Canterlot was under siege, again. Scores of changelings swarmed the bright, summer skies and avenues, a black haze of cruel animosity. For hours now, he had fled their assaults, barely making his way to freedom through sheer luck and fierce application of his training. He doesn’t know why he kept the black bag of tools with him, but leaving it behind had seemed like a bad idea each time he felt the impulse, so it floated beside him, wrapped in his pale magical aura. Battered and bruised ponies littered the cityscape he ran through. This district had been thoroughly savaged and now, only minimal air patrols swept through to pick up or attack stragglers. Block by block, street by street, he stole through the secret byways and obscure alleys only a lifelong native could navigate reliably, for some were enchanted and others were built for confusion. Those few that had made their way to these relatively safe places to wait out the battle, urged him to stay or turn back. He ignored them.

He emerged into a seemingly purposeless alcove among the castle walls, the bricks shimmering in the darkness behind him as he stepped through it. A squad of black, chitinous bodies flashed past, causing him to stiffen, then breathe a sigh of relief when none seemed to notice him. From here, he could see the base of Canterlot Castle. Broken masonry and fallen soldiers lay like tasteless lawn ornaments around the rear gardens.

He cast a minor scrying spell that sent a eye forth to see for him. He closed his eyes to better comprehend the third visual input and observed. The patrols were regular and well-timed, but a tiny hole existed within their patterns that he might exploit. Additionally, the castle’s small rear gate stood open, one of the massive wooden doors broken part way off its hinges.

The minutes passed in tense silence as he watched and waited for his opportunity. His dark fur seemed to serve him well in cloaking his presence, as none of the invaders had spotted him.

Now!

He broke the spell and dashed forth from the shadows, like a shadow unto himself, weaving through the gardens with expert, tactical precision. His heart hammered in his chest and the air seemed alive and reluctant to dwell in his lungs as he made his break for the rear castle gate. He reached it, out of breath and jittery with anxious energy. One, maybe two changelings, he could handle by himself, but he saw none that were with less than five more of their own. Being spotted would mean almost certain capture.

After catching his breath, he swept inside. The castle interior still rang with the clash of steel and shouted orders. Good, there would be plenty of distractions. He cast a spell to muffle his hoofsteps and moved along the decadent halls and rooms, circumventing minor, futile battles and avoiding the most highly populated areas. Finally, he came to a set of narrow, spiral stairs that lead into the castle’s sub-levels. A clever enchantment masked the true purpose of this passage, requiring the possession of alicorn blood to activate the subtle twist of spacetime that would cause these stairs to lead somewhere else. Unlike the numerous agents of SMILE, the six agents of RICTUS dealt with threats far grander than bugbears or hydras, thus they needed a competitive edge that could only be entrusted to a very limited number of individuals.

The transfused blood boiled in his veins as he mentally reached out to the semi-conscious magics woven into the architecture. The staircase unwound before his eyes as the enchantments recognized a small part of Princess Celestia’s body within him.

His hoof was on the first step when he saw the green flash and was thrown sideways. The bag tumbled down the stairs as his magical grasp on it was lost. He slammed to painful halt against the nearby wall, his world turned sideways as he watched six changelings charge down the hall toward him, hissing with fangs bared. If he had time for preparation, these six would be nothing to him, but as things were, it would be a losing fight, even if only to get away and hide once again.

He charged an energy bolt and hurled it just to the side of the nearest assailant. The feint worked, sending the rear-most changeling soaring to impact a distant wall. Still, five more advanced on him, at speed. A blur of silver and red streaked through the air from behind and struck the two leading changelings. An oversized, ceremonial trident deeply embedded itself into a door, trapping them by the throat between its tines. They struggled and flailed to no avail as an amber stallion with a sapphire mane stepped into view. He was wearing a common soldier’s armor, but the pony underneath was far from common.

“Thank you, Agent Telus,” he said, standing to join his young companion.

“I’ll take care of these runts, you get to Celestia and build the wards,” Telus said, charging forward and swinging an elaborate arc through the air that delivered an instantly debilitating kick to a changeling's side. The remaining two halted and seemed to be reconsidering their approach. “Don’t trust the other agents, if you see them. I have reason to believe we’ve either been betrayed or infiltrated.”

“I won’t let us down,” he said, trotting back to the stairs and re-activating the enchantments as Telus engaged the enemy. The bag of tools swung into view as the stairs unwound once again and he breathed a sigh of relief, though he didn’t know why.

Telus let out a warrior cry as he finished off the last combatant. “Good luck, Agent Rune!”

