Today was an important day. Nearly a week had passed since Junia’s meeting with Queen Chrysalis. The excitement brought on by waiting for the day they began was much to bear. Once or twice Junia came so close to bursting into dance over how thrilling the idea was. She spent a little more time simply observing her fellow Changelings. They hustled as they worked overtime to please their Queen. Preparations were nearing completion a week ago. Now, they were all finished. Today was the day Chrysalis would call for the charge.

This was also the day she would announce her intentions of forming Junia into what she called a “legate”. How the common Changeling would react was uncertain, but one fact was abundantly clear: they would accept her or else face the Queen’s wrath. Not that they would even think of questioning her. They may have concerns, but wouldn’t dare say she was wrong.

Speaking of concerns, they would be too distracted with a different one to focus on Junia’s “promotion”. Four years was such a short time to recover from the Canterlot invasion. Their losses were many, but enough to get by and replace over time, but four years? The local bandit population allowed for some desperate measures to be taken. No one would notice if some bandits went missing around the same time more Changelings suddenly appeared. Granted, many were still left since they needed a source of love to feed on. Once they were lucky and captured most members of a small group of Royal Guards. That pitiful lot would be marched with the rest of the provisions.

Junia sighed in contentment as she left the feeding chamber and the barely aware bandit within. Her form, one of an unfamiliar mare, dropped as she started her trek up the caverns. The tunnels bustled with activity as the others went to the training rooms or to places that required them to work. Up ahead, however, one stood out to her. He was recognizable as one of her fellow servants. Publius, his name was.

“Junia,” he said as he stopped in front of her. “The Queen requests your presence. She wants you for a big announcement.”

“When is the announcement?” She asked out of curiosity.

“Soon, but that’s just a guess.”

She thanked him wordlessly and continued on her way up and through the winding tunnels of the hive, guided by the light of the glowing green crystals that lined it. The gray stone on the walls and ceiling was rough, but the path was smoothed by careful carving and four years worth of Changeling movement. Coming to a fork she took the left path, which was narrower than the road-width main tunnels and less trafficked. As she trotted, the path curved and rose gradually, and holes in the wall to her right came to view. Looking out, she could see the massive cavern that served as the hive’s equivalent to a main hall. Pillars lined the outside of the hall, adorned with many of the glowing crystals, and from the ceiling a great path of them bathed the hall in their green light. The hall, as she could see, was slowly being filled by Changelings. Publius had guessed more than correctly. The address wasn’t just soon, it was happening immediately. She could feel the call to the hall herself, but the verbal order from her Queen overrode the instinct to retreat down the path and take a spot in the stoney bleachers lining the walls of the hall.

The path opened into the decently sized throne room, where Chrysalis waited. She stood by the portal to a balcony protruding into the hall from where she would give her announcements and speeches. A couple of Junia’s peers stood by dutifully.

“Ah! There you are, Junia!” Chrysalis grinned. “Today is the beginning of a most wonderful… ah, I’m getting ahead of myself.”

“Not at all, my Queen. Our victory is all but assured,” Junia said. The pair of servants standing at the side nodded in agreement, and the Queen’s smile grew wider.

The hall was filled within minutes. The few Changelings that couldn’t find a seat hovered in the air around the ceiling crystals. All were looking silently and expectantly at the balcony. Their silence seemed to triple as soon as Queen Chrysalis stepped out and looked upon all of them. All was quiet for a solid minute. Then, she spoke.

“My subjects! It has been four years - four long years - since you were denied your right to a life without struggle. Four years since our claim to Canterlot, and to Equestria, was disrupted by that interloper Twilight Sparkle and that simpering excuse for a Princess, Mi Amore Cadenza! Your kin and your neighbors that are not with us today? Killed! By their underhooved machinations! Those who did not were certainly subjected to an equal if not worse fate than that.

“Four years - once again, it has been four years since we were driven from our home and forced to settle under this wasteland with little to survive. We are lucky the population of Equestrian fugitives was plentiful here for half of our time here, or else we would still be few, or fewer still! Starvation! The Equestrians believe we have been subjected to that, but we are mightier than their feeble selves! We have lived in the wilds and in the shadows since time immemorial, and our kind has always clawed their way out of the filth and bitten at those who had forced us down here.

“And that, my subjects, is what we are going to do. Our preparations have become sufficient for another attack, and the conditions are equally as ripe: your fellows in the field have informed me that Twilight Sparkle, now a so-called ‘Princess of Friendship’, remains busy in Ponyville while Cadenza has inherited the Crystal Empire and is expecting a child far to the north of Equestria! As for the diarchy in Canterlot… we need not worry about those two, for we are not attacking Canterlot.”

Some Changelings down below looked to each other briefly in mild confusion, but quickly returned their attention.

