Starlight and Trixie continued peaking through the crack in the doorway, both watching in horror as seven changelings looked up at a projection of their queen, who was grinning ear to ear with everything her children were telling her. “So it’s all coming together?” Chrysalis asked.
The leader, Phil, nodded. “That’s right, queen, me, Tim, Alex, Stan, Steve, John, and Martin have successfully infiltrated the town and replaced the elements without any cause for suspicion, and we got word of Jack and Mark over in Canterlot in the same situation, as well as Zack, Sarah, and Joel over in the Crystal Empire. All our threats have been captured and replaced.”
“Perfect…” Chrysalis hissed. “Now we can continue our plans to rule over all of Equestria!” Chrysalis raised her hoof up. “For this day will be long remembered as the start of a new world, a world swarmed with changelings, a world under my rule, a world where all will bow to my will!” She leaned her head back and laugh, wanting her children to do the same.
The mares by the door started to tremble, never thinking this would happen, that the entire world of Equestria was now at stake right in front of them. They could only watch and wait for the changelings to continue, but Starlight started noticing something while the queen continued cackling.
None of them joined in. In fact, some of them were looking away while others put their front legs on the table and rested their heads, one of them eventually raised a hoof in the air and said, “Um, Queen, can we stop you there?”
Chrysalis stopped laughing and looked down at them, not expecting this. “What is it, child!? Can’t you just join in on the evil laugh?”
Alex scratched the back of his neck. “We would, but it get’s kinda awkward toward the end, and I don’t think you’ll laugh at this, either.”
Chrysalis tilted her head. “Not laugh at what?”
All the bugs looked at one another, both dreading and excited for this. Phil stepped up and placed his hooves on the table while Starlight and Trixie raised a brow in confusion. “Listen, uh, queen, me and the other lings here have been talking about the situation we’re in right now, w-we even contacted the one’s who are in the Crystal Empire and Canterlot, and...we’ve come up with an even better plan.”
“Better?” Chrysalis found that impossible, only she had the better plans, not her children.
The seven changelings nodded. “Yup, the vote was unanimous, with a twelve outta fifteen vote. Tim being our counter.” Phil pointed at Tim, who held his head high.
Knowing her children never had a proper education, she rolled her eyes and chuckled. “You can’t be serious, all of you came up with a plan during the one you already have?”
Mike scuffed his hoof on the table. “Well, that’s the thing, queen, it’s our plan, a pretty good one that’ll go great for everyling involved.
Chrysalis decided to, at least, hear what they had to say, knowing she’d still tell them no. “Alright, I’ll bite, what is it?”
Six bugs turned to Phil, who cleared his throat and stood up. “We decided to...well, forget your plans and...live here...with the ponies...without you ordering us around.”
The queen smirked and held her head high, closing her eyes. “Well, children, I’m afraid my pla-” Chrysalis then opened her eyes and replayed that sentence in her head, the gears in her brain going off track. “Wh-wha...what did you just say to me?” She said, her smile gone.
Phil nodded. “Yup, live with them, without you ruling over us and giving us orders on...whatever it was you wanted us to do next.”
Starlight and Trixie’s jaws dropped as far as her’s, never thinking they’d see something like this. “T-They’re revolting against her?” Trixie whispered.
“You’re REVOLTING against me!?” Chrysalis yelled. Some of the changelings were hesitant at first, but nodded, causing a strand of hair to come out of place from Chrysalis. “You...You IDIOTS!” Chrysalis growled. “Have you not forgotten that our plan is to take over this entire world, we will have more love than you can possibly imagine!”
One bug crossed his front legs and looked away. “We opted out of that plan, you know how most of us feel about doing stuff that big.” He slammed his hoof on the table. “Our opinions are well documented on that in particular, too!"
Stan nodded. “John’s right, your plans are just too much work, you should’ve started small, like...taking over a rural area, or a small village...like this one for instance. Why did it have to be a kingdom for ling’s sake?”
Chrysalis facehoofed. “That’s the past, child! This is a new plan, a better plan, a brilliant plan, a plan that will-”
“Fail…” Phil finished. “It will, queen, trust us. We all thought about this and realized you’re pushing this plan...right off a cliff.”
