression from before returned, but she quickly put on a cold, regal, queen-like stare. "She was, Chrysalis. She left my rooms after our conversation, and I have not seen her since." Her magic reached up and adjusted her crown.

Chrysalis narrowed her eyes. Something was off here. Her mother was lying, she just knew it. Chrysalis's guard went up instantly. Her gaze flicked to the large, rolled-up piece of paper in Queen Thysanura's magical grasp. "What's that, Mother?" she asked curiously.

There was a pause as Queen Thysanura looked down her nose at her daughter. Was the queen of Changelings hesitating? "Come, Chrysalis, I will show you if you really want to know," Thysanura finally said. Chrysalis stepped aside and followed her mother through the corridors of the Hive until they reached a door. It was marked with a silver plaque etched simply with the words: WAR ROOM. Vaguely, Chrysalis remembered coming into this "war-plotting room" when she was younger, just out of pure curiosity.

Her heart thudded. Was Queen Thysanura planning a war? If so, with which nation, and why? The Changelings had no reason to go to war. Well . . . Chrysalis could think of one reason, but it just seemed silly. A prophecy?

Now she knew what that piece of paper was.

The War Room was big and rectangular. The floor was shiny black glass, and the ceiling was painted with a fresco of Changelings and their Queen standing over the charred ruins of a city. A pony city: this mural represented the Prophecy Curse.

The Prophecy Curse, as it came to be known, had been foreseen thousands of years ago by a rare Changeling prophet, a princess, by the name of Princess Flitterheart. She was one of the early Changeling princesses, named for the very first queen.

Long ago, the seventh queen of the Changelings, Queen Silkwing, started a huge war with the ponies of Equestria. She attempted to seize the pony nation, but was beaten back by her daughter: Flitterheart, the famous prophet. Flitterheart, then a princess, stopped her mother and saved Equestria, but paid with her life. With her last breaths, Flitterheart produced this prophecy, the Prophecy Curse. These were her exact words, said to Equestria's Sun Princess Celestia herself: "Equestria has won today, but beware, Celestia. History will relive itself. Three thousand years from now, a many-times-great-granddaughter of mine, the Prophesied One, will rise again and war will reign. Only one with true heart will be able to stop her. She will stop her. Beware, ponies of Equestria."

Chrysalis had never believed that prophecy. But now, it was very real. It was three thousand years after the Changeling-Equestrian War and the death of Princess Flitterheart.

Her own mother was the Prophesied One. The one who would shatter Equestria.

In the middle of the War Room was a long, low table. It was cluttered with war maps, written war plans, and many other scrolls of other war stuff. Chrysalis wished now that she'd paid more attention in her classes with the Changeling tutor.

What shocked Chrysalis the most was that her sisters, Jade and Peridot, stood at the table. They were planning this war with Thysanura.

How could they?

Emerald was missing. She can't be in on this too. She would never! Chrysalis somehow knew that, wherever she was, Emerald was not doing what her other sisters were. She would never betray the Changeling Hive by leading them into a pointless battle.

Chrysalis studied her sisters' expressions closely. Jade looked cold and calculating as usual, but just a trace of doubt had wormed its way onto her face. And Peridot . . . Peridot looked scared. The second-youngest sister's eyes darted back and forth between Jade, Queen Thysanura, and Chrysalis. She was wobbly. Afraid of the war. Afraid of her own family.

With a pang, Chrysalis understood. She was afraid, too. She was angry at her mother for starting this unreasonable war, again. Hadn't Queen Silkwing's war been enough? Princess Flitterheart was right. My mother, the Prophesied One, is endangering her entire queendom. And for what? An unsettled score?

Amas, commander of the Changeling army, stood at the table with Jade and Peridot. He was a regular-looking Changeling drone.

Queen Thysanura stopped at the table with a nod to Jade, Peridot, and Commander Amas. She unrolled the piece of paper, which turned out to be a large war map of Equestria and part of the Wastelands. "Here's the plan," she said. Using her levitation, she dipped a quill into a bottle of red ink and made a scarlet dot next to the words HIVE in the Wastelands part of the map. "In exactly one moon, at dusk, we start the journey from the Hive to the border, which will take one day." The queen drew a straight line from the Hive to the Equestrian border. "We'll follow a straight line and cross the Endless Chasm here . . ." She pointed the quill at a long, jagged black line halfway between the Hive and the border, marked ENDLESS CHASM. ". . . Once we reach the border, we'll set up camp to rest and prepare until nightfall. I will cast an invisibility spell on the army, and we will travel to Canterlot by skies. Spread out across the city and attack at sunset. I want more at the palace. I wish to see Princess Celestia and Princess Luna myself."

