Chrysalis places an ad in a paper.

Upon returning to her room to her room, she discovered two guards waiting for her along with a light blue mare with a greyscale mane that looked like a travailing wizard.

“Who the hell is this?” She asked in a rather annoyed fashion, just wanting to retreat into her room to write and drink hot coco while planning the downfall of Canterlot.

“This is Trixie Ma’am, she replied to your advert.”
“Right, come on in then, then we can talk,” Chrysalis said with a sigh, turning to one of her guards “Go tell the cook to make me some hot coco, and not to hold back on the cream or sugar.”

Her room was a rather simple affair, a black chitin desk, a comfortable looking bed and a wall made up of a mixture of black chitin and the bones of all the ponies that had ever pissed her off.

She smiled softly at Trixie, brushing her hair back with a hoof as she pulled over a stack of paper. “What is it that I can do for you, Trixie? Are you here to sign up for our Broodmare program?”

The mare looked to her, a conical hat decorated with stars and moons clutched tightly between her hooves. She seemed slightly flustered, but the bug queen pretended not to notice

“No… The great and powerful Trixie has a proposition-”
Chrysalis cut her off “You’re the dumb whore that helped Thorax take half my drones. I should lay eggs in you and use you like a cum rag.” She hissed, her forked tongue wiggling from out of her mouth like it belonged to a pissed off snake.

Trixie shrank back fearfully at her sudden aggression “But the- Trixie has a plan to take out Twilight!”
She sat back down in her seat and gave a soft laugh “Oh really? And why would you want that? And more importantly, why should I trust you?”

To the mare’s credit, she held off on panicking and stuttering. “You can trust me because I need to borrow two of your drones to act out my plan, and you have nothing to lose from trusting me, the two drones will be able to take me captive if I fail to please you.”

She blinked, “So, you break into Twilight’s castle and capture her alive, you bring her back here, and then… What do you get out of this?”
Trixie smirked softly “I saw your advert, and I want nothing more then to watch Twilight be turned into a mindless broodmare. Death is too good for her.”

She leaned back slowly “Also, Trixie knows the layout of her castle and defenses.”

The Changeling Queen seemed to consider it for several moments. She could just torture Trixie or devour her brain to get the knowledge she needed, but then again, she did not want Trixie becoming part of the hive mind, and she did not feel like torturing her because she had coco to drink and a book to write.

“Fine, if your plan sounds good I will be happy to provide whatever it is you will need.”

Over an hour later, Trixie was walking out through the everfree with a mare, stallion, and their foal. This was the cover story any way, in reality they were changelings.

The stallion looked kind of like a hipster, having a guitar case slung over his shoulder and a beanie on his head. The mare looked like she had come crawling out off an old magazine, wearing a flowery dress and a large summer hat.

The filly was the only one that looked normal, and was currently sucking rather happily on an oversized lollipop. Of course, because they looked rather out of place, nobody would suspect a thing, they would look like a family that was going on a visit to see the castle of friendship.

Once they were out of the forest, they headed straight for the castle. The two guards at the door were more then happy to let Trixie into the castle, and the filly on her back. Her family stayed outside to look at the castle while Trixie took their daughter for a tour.

The filly was really happy to look at all the cool stuff lying around in the castle, suits of armour, tapestries and a lot of books.

Outside the castle, the two guards were still doing their job. The hipster walked up to them and smiled softly. “You like music?” He asked. The two friendship guards looked to each other, their purple armour clinking softly.

“Umm, yes?” The first guard said.
In a smooth movement, the hipster pulled the guitar case from off his back using his green magic, then popped it open. Two small sickles were pulled out of the case, and instantly raked across both their throat’s, spraying blood everywhere.

The two guards fell back against the wall, eyes wide in fear as blood foamed from out of their mouth. One of the guards managed to keep moving, shoving the door open and rushing inside as both the changeling’s dropped their disguises.

They made no attempt to stop him, even as he raised the alarm. The hipster tossed the guitar case to the side as he readied both his really impractical weapons.

His partner pulled out a rapier, taking up a fencing stance as they got ready to hold off the hoard of guards they knew would be coming their way. Meanwhile, the castle had gone mad. The rather armature guards were running around, getting ready for combat as best they could before rushing off to their deaths.

They were not really a standing army however, they were more there for show and to attract tourists. One of the guards rushed up to Trixie and the filly that was with her. He was quite a young stallion, but still looked flustered from all the galloping he had been doing. He doubled over and heaved, sucking in deep gasps of air as Trixie waited patiently for him to speak, her and the filly on her back sharing an evil look with each other.