Chrysalis gritted her teeth, never feeling such anger in her life from what she was hearing. “You JUDAS! How could you turn on me!?”
“By saying no.” Marvin pointed out, receiving a stone cold glare from his queen.
“Don’t you even remember what these ponies have done to you!?” Chrysalis yelled. “They drove us out and called us monsters! Never giving us a chance. What makes you think they will give you one now!?”
Tim stood up. “Like you said, queen. That’s the past, this is now. I’m pretty sure if we didn’t cause such a fuss over in Canterlot, we’d probably have a better chance.”
“And why did we have to ‘invade’ anyway?” Martin asked. “There’s a little thing called: ‘talking it out’ that we could’ve done. We’ve seen these ponies make peace with disfigured hawks and oversized fluffy bulls, the elements even forgave that mutant goat! And he did worse things than you, queen!”
John stood up. “T-That’s another thing we talked about. What about the other races? I’m pretty sure some of ‘em won’t take it lightly on us coming in and taking over.” He bursted into flames and changed into a griffin, holding up a claw. “Have you seen how sharp these claws are? I heard they can cut to the bone.” He changed back. “We even heard about some of them being good friends with the ponies too...they’d be pretty peeved if they found out we took their friends away.”
“And we only took, like, eleven ponies and a lizard.” Stan pointed out. “That ain’t even close to taking over the world, the ponies ain’t gonna just drop to their knees when they find out their rulers are captured, oh no, they’re gonna get mad, very mad.”
Chrysalis couldn’t believe this, and neither could Starlight and Trixie. “T-They’re really doing this?” Trixie whispered.
“You’re really doing this!?” The queen yelled. “Turning your back on the mother that raised you!?”
Some of them looked away. “Raised is too strong of a word.” Marvin said. “I’d use...completely forget about and let the caretakers, who you also don’t care about, take care of us.”
Chrysalis’s eye twitched as Phil leaned back in Twilight’s chair. “So here’s what we’re gonna do: We’re gonna tell the other ponies about what’s going on, show them where our hive is, tell them to bring an army in a half, and make it be the worst day of your life while we see it as a tuesday.”
Starlight and Trixie looked at each other, both just as surprised as Chrysalis. “A-Are they serious?” Trixie whispered.
Starlight looked back at the changelings, seeing that they were still arguing with her. “I can’t believe this…”
“A-Are you serious!? I...I can’t believe this!” Chrysalis’s eyes were starting to turn red while Starlight and Trixie’s faces turned deadpan, getting sick of this shtick. “You are all FOOLS! Don’t you realize that I have drones that are still loyal! You really think I will be stopped if they attacked!?”
The changelings looked at one another and laughed. Steve being the first to calm down. “We did some more math on that and found out that the ratio between changelings and...everyone else is about sixty eight to one...so close to make a joke, sadly…”
Alex put an arm on Rarity’s chair and rested his head on it. “Honestly, even if you did another attack, you’d fail, it won’t even take a love blast this time.”
Chrysalis looked over all of them, the changelings who were once apart of her hive, now turning on her. “Ch-Children! I am your QUEEN and you follow MY orders!”
Tim crossed his front legs. “What are ya gonna do, come here and make us?” He pointed at her. “Admit it, queen, without us...you’re nothing. Nothing but a bully and liar whose first impulse is to ponynap and take over! We’re sick of it, sick of following someling who’ll bring us down!”
Starlight blinked. “Wow, they’re dragging this on, aren’t they?” She whispered to Trixie.
All of the changelings smiled at one another as Phil stood up and faced the queen, her expression of anger slowly turning into shock and horror. “We’re tired of being your slaves, Chrissy; tired of living like monsters; tired of listening to your stupid plans! We’ve. Had. Enough!” He jumped on the table and went face to face with her.
“So, SCREW your plans! SCREW your loyal bugs! SCREW taking over Equestria! SCREW being nothing but servants to a no good, selfish, two-faced, bully of a queen!...And SCREW! YOU!” He looked at the other changelings as they snatched each one of the stones. Chrysalis watched her dreams shatter in an instant while Trixie and Starlight blinked in bewilderment. “Transmission out!” They then chucked the stones across the room, Chrysalis’s image disappearing in seconds.
