Thorax stood, looking around at his fellow changelings. "We did it." His smile curled from cheek to cheek. "We really did it!" Flicking his wings, Thorax did a little spin, kicking a multicolored hoof up into the air.
Another rainbow-patterned 'ling buzzed over to the celebrating Thorax. "They are gone, they used their magic to leave!" A familiar sound, deeper than most changeling wings but just as buzzy, got closer and closer.
"My Queen!" Thorax spun, spotting Chrysalis returning. As the mother of the hive settled her hooves down on the ruined throne room, she reached a hoof forward to rub the strangely colored, stag-like bug's head. "My Queen…" Thorax's voice held every hint of devotion for the mare that not only raised him, but gave him his greatest mission.
"It is done?" Chrysalis's snout was already curling into a smile, she knew what was coming, she had seen the ponies leave herself. When Thorax nodded against her hoof, she rubbed his ear. "Then return to your forms, my children."
Thorax was first, swirling blue magic wrapped around his form, banishing the disguise that had so effectively deceived the few ponies who had come. Around the cavern, all the drones shed their colorful guises, relishing in returning to their natural forms.
"My Queen, you promised…" Thorax looked up at his smiling mother, her hoof not stopping in rubbing his head gently.
"Of course. You get to feed first, Thorax." Chrysalis summoned her magic, ripping a circle of green magic into the floor around herself and Thorax. The two stepped from the burning circle. The room thrummed with energy, pure power that only a changeling could harvest. Ponies—in storage pods—circled the wall, but Thorax stepped toward a different shape.
"Spike." At the words, and Thorax's hoof laid on his pod, the dragon woke, blinking out. "I know you can hear me in there, I really must thank you so much, Spike. I only appeared to you because I knew you were the most simple to manipulate. Your friends, they wouldn't have believed any other." Thorax opened his snout and started to drink, guzzling down the love that the pod forced the dragon to feel.
"You deserve this, Thorax, truly the greatest of my children." Chrysalis herself homed in on the pink, slightly twitching form of an alicorn. "Mine, now."
She drank.
"They are an imposter!" Celestia raised a hoof and pointed it at the two "alicorns" sitting on and by the royal throne. "Guards, seize them!" She strode forward, eyes blazing, watching the green fire wrap around the two changelings.
"You!" Luna strode up beside her sister. "Tell us, are any other ponies replaced by changelings?" She glared down at the two drones, each trembling; they were completely surrounded.
"Sister," Celestia looked over to Luna, "calm your fire. We will take care of interrogating them." She strode up to the pair and pointed ahead of her, to the royal chambers at the back of the throne room.
Looking defeated and so tiny, the two drones scampered ahead. Their hearts racing, they ducked inside the room they had been calling "home" for days.
Striding through the doors, Celestia glared at the two drones and lifted a hoof up. Each of the drones lifted their own and gave the alicorn's limb a little clop with their own hooves. "Perfect." Luna closed the doors behind her. "Now, we move on to plan B."
Twilight stretched, relaxing at her castle. "First order of business," she had a list out, of course, "we need a meeting in the map room to discuss what happened." She gave a happy nod, crossing off "announce meeting" from her list.
The other mares followed her, Starlight and Trixie following along, once they realized they weren't going to be kept out.
Starlight froze once she was in the room, her eyes adjusting to the dim light. Laying on the map, two changeling pods sat, shepherded by two changeling drones. "Starlight?" Twilight stepped up beside the unicorn. "Why don't you just hop in now, we have control of everything, you yourself told all the ponies it was safe, their princesses were free." Green fire claimed the disguise the changeling wore.
Her eyes widening, Starlight tried to draw on magic, to put up a shield, to teleport, or anything. A crackle and a fizz was all she got from her horn.
"You honestly expected us to not plan for this?" The drone pointed to the pod. "In, now."
"The… the great and p-p-powerful T-Trix-" Trixie didn't get a chance to even finish what she was trying to say, green magic wrapped around her, picking her up and dropping her in one pod. Looking to the side, she watched as a similar fate befell Starlight. Her hooves lashed out, trying to bash her way free, but the pod just flexed and bent, and worse, she was getting sleepy.
"Perfect." The drone retook their disguise of Twilight Sparkle, while the other two undisguised changelings became Trixie and Starlight. "Plan B time?"
The "ponies" cheered.
Cadance set the little filly carefully back in her cot. "Shiny?" She looked to the side, seeing her stallion. "Will the ponies ever discover, do you think?"
"That we are in control? Of course not. Their first mistake was thinking they had beaten us at the wedding. Scouting is not always done with stealth." Shining reached his hoof in, brushing the cheek of the foal.
"And now?" Cadance inhaled deeply, still barely getting used to the amount of love a princess received from their ponies, let alone their foal.
"Now? Everything is perfect. We move to plan B." Shining's eyes flashed with green avarice for just a moment.
The plan was perfect, not just double-crossing, but triple-crossing the ponies. Chrysalis sat atop her throne, bathing in the love generated by the most powerful ponies in Equestria. "This day has been just… perfect."
Author's Note
Just an idea I had after watching the ep and chatting with some friends. Nothing intended by this, just getting an idea out of my head.
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Awesome ponies who are already helping to keep me in keyboards and rum:
Canary in the coal mine
Daremo
Mary Rowland
Boulder
A.P.O.N.I.
And special thanks to the following, for careful eyes and friendly words:
Daremo
Vutava
Boulder