Rune galloped to the end of the labyrinth, his way made trivial by the enhanced memory endowed to him by the alicorn blood. His was the easiest method of traversing the trap-ridden maze. The other five agents would be guided by self-restructuring puzzles and riddles only they could solve. Even if one of them was a traitor, it would take them hours to get through, at best. This gave him critical time for preparation.

At the end of a dark corridor as wide as a small field, the dimly glowing stone door loomed high into the dark, it’s bluish outline carved an imposing shape meant to instill awe and intimidate trespassers. He trotted up to it and placed a hoof on one of six bespoke indentations. Glowing lines of power spread outward from this and he sensed a one-way psychic channel open to the tenant within. He could feel her searching his thoughts and memories of the recent past, feeling somewhat abashed at the activities she now knew him to have been engaged in as the invasion commenced.

Enter, Agent Rune.

The command came from within his own head and he felt a magical compulsion lift from him that would have subtly turned away any intent to attempt entry. The door lifted up, silently receding into the wall above it. He set aside his tool bag as he stepped through and approached the exceptionally tall, ivory mare that sat amidst a field of brilliant magelights. Her chromatic mane swirled around her as magical energies dissipated from whatever spell she had been casting to let him in.

“Your Highness,” Rune said and bowed low as the door slid shut behind him. “I’m afraid I’ve come bearing terrible news. Agent Telus reports that at least one of our number has defected. I suspect a sleeper agent somehow made it through the filters.”

“I'm afraid that may be the case,” Celestia murmured. “It would take multiple betrayals for the changelings be capable of launching a second attack, of this scale, on Canterlot. We may have been infiltrated on many levels.”

“I agree, your Highness. I’ll begin work on the wards presently. I assume you need me to leave a method of communicating outside?”

“Yes, I’m attempting to contact the Elements. They seem to be out of reach or indisposed.”

With a nod, Rune set to work constructing the runic barriers, carving them into the air at all points in the room. The necessary complexity for the defenses was great and runic magic requires the user to memorize the placement, order, function, and transliteration of each rune, or they simply don’t function, their energies requiring a conscious mind to give them power of substance. The work was daunting, as the room was a cyclopean, empty cuboid, but with time, the defenses were set.

With the grand majority of the runes in place and memorized, Agent Rune addressed Princess Celestia, “Your Highness, I think it may be time to discuss emergency strategies. You haven’t received a response from the Elements, correct?”

“Unfortunately so,” Celestia sighed, dropping the scrying spell.

“Without a more potent energy source, I won’t be able to keep these runes powered for long. If it comes down to it, your immortal life essence will be the only method of keeping them active, should we need to remain within this bunker for an extended period. Your Highness...I…”

“Yes, Agent Rune?”

Rune nodded and swallowed. “I’m afraid we may need to resort to...less savory tactics should things devolve further.”

“I’ve already accepted this. RICTUS was formed for that explicit purpose, after all. There will always be a price to pay for victory, when the Elements cannot deliver it to us.”

“Then, I have a suggestion.”

“Speak plainly, I’m listening.”

Rune explained, watching the princess’s face and dreading the grimace or frown or, worse yet, the glare that she might develop as he laid out the cruel ploy. Celestia remained stoic, making no sound or gesture, simply staring and listening. When he was done, she was silent for a time. Only once, she opened her mouth to speak, but closed it and glanced sidelong, at the bare stone floor. She then turned away and resumed her attempts at contacting the Elements.

He understood this reaction and set to work on laying the infrastructure, tool bag close at hoof. Something changed in the room then, bringing with it a pleasant discomfort.

Only once, in the following day, did Celestia make a sound. It was a simple and surprised ‘Oh’, followed by a glance at Rune. Thereafter, he was uncertain how she had spent her time, but she seemed to come down from an edge.

When they came, the ground shook and the air seethed with buzzing. Agent Rune was familiar with this psychological tactic. When one knows they cannot penetrate the defenses physically, they must penetrate into the defender’s mind and sow seeds of despair that blossom into surrender. Only a fool would believe it could work on Princess Celestia. Rune, himself, was quite ready to lay down his life and sanity for her, come what may. This fear mongering would prove fruitless.

Celestia rose to a sit and faced the door, her golden shoes clattering marvelously upon the floor. It gave him spirit and he climbed to his hooves with gusto. Her horn lit up with golden radiance and he readily accepted the wordless offer for a psychic connection between them. Not long after, a voice seeped into their minds, through the great stone door.

“Princess...it’s Telus. They’ve won. I’m sorry, I couldn’t do more.” Even Agent Telus’ psionic voice sounded weary, a bone-chilling detail that gave Rune a jolt of apprehension and savage anger. Voices projected directly from the mind reflect emotion and pain only under extreme conditions and to hear Telus speak into his mind with such clear suffering...