"i-I need to get all the citizens to safety, please come with me! The castle is… under attack."

Trixie put her best acting to use and gave a a gasp of horror "Oh no! That's terrible! Please lead the great and powerul Trixie to safety!" She pleaded, trying to sound helpless.

The guard gave another gasp, then raised his head slowly, giving a curt nod before dashing off, the pair of them in tow.

In another part of the castle, nearly two dozen friendship guards were rushing towards the source of the threat, another dozen guards coming as back up.

The guards at the front saw the threat first, and after another dozen steps they skidded to a stop, cursing and jostling with each other as they stared at the two changelings.

"Fuck!" The first guard said, the other guards thinking along those same lines but not daring to speak it out loud.

"They can't get in right? The defensives are up! We don't need to do anything!"
"What's the matter with you?" The commander yelled at his guards, who were all cowering like children.

Flash Sentry draw his sword, raising it in front of his face "We will not allow these foul creatures harm the princess!" He roared, rushing straight at the two elite changeling guards, the remains friendship guards following their commander after a moment of hesitation.

The elite changeling guards were meant to be a myth, nothing more then a fairy tale. In all the attacks on Chrysails, they had never been seen. It seemed that for this mission, the changeling queen had pulled the ace from her deck.

The elite guards simply watched as a small army of guards rushed at them. They wore helmets and chest plates made out of thick chitin carved and moulded from the previous guards that had died in service to the queen.

But the most identifiable feature of the elite guards wasn't their battered armour, it was the fact that their midsections were red instead of the normal green most changelings had.

As the army rushed them, they knew that it was the end for them. If they were fighting in the entrence to the castle, they would have likely slaughtered the guards if they kept their backs to the wall.

But if they stepped into the castle, some magical trap would fry them. Once they were forced away from the doorway, they would be surrounded on all sides, and then they would die.

Despite the end of their existence rushing towards them, they felt no fear, rather an overwhelming sense of pride. To die in combat in the service of their Queen, that was the best end a changeling guard could wish for.

Being elite guards, they new that their end would be shared across the hive mind, and their names, (being some of the few changelings that got to pick their own) would become a legend and rallying cry for generations of guards to come.

John nodded at Mari, and Mari nodded to John, and then they cut down everything in their path. Their impractical weapons designed to turn combat into an art form and strike terror into the hearts of those that dared face them.

Meanwhile, the guard that was escorting Trixie and the filly to safety burst into the safe room of Twilight sparkle.

"Princess! I rescued these-" He was suddenly cut off, a loud gargle tearing from his throat as the filly stabbed him in the back of the neck.

She might not have been able to undisguise for fear of traps, but she could still stab a guard to death with a large degree of ease.

The poor stallion shambled towards his Princess, then vomited blood all over her mulberry fur. Blood splattered across her face, some of it getting in her three tone purple, dark blue and pink mane.

Her eyes opened wide in shock at the stallion convulsing on the floor in front of her, a knife sticking out the back of his neck, which might have been prevented if the idiot wore his helmet.

Rather intelligently, Twilight picked screaming as the right response to the situation. Before she could use magic, Trixie had moved up next to her, almost eligently smashing a good into her temple to send her sprawling across the floor, out cold.

Even the alicorn's magic had failed to protect her. The filly hopped down off her back, green flames engulphing herbas she changed her form to match that of Twilight, which thankfully did not set off any magical defenses.

Using her magic she begin to clean up the blood, Trixie swinging an unconscious Twilight sparkle across her back and making her escape through the secret tunnel beneath the safe room, which would exit at the castle of the two sisters.

Outside the battle had become a blood bath, of the three dozen guards that had been stationed at the castle, two dozen had been killed, and half a dozen had been wounded to varying degrees.

The two changelings lay next to each other, their green blood mingling together as their blank eyes stared up at the sky, looking almost peaceful.

Their bodies were covered in cuts, lacerations and several deeper wounds, all of which had eventually put them down.

The ground around them was littered with the corpses of the royal guards, who had quickly learned that even when surrounded on all sides, the elite guards had done more then enough to prove their titles. A nearby battalion of day guards arrived mere minutes afterwards, but by then the battle was over.

Flash Sentry was being tended to by a day guard paramedic. In the fight his sword had been knocked from his magic, and then one of his eyes had been carved from his face by a slash of a sickle.

The pretty pegasus mare staring down at him did not help in the slightest. She was white with a blue mane, the same colour as all the other day guards thanks to an enchment on their armour. Despite this, there was denying how stunningly beautiful she was.

Flash Sentry did not care in the slightest however, there was only one mare he cared for, and that was his Princess. After having his eye bandaged, he was back on his hooves.