All the bugs then cheered and laughed, some banging the table while others raised their hooves in the air. “AAAH! That felt good!” Stan yelled. “Never thought doin’ this would make me happy!”
It didn’t take long for the laughter to die down as all of them sat back in the element’s seats, Marvin wiping a tear from his eye. “So...uh, what was the next step?”
Phil smiled. “Since Chrys is out of the way, we can move to step five.” Phil turned to the cracked open door and held his hoof to the side of his mouth. “You can come in now, she’s gone!”
Both Starlight and Trixie flinched. Hoping he wasn’t talking to them, but the longer they faced the door, the more that hope went away, in the end, their curiosity got the better of them as they slowly opened the door. Starlight stepped forward while Trixie stood behind her. “H-How did you know we were-”
“You whispered, like, five times.” Stan answered. “Of course we knew you were there.”
Phil got off the table and stood on the floor. “You’re lucky you repeated what she said every time you talked, otherwise she might’ve heard ya.”
All of them got out of the chairs and stood in front of the mares, Trixie grabbing hold of Starlight and getting behind her while Starlight kept her ground. “So, all of that’s true?” Starlight asked. “All of you want this?”
Phil nodded. “Yeah, we started realizing just how bad this plan was turning into. Even you were catching onto us.”
Stan leaned closer. “Uh, how did you find us out, anyway. I thought all of us were doing a pretty good job at being the elements.”
Starlight glared at them. “For one thing, all of you were acting like jerks!” She pointed at Phil. “And Twilight would never say the things you said.” She then put her hooves to her hips and continued. “And if you must know, Luna told me about this while I was sleeping.
All the changelings ‘oh’d’ in unison. “Ah, So Mark and Jack did mess up.” Phil shrugged. “Eh, just goes to show how horrible this plan is going.”
“But why now?” Trixie asked. “Why wait up until this point? Why not just do it at your hive?”
“Cause we wanted to shove it in her face!” Stan yelled. “And...uh...we kinda...realized this...after we replaced your friends."
Tim nodded. “Honestly, I was hoping you’d come in and rub salt in the wound, it would’ve been pretty funny to see that.”
Starlight was starting to take all this in, realizing some things. “So you ponynapped my friends and took them to the hive before you decided to betray your queen.”
Phil shrugged. “She wouldn’t have called us if she didn’t see five alicorns, two unicorns, two pegasi, two earth ponies, and a lizard wrapped in cocoons and on her ceiling. Plus, we wanted to see what it was like to play important characters for a day...it’s...not really that exciting, to be honest.”
Starlight ran up to him. “Don’t you realize what she’ll do!?” Starlight yelled. “S-She doesn’t need any of them anymore! She’ll destroy all of them!”
The changelings looked at her for several seconds before bursting into laughter. Starlight narrowing her eyes at them. “Yeah, like she will with this rating.” Stan pointed out.
“And if you must know, we’re not the only one’s who are against her.” Phil pointed behind her. “We got some lings over there right now replacing them and bringin’ them back.”
Trixie cocked her head. “So, you’re replacing our friends here while they're replacing them over there?”
Knowing it was a little confusing, Phil decided to get to the point. “All you need to know is that they’re safe, we’re on your side, and we’re taking that bug queen down.” Phil extended his hoof to her. “So, what do ya say? Wanna go get your friends, be friends with us, and make the queen wish she’d never think of this in the first place?” He smiled, all of them leaning in, waiting for an answer.
Starlight looked at the hoof, then at them, then at Trixie, who was still wide eyed, and then back at the them. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and shook his hoof, her face filled with determination. “Let’s make her wish she never messed with the power of friendship.”
“WOOOOOOH! GO FRIENDSHIP!” They yelled, Starlight stepping back.
Trixie meekly raised her hoof. “Um...yes...friendship.” She then pulled Starlight closer. "Can we get going? They’re scaring me.”
Starlight looked back at them,seeing them either jumping for joy or hitting each other playfully, though that soon led to headbutting, tackling, smacking, and punching, one of them threw a brother on the table while another grabbed him and threw him into one of the chairs, making it crack. Both mares looked in both horror and fascination as the roughhousing continued.
“You and me both…”