“It’s alright, Telus. You’ve done more than enough. You and all your brothers in arms. Give me their demands and I’ll take things from here. Worry not, my little pony.”

There was a long moment of silence before Telus’ voice returned.

“Queen Chrysalis is here. She’s ordering you to present yourself and bow to her in supplication. She says the entire kingdom will see you surrender, or die.”

Celestia’s response was immediate and stern.

“Parlay.”

“Princess?”

“Parlay, Agent Telus. You may tell the queen of the changelings that I, Princess Celestia, wish to parlay with her.”

“As you wish, your Highness.” Another long pause, then Telus’ voice returned, “Sparing the insults, she seems eager to oblige, if only to degrade your image to the people of Equestria.”

“Thank you, Agent Telus. Do be sure to let her know that this will become very difficult and costly for her, should they harm a single further hair on your head. Or anypony else’s, for that matter.”

“I will, your Highness. Agent Telus out.”

With that, the psychic conversation ended and the connections were cut.

Without looking, Celestia spoke to Rune, “I trust you had ample time to execute.” It was not a question, but a statement, made with tempered respect. Rune grinned and subtly shivered with delight. Celestia’s horn glowed again and the door rose with a whispering, uncanny smoothness. The din of clamoring changelings rose and a mild wind, from the blurred motion of insectoid wings, gusted a fine dust against the semi-visible runic forcefield that glinted with an almost metallic sheen. Rune looked boldly out into the throngs of the enemy, scanning each member.

“I found it,” Celestia murmured to him. “Forty-seventh from the left, with the horn broken to a fine point.”

Incredible, Rune thought to himself. He had only enough time to register a portion of their details before the princess had done this part for him. Was she...excited? The changeling in question exhibited an extremely subtle, but distinct bob and sway to his motion that was slightly ahead of those around him, as if he dictated their motion. He recalled the necessary runes and made mental preparations for adjustment.

“Ah so the coward shows herself, at last,” a voice blared from the shadows above. Queen Chrysalis, ruler and first matriarch of the changeling hive, descended to a chorus of enthused hissing. Several gallops from the entryway, she settled beside an unconscious Telus, placing a hoof on his back with a fanged grin. “Was it comfy in there with your little gigolo? I hope you had as much fun as you could before your inevitable defeat.” Her voice was a sultry pair of nearly identical tones that resonated with a sinister harmony. As she spoke, she spread her holed, translucent wings with regal poise. Her legs bore a similar, perforated structure that reached to her knees. Unlike her subjects, her black body plating looked supple and smooth, the seams few and far between. Acid green light danced and shimmered on the bioluminescent plates of her back and barrel. Strange, frayed ribbons of a slate cerulean material swam about her head and neck in the artificial breeze and her tail, likewise, flowed about her rear hooves in serpentine patterns. She’s...eerily cute, Rune thought, studying what looked to be a tiny, dark, crown-like crest just behind her long, jagged horn.

“This is not, as you say, a gigolo,” Celestia replied, levelly. “This is my champion. He is the wit against which I wish to parlay with you.”

The queen laughed, “That’s all? Him, in a battle of wits against the greatest ruler and strategist the world has ever seen? Please, Princess, your desperation is showing.” Celestia’s response came in the form of an unphased, inquisitive stare. Chrysalis rolled her luminous, blue-green eyes and sighed, “Very well, let’s get this tiresome game over with, so we can get to the good parts.” She strode forward, confidently. “So, assuming you have leverage with which to enforce the terms—and you don’t—what are they?”

“On the contrary, I need not enforce a thing that is not already in action,” Celestia said, casually brushing back a strand of mane. “Due to your sound defeat by them before, I’m certain you’ve made sure to capture or otherwise neutralize the six ponies known as the Elements of Harmony. But what you could never have guessed, is that the artefacts that empower them, have a will of their own. Their magic, without a host’s will, is slow and subtle, but inevitable. So long as they exist, circumstances will rise to depose you.”

“Then I’ll destroy them,” Chrysalis roared, though not with fury, but with triumph. The voices of the changeling rose in tandem.

When they were done, Celestia responded, “To unmake an Element, would mean to unmake yourself. The energies required are staggering, even to those of our power. To truly destroy one would mean the release of a destructive force large enough to incinerate the mountain we stand within, and the countryside surrounding it for leagues beyond the horizon. Is that the legacy you want? No legacy at all, but the smouldering remains of what you could have ruled and nopony to even remember your ‘victory’?” Celestia oozed this last word with uncharacteristic smugness that made the corner of Rune’s mouth twitch upward.