“We shall be marching on Equestria’s famous port city of Manehattan! Our forces are more than a match for the pathetic branch of guards they have planted there, and I am certain we can put its massive population to use as we choke out the rest of the country as we slowly take it all! And after we have the Princesses safely tucked away somewhere, we will travel north to the Crystal Empire to visit my darling Shining Armor and his family!

“Yet to do this, I am forced to make an unprecedented change of sorts.” She turned and beckoned to Junia, who slowly stepped forward, attracting the gaze of hundreds of Changelings.

“This is Junia, one of my direct servants and, as she will become when we arrive there, a commander for some of you!”

The Changelings once again looked at each other in confusion, but it was even worse than before. Junia could feel a burning in her face and a desire to back away and run.

“Some of you remember your lost sister, Decima. I am well aware of the rumors that circulated about she and I. It is time we put those rumors to rest: I was planning on performing an experiment on her that would allow her limited control to the Mind, something only a Queen can normally have control over. As I planned for Canterlot, I was confronted with the idea when I realized it would be advantageous to have more than one individual capable of influencing the Mind, like another Queen, but two Queens cannot control a single Hive. Day and night I researched until it was too late, all the while grooming Decima to become what I deem to be a Legate! Now, she is gone, but I have had more time and I believe I can now commit to this change. Junia here has agreed, in spite of the risks, to become the first of a new form of Changeling - a form between yours and I with the benefits of both.

“I will understand reservations some of you have, but you must understand me in return: you will accept Junia and her new role.” She spoke the promise in an almost menacing tone that dispersed most negative notions to the scenario the observing Changelings have.

“As such, we shall all be departing to Manehattan in the morning and will arrive in at least two weeks by hoof. We will take everything we have with us, from the youngest nymph to the guests we keep in storage below. In three weeks time, Manehattan will be ours!”

The Changelings, Junia included, all cheered, shaking the caverns with their pride. Slowly, excited by the prospect of victory, they began returning to their day-to-day.

Junia bowed to her Queen, the slender Changeling nodding her away with a grin as she went away to her chambers, accompanied by the two servants from before. The soon-to-be Legate excitedly left the throne room and descended rapidly down the tunnel, heading downward. As she came to the final set of windows, she heard voices, and she slowed to a stop. Outside the opening, a pair of Changelings spoke.

“So how about that Legate deal?” One asked.

“I believe her when she says it’s a strategic advantage. We could have used that four years ago. Maybe then Tusk would still be here,” the other answered.

“I know what you mean, but that’s all behind us.”

“Yeah, yeah…” The other did not sound convinced. Junia crawled, pressing herself against the wall as she listened in. This one had doubts, and she needed to know them. They could be a danger.

“Careful with that tone!” The other warned. “You’re lucky it’s just me listening to you.”

“I know, but… come on, you had to have noticed something’s a little off, right?”

“What do you mean?”

“Manehattan? There are just about three hundred of us and we’re attacking Manehattan?”

“Come on, we nearly had Canterlot four years ago.”

“There were five hundred of us then, and Manehattan is much bigger than Canterlot. I’m sorry, Mag, there’s just something off about this. Our Queen says we’re more than a match, but I’ve been to Manehattan--”

“Recently?”

“Naw, before Canterlot.”

“You know, that’s also funny: no one’s been there recently, have they?”

“Either that or no one’s talking.”

“Why wouldn’t they?”

The two of them hummed in thought, the question nearly made Junia do the same.

“Dunno, but our force isn’t enough to cut it, but our Queen wouldn’t lie so... There’s only one good explanation I’ll accept.”

“What’s that?” Mag asked.

“Well… our Queen may be ‘holding some cards’ I guess the phrase is from Las Pegasus.”

“Are you saying she’s lying?”

“No! Nonono! I just said she’s not lying. I’m saying there’s a part of this plan she hasn’t told us yet for some reason.”

“What do you think it is?”

“No clue, but whatever it is it has to make up the two hundred Changeling difference plus some if we’re to take Manehattan.”

The two of them descended, leaving Junia to ponder the words and implications. She never considered the numbers they had on their side while looking at the attack plan, but now it just seemed odd. What could possibly even the odds?

Either Queen Chrysalis would tell her in time, or she needed to speak with her in private soon.

Author's Note

USEFUL INFORMATION

The "servant" class of Changeling has no benefits over the average Changeling outside of directly serving the Queen as opposed to being restricted to tunneling or hunting duties. Servants fulfill the roles their title implies, but also act as guards and give reports to the Queen directly.

Fun fact about writing this chapter: I was wondering why I had them underground in a hive again like so many fan fic adaptations instead of somewhere like the castle in the comics. Well, they are technically in hiding, even if they are beyond jurisdiction, so it sorta makes sense.