Sombra's Bat

I ask for Chrysalis and Sombra to meet in the Changeling Hive, which I feel is the most secure place to discuss our plans. It doesn't take long to tell them about the base. They are all shocked by the news.

"So Celestia does have a good old fight in her, then," muses Chrysalis.

"I can hear her taunting us," Sombra says, horrified.

"It's not huge, but it's too big to just be for watching us. Plus, the Elements of Harmony are there. I think that they'll have a few small bases for spies, and then the base I saw will be where their actual soldiers go." I place a few bits on a huge map of the Crystal Empire and the land surrounding it. "This is where they are likely to have their spies stationed. Close to the Crystal Empire, but not so close that they seem like a threat. The spies are likely to be earth ponies in order to avoid suspicion, but I think they will have a few pegasi stationed here as well. Unicorns will be kept for the actual fighting, because they're the strongest in the eyes of our fiery tempered princess."

"Where should we put our outposts, then?" Chrysalis asks.

"I think we need to send spies out first. If we can have someone in one of the small bases, Chrysalis..."

"I dislike sending my critters out to spy on the ponies, but I am sure we can arrange something. However, your plan is flawed. There may not be any of these small spy bases. They may have just planted the one."

"However, if we organise a coup of the main base and there are others, all of the smaller bases are going to immediately attack us, and their overall force will be more than that of the main base."

"A spy in each one?" suggests one of Chrysalis' top changeling guards.

"They'll suss out the changelings immediately, and who knows what they will do then? More of them are needed. At least two in the smaller outposts, if they really are there, and more than ten in that little camp I discovered earlier. Chrysalis, I know you'll be against the idea, but more of them could allow us to learn even more about Celestia's strategies than what our spy in the castle is capable of telling us."

"Spy in the castle?! Never!" the changeling queen retorts. "I refuse to believe that you have spies on Equestrian soil."

"They are right in the Princess of the Sun's inner circle. Haven't you heard? For more than a millennia I have been friends with Princess Luna. We went on a trip to the moon together. She went a bit darkness crazy too, so she understands that this is just a phase and she's promised to get old Sunbutt to go easy on us."

She licks her lips. "I can taste your contempt. Bitter arrogance, but you had an advantage that I have never had. I have no ties with the monarchs of other countries. Although, I suppose I should be glad that you at least have some idea of what you are doing. Fair enough. As much as it is petty, espionage will be our tactic for the meantime."

"First of all, we need to send scouts into the area to establish where the outposts are," Sombra reminds us. "I can prepare a group of twenty Crystal Guards if the Changeling Guard can match that number. Your opinion, Chrysalis?"

"Agreed. Before our guards are sent out there, however, I think our fastest fliers should go out there first in order to guide the team on the ground." She cocks her head to one side and looks at me.

"Me?"

Sombra marches up to her and growls, "How dare you suggest sending my future wife somewhere that she could be killed?! We have a deal to protect each other, not send each other's loved ones into battle!" The whites of his eyes turn green and purple mist forms around them. His horn crackles with energy. A group of changelings walk into the room. Either they can taste Sombra's love for me, or they are here to prevent a fight from breaking out. Sombra does not back down and I have no idea what to do.

"Oh, so that's how it is, then" Chrysalis mocks him. "Somepony lays a hoof on your girlfriend and your entire world collapses. It seems your love for each other is genuine. I did not mean to upset you, I was just trying to find a way to give us a tactical advantage over Celestia. However, you said that I was suggesting a loved one would have to go into battle, and yet she said the same thing not a moment ago, did she not?"

"Do not lose my respect, changeling."

"I doubt you would want to lose mine, either, especially while in my new home and surrounded by my children."

"Both of you, cut it out!" I shout. On impulse I create a magical blast that knocks them both off their feet and sends them flying away from each other. "We're going to look like fools if we keep arguing like this. I'm going out there, because this is our home and we need to protect it. Chrysalis, I need a guard to fly over with me, so that we can find out what the ponies are up to."