“You forget, little princess, I have more than one hoof to play,” Chrysalis hissed and swung her head around to the masses behind her. “Open the Eye!”

At her command, an octet of changelings galloped from seemingly random points within the crowd. They formed an enclosed loop and their horns glowed the acid green that was the signature aura of their species. Above, the air shimmered to life and a fog developed, growing thicker by the second, until it was opaque. In another moment, the fog cleared in the center and a bird’s-eye view of Canterlot stadium was revealed. It seemed that at every square hoof of space, a pony had been crammed in to fill it and another placed on top of them. Rune wasn’t sure, but he thought he could hear continuous moans of stallions and mares in pain as foals cried out for their parents. He felt, more than saw, the heat of Celestia’s rage growing beside him. When he looked, his eyes stung with the warmth of the air baking off her, though the cracks in her calm facade were surely calculated, they were only the barest hint of the malice roiling underneath.

Celestia stood slowly, gracefully. “Leave my subjects out of this,” she said, her tone deadly smooth.

“And deprive them of this, my greatest, most well-deserved victory? I think not,” Chrysalis cackled, inadvertently turning up the heat that Rune was already sweating to endure.

He maintained his position but whispered, that only Celestia could hear, “Your Highness, please.” To Rune’s great relief, Celestia regained most of her internal composure, cooling off noticeably in a fraction of a second. It was now only sweltering.

“What do you want with my subjects?”

“Only to let them witness the helplessness and cruel disregard you truly have for their lives. Bring in the captives!” Chrysalis sneered at them as she waited for the changelings to follow through. And Waited. The shortness of her temper was made clear when the first ten seconds produced no returning haul of captured ponies. She spun on a hoof and pointed to the nearest buzzing changeling. “You! Why isn’t there a prisoner at my feet already?”

“I-I-I’ll check, my queen!” The changeling made to soar through the crowd, but was intercepted by a returning pair. They dropped to the stony floor before Chrysalis and visibly groveled as they spoke in hushed, scratchy tones. After only a few seconds, the queen spun back around and bucked them, sending each flying in a separate arc.

“Useless worms! Those two are on clamp duty! Send them to the clamps!” Several dozen changelings visibly grimaced at this news, but obeyed. “And find my prisoners!”

As Celestia tittered, Rune was relieved of even more heat. “You see, Chrysalis? Already, the Elements are at work, undermining every move you make. What do you think the chances were of those prisoners escaping right from under your muzzle?”

Chrysalis huffed and turned to the octet. “Bring the Eye here, we still have an example to make,” she said cantering over to the nearly still body of Agent Telus. “Oh, Celestia-a-a, look at what I have here,” she sang, “A juicy little morsel, ripe with screams of delicious agony.” The fog-encircled image of the stadium shrunk and tilted, repositioning itself vertically just behind Chrysalis and Telus. The queen turned to it and spoke in a grand, accusatory tone, “People of Canterlot! I present to you, your weak, cowardly figurehead, Princess Celestia! Watch her sit idly within the comfort of her protections as one of her beloved subjects suffers!” At this, Telus was wrapped in an acid green aura and began levitating off the ground. He was turned upright and groaned as a surge of energy pulsed over his body, waking him from an exhausted torpor.

“On my signal, lower the wards for the door,” Celestia said through clenched teeth.

“But your Highness, that jeopard—”

“Code Mass-Black. That’s a Royal Order.”

Rune sighed and gazed longingly at the back of the princess’s head, “You know, as well as I, that only Agent Incanta can initiate Mass-Black. I’m sorry. Agent Telus was made fully aware of the implications of this highest honor. He passed the tests and paid the prices. He is as happy to give his life for RICTUS as I am.”

They both flinched as the first of Telus’ screams tore through the air.

“Please,” Celestia whimpered, turning to him. The tears that formed in her eyes evaporating faster than they could swell, “He’s in love, for goodness sake. I could never look her in the eyes again if…I have to tell her...”

This time, only Celestia flinched at Telus’ screams. Rune watched, knowing she was as bound to his plan as he was to his duty. He had to think quickly. What made this worth the risk? As much as Rune hated it, Telus was expendable here. So was any agent, so long as the plan remained in motion. Celestia herself said there was always a price to be paid when the Elements weren’t involved in victory.

There was the image of the princess to consider. But that could be ironed out in a century or two, no big deal. Other mars on her record have been scrubbed clean before…

Wait, what about the Elements? Is it true that they could influence events, even within containment and without an active host? If it was a bluff, it had been a damned good one, already backed by the unlikely escape of several prisoners. He had to admit, even his own arrival felt miraculous, though not technically impossible. Rune looked to his bag of tools and the remembered the strange, illogical impulse that kept him from leaving it behind. So many pieces seemed to be falling in place. Telus howled again and that was enough.