Commander Amas nodded. "A clever plan, my queen. I will tell my army to begin preparing immediately," he sibilated. "But may I ask of you, why do you want to see the pony princesses? You do not know them personally, my queen."

Thysanura's eyes flared green as she glared at him. "Do you doubt me, Commander Amas?" she hissed, anger creeping into her voice.

"N-no, my queen," the commander stammered. "I apologize for my ignorance. Permission to leave, my queen?"

"Permission granted, Commander." Queen Thysanura turned away disdainfully.

With a bow, Amas quickly flew out of the War Room and left the royal family alone.

As soon as Commander Amas was gone, Chrysalis turned to the queen. "Mother, you can't go to war with Equestria! What did they ever do to you?" she cried in distress.

"The ponies of Equestria defeated and humiliated our ancestor," Thysanura answered simply. "They won't win this time without a taste of their own medicine."

"But ponies will get hurt!" Chrysalis protested. "And what about the Changelings? Have you even thought about what will happen to them?"

"This is war, Chrysalis. Everyone gets hurt," Jade said quietly, which was unlike her. Her expression softened. "Our Changelings live to serve their queen, sister. No one expects any less from them. And . . . perhaps vengeance and war are not the answers to everything." After the queen gave her a scathing glare, she hastily added, "Though the ponies may deserve this for the defeat of Queen Silkwing."

Chrysalis immediately saw through this last lie. Perhaps her sister was different on the inside. Maybe . . . maybe Jade cared.

And maybe Peridot cared, too. The other Changeling princess looked close to terrified.

Maybe she had some allies here.

That night, when they were supposed to be asleep, Jade called Peridot and Chrysalis into her room for a talk. To shield their conversation from eavesdropping Changelings or their mother, Jade closed her black silk bed curtains and lit three wax candles, which she set on a tray in the middle of the bed. The sisters sat around the candles, snacking on Emerald Honey eggs despite the fact that this was serious.

"Listen," Jade said, her big green eyes glowing in the dim, flickering light. Then she looked around. "Wait! Where's Emerald? Isn't she coming?" She looked at Chrysalis.

"I can't find her anywhere!" Chrysalis wailed, snatching one of Jade's black pillows and burying her face in it. "I've searched the entire Hive and so have you! Mother did something to her, I just know it!" To her embarrassment, she began to cry.

Jade reached out and pulled her sister closer to her. "It's okay, Chrysalis," she said, letting the younger princess sob into her shoulder. "We'll find her. We'll search the entire world to for her. I care, Chrysalis, no matter what you think of me."

"A-and so do I," Peridot said softly. She started to cry, too, and Jade pulled her into their embrace.

"We have to do something about this war," Jade said after they returned to their places on the bed. "Thousands will get hurt! Mother doesn't worry about the death of her subjects until there's only one left."

"Somehow, we have to warn the ponies," Peridot agreed. "But how? I doubt they'd welcome a bug-pony thing that looks scary and that they'd probably never even heard of."

"We would have to warn the princesses," Chrysalis said. "I know they live in this palace in the capital city of Canterlot, on this mountain. But how do we get there? Somepony will see us before we get within ten miles of the palace."

"Invisibility!" Jade exclaimed. "I know an invisibility spell. We could use that. It lasts for two days, or until you stop it. But unfortunately, my spell isn't strong enough to hide three—or four—Changelings. Only two of us, at maximum, can go to Canterlot. One of us must stay behind. Emerald is certainly not going, since we can't find her. As soon as we get the message to Equestria, we will look for her, I promise. So who will go and who will stay?"

"I want to go," Chrysalis blurted out.

Jade and Peridot looked concerned. "You? But you're so young," Peridot said, surprised. "Maybe too young for this mission."

Crestfallen, Chrysalis opened her mouth to protest, but Jade spoke before she could say anything. "No, let Chrysalis go," she said. "It's good experience, and I think you'll do anything to avoid this war, Chrysalis. Who else is going? Me or Peridot?"

Jade and Peridot stared at each other uncertainly.

Finally, Peridot raised her hoof. "I . . . I'd like to go with Chrysalis," she nearly whispered.

"Are you sure?" asked Jade.

"Yes. Absolutely."

"Very well," Jade said. "You two will leave at dawn tomorrow. Bring food and supplies. Be quick. I won't let Mother know."

Jade stared into Chrysalis's and Peridot's eyes.

"I believe in you. I love you," she said.

"If you love us, then why did you and Peridot destroy my collection of gemstones?" Chrysalis demanded.

Peridot snorted, though she grinned in light amusement. "Way to ruin the moment, Chrysalis!"

"It was an accident," said Jade. Typical.

She ended the conversation with a final word:

"Remember."

Author's Note

I know almost nothing about planning war, so I just hope it was good.