"Pharynx, you know what to do."

A changeling steps forwards. He is different from the rest: his fiery mane - if you can call it that - is red instead of blue, and his eyes are completely purple. He says to Chrysalis, "We will leave now. The sooner we find out what they are up to the better."

We leave the hive together and take off into the skies. In mid-air he transforms and ends up looking like a grey pegasus with a black mane and a bow and arrow cutie mark.

"Nice disguise. Know which pony this?" I ask him.

"Changelings don't have to copy the appearance of an actual pony," he explains, "but when I look like this, the ponies who don't know who I am call me Swift Arrow. As well as archery, some of my talents are performing aerial stunts and tracking."

"Interesting."

"Wait. There. Right there," he whispers.

A mere eighty metres from the Hive is a row of five small tents. I mutter a string of profanities under my breath. "Sunbutt knows how to annoy some ponies."

"What should we do?"

"An unprovoked attack could cause trouble, but they're so close that it would be stupid to do nothing."

"Let's go do a bit more exploring."

We take note of everything. A single tent here, an entire camp there. None of them are more than eight hundred metres from the Empire, or each other for that matter. This setup has been designed to intimidate, and it serves its purpose, for I feel a shiver down my spine that isn't caused by the bad weather.

"Pharynx, this is dangerous," I mutter. "The Crystal Empire and the Hive are surrounded. If things go wrong, the only escape route is right at the border between here and Equestria. They'll have us cornered."

"Their little Operation Outpost - if that's what we're calling it - is not a little as we thought. However, it has its weaknesses. They're working like a hive too. The main base is where the queen is, and the workers are scattered around that. They will all take orders from there. I heard your opinion that destroying that would incite an attack from everyone else, but they also have nopony to give them orders. I'll bet thirty bits that their only way of communicating with Canterlot is in that large tent." As we fly past the largest campsite, he points and I see it. The largest tent is also the most heavily guarded. Five soldiers are stood at each end.

"Brilliant. Most of the other campsites are very small, and all of them are a fair distance away from the, let's call it, the Queen's Campsite to avoid suspicion. We could use that to their advantage. To destroy the entire thing, or to sabotage the largest tent? That is the question we have to deal with now."

We return to the Hive and report our findings. Pharynx is clearly a lot more observant than I am, because he took notice of the different ponies he saw in each place.

"Contrary to our predictions, the team that has been sent here is mostly made up of unicorns. No earth ponies have been sighted save the Element Bearers, but there are a few pegasi further away from the Empire. The Queen's Campsite - that's what we're calling the largest base - is the primary concern of ours. It's a hundred and forty metres from here and the number of Solar Guards there is probably closer to two hundred. The campsite in front is only eighty metres away, though."

"Less than a hundred metres from my new hive?! The cheek!" Chrysalis remarks. "Tomorrow it shall fall."

"Too soon," I argue.

"Thoughts, then?"

"The day after tomorrow, two dozen Crystal Guards go for the second largest campsite. It's about half a kilometre from Queen's, which is a good distance away but close enough for them to want to intervene. A larger army will then head to Queen's before they can get back. If we are lucky, we can sabotage their communications with Canterlot before they get back, providing they take the bait and nopony else goes to Queen's to guard it."

"That's risky, but it might just work," answers Pharynx. He points to a coin that I had placed on the map to mark the location of a cluster of tents. "This is quite close to Queen's. A few changelings can go here to hold them off, increasing our chances of success."

"I do not like it," Chrysalis mutters. "There are a lot of possibilities for something to go wrong, and we are going to have to send out a considerable amount of our own guards in order to succeed. However, it is not as if we have much of a choice. Celestia has attempted to paint us into a corner, and we must find our way out."

"I think it will work. As long as there are enough distractions, then they won't be able to do anything. The day after tomorrow," Sombra confirms. We shake hooves with Chrysalis and leave the hive in order to prepare for the attack.