That’s fucking enough.

“You Highness, I can reverse the thaumic flow for only a fraction of a second. I have no doubt you can exploit this time frame to its fullest, but our strategy will be laid bare until the concealment runes are empowered again. They’re among the last in the chain and there’s a limit to how quickly I can safely move energy through that section the system.”

“Leave that to me, Agent Rune. I respect your discipline and faith in the face of these events. You’ll be well rewarded for this.”

“The success of this plan is far more reward than I deserve.” Celestia’s mouth curled upward almost imperceptibly, but dropped as soon as Telus’ strained voice cried out again.

“I’ll keep the complexity to a very short-range translocation and a minor concealment spell. The agent will still be in present danger, but he won’t be leverage. Is this still acceptable?” The princess has regularly given deference to agents of RICTUS, but it has never failed to feel strange and dispensable, at least to Agent Rune.

“On your mark.”

“Ready. And.” Celestia tapped the metal of a rear shoe with each beat, dropping the third beat rather than speaking the word. Rune engaged another of the blessings of alicorn blood transfusion, using hyper-reactive muscles to create a twitch faster than even some extraordinary eyes could follow. The control runes at his hooves momentarily redirected the flow of energies that powered every active rune, enabling Celestia to make her move. The result, was a window of opportunity so narrow, threading the hole of a needle on the moon was only slightly more difficult.

Rune sensed a flash of light through his eyelids and, when he opened them again, Telus was gone from the queen’s magical grip. The runic barrier was set back in place, as if it had never blinked from existence. All around him, the previously cloaked runes and constructs were made plainly visible, but fading back under concealment as Rune scrambled with the controls. One look and Chrysalis would know too much. The changeling army reeled in blind pain and terror as the queen cried out in fury, holding a hoof over her eyes.

“Argh! You cheat! I thought you wanted to parlay!” the queen shrieked.

“I still do, but you started torturing one of my subjects before I could even present the terms,” Celestia said. The last of the constructs’ outlines had only just faded when Chrysalis brought down her hoof and peered at them with eyes full of black veins that crawled in spider web patterns along her pale green sclera. Rune breathed a sigh of relief.

Chrysalis glared “Hurry up, then! I don’t have all day.”

“Indeed you don’t. As we speak, my allies and their armies are being summoned, as well as forces from all corners of Equestria. I can’t stop you from harming my ponies here in Canterlot, but your chances of victory are slim, if you chose to fight them all. My champion has made it possible for us to both wait safely here while they arrive and the Elements further degrade your schemes.”

Chrysalis stamped a holed hoof, “Get on with it, princess!”

“Very well, then. My terms: first, should we succeed, you will not return from where you came, but remain within the mountain of Canterlot, where I can keep an eye on you. For centuries, I would have liked our two races to bond, or at least amicably co-habit. This would be fair and beneficial to all parties.”

“You presume to feed us the scraps of friendship, and call that fair? I will feed my kind nothing less than love and worship, not the dregs of your paltry amiability.” The changelings hissed in wild approval and the breeze grew visibly stronger, for a moment.

“I think you’ll find that my ponies are capable of more than minor affection for your kind. I have faith they can find it in their hearts to love even one such as you, given time and effort. Friendship is only the beginning of love.”

“Tch! Enough of this talk, what if I win?”

Celestia returned to a sit and sighed, “The Elements will stop at nothing to create peace. If I surrender and call off my allies, and you refrain from abusing my subjects under your rule, their power will become inert. I understand it will be a longer, harder road to friendship between our races this way, but I know my ponies are strong enough to endure it. You and yours will come to understand that our way is best, with time.”

The buzzing and hissing died down as Celestia finished her speech. A relative quiet persisted for several moments before it was broken by a slow, throaty build to a cackle. Chrysalis strode forward as she laughed, halting just before the barrier.

“Have it your way, princess. I’ll crush you before the eyes of all your precious subjects, then I’ll find a way to dispose of the Elements and have our way with you and your ponies until countless generations have known nothing but love and respect for me and my changelings! So, give us your challenge and be done with yourselves.”

“The task is simple, Chrysalis,” Celestia said, trotting gracefully, almost seductively back to Rune’s side and laying on her belly, chin held high, “Kiss me.”

Chrysalis’ facade broke. She took a step back from the barrier and brought a hoof to her chest in shock, lowering it with a stomp as she noticed her own reaction.

“Y-You’re stalling! Tell me the real challenge!”