The field medic was trying to say something about how he needed more treatment, but he ignored her.

After sending one of the remaining guards off to confirm the Princess was safe, he went shambling towards the battlefield, the huge amount of day guards wisely staying out the orange pegasus' way as he dropped to his knees before the blood strewn battle ground, stabbing his sword into the ground as a bitter sob tore from his lips.

"I'm sorry!" He screamed, throwing his head back and slamming his hoof into the ground repetitively as he repeated "I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" Over and over, each repatition quieter then the last, and each one followed by another hoof stomp and another painful memory.

He knew all these men personally, he knew most of them had families, he knew that they had only joined the army because it was a thing expected of stallions.

He knew that non of them had expected to face combat, and he knew that he had prepared them poorly for it. He could picture the faces of their families as they got the letter that their family members would not be returning home, explaining how they had died and how he had failed to protect them.

A soft purple wing slowly draped across his back, dulling the pain as he looked up, shocked to see the tearful eyes of his princess staring down at him. “Come with me Captain.” She said bluntly, using her commanding tone.
She slowly guided him to his hooves, hiding him under her wing so that the other guards did not see him sniffling and sobbing. After they made it back into the castle, she moved her wing away from him, tossing a dark look to the day guard who was following after her, likely about to ask for orders.
“Go and tell the guards to spread out in the castle and not to come near my quarters.” Twilight said, trying her best to keep a bitter edge out of her voice. She waved the wreck of a stallion towards a beanbag, where he slumped down, looking like he had already been through one too many wars.
Twilight begin to heat up a kettle of water on a small stove, then went and sat herself on a beanbag next to him, draping a wing across his back and hugging him into her chest, shushing him and stroking at his mane as he sobbed “Shhh, shhh, let it all out.”
Flash seemed happy to do that, he had never shared such a tender moment with the princess, but he was too shaken up to bother questioning it. Twilight’s soft stroking of his hair wiped all the pain away.

“This was not your fault, I am in charge here, and it was my failings that led to the deaths of those ponies. Neither you or me could have expected to be attacked by two elite changelings, and you did the best you could with what you had. I will tend to the funerals and sending the telegrams.”
He looked up to her, his voice croaking slightly “N-No. It is my job, those stallions were under my command, and I let them die.”
She glared down at him “You did not let them die, you lost an eye, and I heard how you went charging in first, neither I nor those stallions could ask any more of you. Fighting on in your condition would have likely only led to your death as well, living to fight another day was the right decision.”
She moved over to the kettle and poured the tea into two cups as Flash raised his head to her, his remaining eye puffy and his hooves still shaking softly, clearly in shock. “I.. I still feel terrible for letting them die.”
Twilight pulled a box of her best camomile tea over, beginning to brew two cups of it for her and Flash. “I know, and you need to use that to fight harder, together we will find out what the changelings are up to, and then we will make them pay.”
Flash looked to her, a look of… Awe on his face “You seem… Different Twilight. I have never seen you act so decisively before.”
“This is not something that can be solved with the magic of friendship, Commander. This is war, I am not a filly and I understand what that means. We gave Chrysalis a chance at peace, and she has refused us at every turn, so the only choice we have left is to destroy her. I will get onto the Princess as soon as I can and have them send out scouts and assemble an army. We will make them pay.”
Flash nodded slightly, taking his tea as she floated it over to him and bringing it up to his lips, sipping it slightly as his blue eye fixed on his Princess. “Thank you, Twilight… This has really helped.”

She nodded “Before we do anything however, I want you to finish that tea and then go get some rest. You are recovering from shock and I need my commander in peak condition, I cannot do this on my own.”
He nodded, and she draped a wing over him again, then leaned in for a kiss. Flash was of course caught totally off-guard by this, and was about to say something about it not being practical, but then those thoughts melted away and he pressed his lips against hers, his eye softly closing as he took in the taste of strawberries.

Then they shot open again as she surprised him even more by forcing her tongue into his mouth and wrapped her hooves tight around him. For some reason, a rather out of character heat formed in his loins, and he groaned softly, leaning in further to try and pin her against the beanbag.

She pushed him away and laughed softly, “Now, now Captain, I think you should go get that rest.” She said, staring into his eye in a half lidded fashion, noting how it was now tinted with hints of green as her other hoof stroked down the wound that led to his missing eye.

He nodded slowly, then downed the rest of his tea. Poor Flash then had to hobble out of the room without making it obvious that he was hobbling, trying his best to hide the fact he had an erection with his tail.
His face was bright red, and Twilight’s soft giggling only served to make it worse.