Celestia smiled sweetly, “I have, your Majesty. The challenge is to make your way, here,” she tapped the ground before her with a dainty clink, “and kiss me, here,” she tapped her lips, once.

“I refuse to play this childish game.”

“And I refuse to change the challenge,” Celestia replied, the coyness in her tone replaced with an icy bite, “But I can change my terms to something a little less...merciful. As I said, this is a test of wits. Yours against his,” she said, gesturing to Rune.

After a long moment, Chrysalis hissed and ground out her response, “Fine. It’ll be the first of many kisses between us, only your lips will touch nothing more than my hooves, when I‘m Queen of Equestria.” Celestia ignored the taunt.

“Do keep in mind that should anyone but yourself cross the barrier, you forfeit the challenge.” She turned to Rune, “Agent, please lower the barrier for our guest.”

Rune complied, adjusting a series of control runes and creating a triangular opening for the queen. Without moving her head, her eyes flicked to the floor just inside the barrier. Her horn lit up and three lines of green energy, like claws, swept the small space. They gouged the floor and tore apart the previously invisible sigil. Chrysalis smiled and brought forth a hoof, but stopped just before setting it down. She pointed her horn to the ceiling and let loose a blast of energy that cratered the stone, destroying yet another concealed sigil.

Chrysalis stepped into the room, “Basic binding circles? My, my, how easy are you going to make this for me?” No sooner did she speak, than a blast of blue light seared through the air from her left, striking the orb-shaped shield that flashed into existence around her. The light poured onto the shield for several seconds and Rune smirked when he saw cracks appear in it, just before the trap died to a trickle of energy. Chrysalis had bared her fangs in effort and her hooves left shallow grooves in the floor as she’d ground across it.

“Easy?” Rune said. “That was about as easy as it gets. But please, keep gloating,” he said as he closed the barrier behind her. “Now, it’s only fair to tell you that as soon as you crossed that barrier, the runes in this room began sapping your energy. Fortunately for you, they’re relatively slow, so they can remain undetected, and only work when you move or cast spells. Think wisely before you act.”

The runes were actually drawing power from Celestia to keep the others active, but the bluff should have served to destabilize the enemy.

“How clever, little pony. Ultimately foolish, however. You should have let me take my time and be worn down by the vampiric runes. You sabotaged your own bluff by making it.” She turned to the changelings and the image of Canterlot stadium. “These are the hooves your princess places your lives in! Watch them fail and desp—” Chrysalis’ next words were pressed from her lungs as another blast of energy, from a rune placed at Celestia's hooves, threw her into the barrier. She was pinned against its translucent surface for an uncomfortably long moment, stretching nearly half a minute. The trap had not been designed to cause damage and, in fact, had been placed as a contingency. Rune turned to Celestia in horror. How had she activated it? With every rune in the room drawing power from her, she shouldn’t have been capable. Even with the two decoy traps destroyed in the beginning, the vampiric runes would have fed the energy surplus into the remaining obstacles to make them more potent.

When Chrysalis regained her hooves, Rune could feel the raw power emanating from her body. Green bolts of energy crackled between the holes in her hooves and wings. The balled tips of her ‘crown’ shone an incandescent green. Without a word, Chrysalis turned and began to move toward the princess, every step leaving the stone beneath her hooves glowing. Runes dissolved in her path and barriers shattered like ice.

“Princess, she’s going to break too many at once,” Rune hissed, adjusting the control runes as quickly as he could. “At this rate, the system will overload. I need to feed some of the energy back to into us.”

“No, Agent, only me.”

“Princess, that could kill you, in your present state! I’ll take my share, I can handle it.” Celestia’s eyes never left the approaching queen’s.

“I can’t stop you, but remember that the priority of RICTUS agents, is the people of Equestria. My life comes second.”

“I will, your Highness,” Rune said. He set his jaw and got to work stabilizing the most critical runic systems, struggling to balance the energies between their bodies and the magic. He coughed dryly as the queen advanced even further. The room began to feel hot, far hotter than Celestia’s tangible fury. He wheezed a cloud of steam. His chest burned and he felt his horn resonating painfully with the cascade of energies. The smell of Celestia’s singed plumage filled the smoky air. Eyes burning and swelling with tears, he watched Chrysalis demolish hours of work in seconds as she came within a gallop of the princess and stopped. The queen grinned, her mouth alight with blue-green bioluminescence. The side of his body facing Chrysalis experienced dozens of tiny, irritating jolts within the muscles. Rune’s world faded in and out of a grey haze, but he had to stay conscious; the timing was everything.

“Are you ready to taste defeat on my lips, Celestia? I can see how you burn for it.”

“Fair is fair. Claim your prize, my Queen,” Celestia said, the words flowing like dry sand as she held her chin higher than ever. Chrysalis took a step further, then another. Her gait was agonizingly slow in the most literal sense Rune could imagine. He felt his own enhanced body flagging and wondered how much Celestia must be suffering. Far more than him, no doubt. Hang on, just a little longer, he thought, she's almost...almost…

"I'm sorry...your Highness," Rune rasped before his legs gave out and he lost contact with the control runes. He slipped sideways as his vision darkened, slowly rotating to the perpendicular. Celestia and Chrysalis were still within his sight.

Their lips touched, but Celestia's hoof had strayed to the side, hovering just over one of the outer control runes. It was precisely where Rune wished his own hoof had been. He grinned as he finally understood.

When he initially set up the system, the princess had persistently inquired over several aspects of the controls, touching each rune in turn. Rune had no idea how this allowed her to usurp his control, but he'd ask as soon as the time was right. For now, he marvelled at her tactical prowess and foresight. Tapping the rune on the floor as she taunted the enemy earlier, feigning helplessness when Telus was in danger, and now…

Four streams of light speared from the far corners of the chamber, converging on the glowing loop of energy that was now visible around Chrysalis' neck. The queen tried pulling her head from the ring, but the trap had fully closed on her. She shrieked and roared, struggling to free herself, but each effort only causing the restraints to grow more luminous as they bound her within only a few square hooves of space. She stopped in mid-thrash, frozen like a statue. Strange, Rune thought distantly, that isn't how that one works.

Then the laughter came. Not from the queen in the center of the chamber, but from the one approaching the other side of the barrier..

"Well done, little one! Well done!" The real Chrysalis cackled. "You have served your hive better than any single drone ever has. You will be honored for all time, my child."

The Chrysalis within the trap started moving again, coming to a sit. In a flash of green fire, she reverted to her natural form, though she looked nothing like any changeling Rune had ever seen. She was taller and slimmer than most, approaching proportions similar to her queen, though noticeably smaller. Their eyes were the same, however. In this new form, the crest remained on her head, pulsing with a green light. “It was a pleasure to serve, my Queen,” she said, bowing low. Her voice was similar, but less intimidating.

“Let me explain to your subjects just how badly you’ve failed them, princess.” Chrysalis trotted to stand directly in front of what they’ve been referring to as the ‘Eye’. “The changeling on the other side of this barrier is carrying a royal core within her. It sustains and empowers her and would have made her a true queen, had she been fully compatible. As it is, the core is now an unstable bomb of incredible power. Within the hour, it will explode, taking your precious princess with it. Even one such as she could not withstand the blast,” Chrysalis shot Celestia a wicked glare, “even in her less corporeal forms. Furthermore, I’m already aware of the power of the Elements of Harmony and of a way to neutralize their effects. My changelings are enacting this process already. Without the runecrafter alive to drop this barrier, the mountain we’re under will crumble, taking your city with it. My changelings and I will be leagues away to watch the spectacle, far out of reach of your allies. You, my little ponies,” Chrysalis spread her wings before the Eye, “will come with us and you will spread the news of this defeat to every land you encounter. Your arrivals will herald the blackening of the skies as my armies sweep forth to claim Equestria as my new domain!”

The changelings’ voices soared in approval as the queen concluded her diatribe. Rune had partly recovered, thanks to the alicorn blood, but knew not to show the signs. He remained perfectly still, taking slow, shallow breaths. As Chrysalis spoke, Celestia had been whispering to the trapped changeling, whose expression changed but once, and only for a moment.

“What’s to keep me from dropping the barrier, right now, like so?” Celestia turned her hoof and the metallic sheen between them vanished. The changelings all flinched back down the grand corridor, some even darting far out of view.

“Settle down, you cowards! This changes nothing!”

“This changes quite a bit, mother,” said the trapped changeling. Rune had to bite his tongue until he tasted blood to keep from grinning. “You know I can set off the royal core any time I wish. That was your idea for a failsafe.”

“And what relevance does that have, my child?”

“All the relevance in the world. It’s my ticket to your throne.”

“What did you say?”

“To paraphrase, I said the hive is mine, now.”

Chrysalis broke into hysterical laughter, clutching her sides and wiping tears from her eyes after several seconds. “You wouldn’t dare, daughter. Besides, you’re trapped! You have no leverage against me! Your only option is to take us all here with you!”

Celestia spoke up, “She wants to live, Chrysalis. There’s more to life than duty and sacrifice and mindless self indulgence.” Rune resisted the urge to shiver as he heard this. How can she speak directly to someone else, and yet, run you through with her words? “To her, the hive is more than a burden. Its her family.”

“You think I don’t love each and every one of my children?” Chrysalis snarled, “I’ve given them everything! I’ve ripped life from the very ground, from my very body, to keep them alive and well! I’ve scraped and clawed every ounce of happiness I could give them from this cruel world! I am theirs as much as they are mine!”

“And yet you toss our lives aside like these ponies throw scraps from a plate. We mean only as much to you as the goods our blood and sweat can buy. I know you would never keep my memory alive; you’d twist the story through the ages until you were the sole provider of this victory. Just like Torn the Reaver, Pincer of the Songs, or Commander Serum.”

“These names mean nothing, they’re mere decorations for a lie, and cheap ones at that,” Chrysalis spat.

“Follow me when I escape here, and I swear to you, I shall prove how our ‘Queen’ has been deceiving us all along! I will guide us to a new age of care and equality among my many hives. Remember the words we live by, even if our mother doesn’t—lie to our enemies, even to ourselves, but never to each other!”

A stirring in the gathered changelings rippled like raindrops striking the surface of a lake.

“Shut your mandibles, daughter! You will carry out your objective, as planned, or I will find another to take your place. One truly worthy of being remembered. And you,” Chrysalis said, addressing Celestia, “I hope you’re happy to let your subjects see what a cheat their princess is—your parlay was between me and the corpse over there. Clearly, it was your feeble wit I had truly been up against, not his. What do you have to say for yourself before I leave you to your doom?”

Celestia whispered something to the pseudo-queen, who responded with a subtle nod.

The princess sighed, “Only this.” With blinding speed, she slammed a hoof in the center of the control runes, activating a special set of spells that hurled themselves through the entryway in Chrysalis’ direction. They angled themselves away at the last instant, with a turn of Celestia’s hoof, and struck a seemingly arbitrary location on the ground. With a dazzling array of mind-numbing effects to behold, the pseudo-queen stood where the spells landed and a very startled-looking Agent Telus had taken her place in the trap. The octet of changelings abandoned the Eye spell and sat, slack-jawed as they witnessed the events. To Telus, Celestia whispered, “If you’re going to cheat, be sure you’re better at it than your opponent.”

As Rune began to rise, a host of changelings swarmed the open doorway. Another flick of Celestia’s hoof and the barrier reformed in time for several black bodies to bounce harmlessly off the overpowered interdiction spells.

Telus glared up at the princess, “You...bitch.” Rune wondered if he had somehow been wrong, and the young agent had indeed been a traitor, but his insecurities were assuaged when the true Queen Chrysalis revealed herself in a flash of green flames.

Celestia stood on shaking legs and staggered around the sullen monarch. To the pseudo-queen she said, “I’m sure the traitor your mother employed can lead you out of here, to the Element of Magic. Twilight will know how to help you. At the very least, she’ll buy you a great amount of time.” The pseudo-queen nodded and finished wrapping another changeling in their sticky, green cement. It struggled within the cocoon, throwing its head about with such force that the purple, metallic helmet it wore was jostled from its head, clanging to the stone floor. The pseudo-queen grasped it in her magic and reshaped the metal, with little apparent effort. When she was done, it had been formed into a headdress of angular blades that glowed with heat. When it dimmed, she wove it into her strange, ribbony mane that didn’t burn on contact.

“Make no mistake, we’re not allies, Princess Celestia. I’ll turn in your warrior to the castle medics and find the escaped prisoners, but I will not live in this mountain, under your watch, I will not go quietly to my death, and I will feed and grow my hive any way I see fit. If you disagree with my methods, we’ll settle it on the battlefield.”

“May it never come to that. My offer for the alternative is always open.”

“Save your charity for a hive that needs it. Preferably one full of venomous bees. May we never meet again.”

“Farewell, Queen…?”

“Severance. Lady Severance. The time of despots has passed for my species.” With that, Lady Severance whipped away from the scene and began marching down the corridor, cocoon in tow. The changelings parted to let her pass and even the few that lingered at the barrier eventually turned her way.

“Daughter! Oh, daughter!” Chrysalis sang. Severance came to a halt, but did not turn around. “I’d just like you to know how very proud I am. When I escape, and I will, your slow death with be one of unspeakable agony. But it will be dignified, I promise.”

Not another word was exchanged between them as the changelings and their new matriarch marched into the darkness, their bioluminescent bodies fading like baleful stars at dawn in an unfamiliar sky.

Author's Note

Please forgive any glaring flaws in grammar and spelling; I am my own prereader.

R - Rune
I - Incanta
C - Crepitia
T - Telus
U - Umbran
S - Sermi

Psst, can you guess who Agent Telus is?