Both Tarsus and Trochanter visibly recoiled at the disintegration spell, and the blood-curdling scream the medic let out as her life came to a quick, but ultimately agonizing death. They both sat back on their haunches and put their hooves on the sides of their heads, thoughts rapidly shooting through their heads.

Were they next? Had Mandible brought them here just to kill them?

"Why did you do that?" Tarsus was the first to speak, breaking the silence. He grit his teeth and couldn't help but flinch as Mandible turned on him next.

"We need to keep this contained, only the inner circle can know about the queen's death, at least until we figure out what to do next," he growled as he started pacing back and forth. "Right now, all we can do is wait for everyone else to get here, but until then, we need to spitball ideas, and fast."

"We need a funeral," Trochanter started after shakingly pulling himself up and clearing his throat. "It needs to be as glorious and legendary as we can make it. Unless we want to keep the death of our queen completely one hundred percent secret and like... pretend she is still alive."

"That seems like a secret that will be simply impossible to maintain for long..." Tarsus started as he approached the queen's desk, picking up a piece of paper and holding it up. He let out a slight grunt of discomfort, before showing it off to the other two councilors. It was a picture of Celestia, alongside some writing underneath it, no doubt it was written by the queen. "Especially if we are to continue our plots and war against Equestria."

Mandible visibly cringed at that concept. The idea of going against the immortal leaders of Equestria without an immortal of their own to counter them sounded like suicide. Pure and simple.

"I think what we really need to do is gather the princes and the princess. We need to designate an heir and fast. The nation cannot survive while decapitated." Mandible said with a slight tinge of disgust in his voice. He had never liked Chrysalis's children. All three of them were... well, different variations of annoying to him.

"B-b-but... we don't even know what kind of succession law the Queen would have preferred implemented? Primogeniture? Ultimogeniture? Elective?" Trochanter started when suddenly all of the colors instantly drained from his face. "Oh, sweet Chrysalis... what if it's gavelkind?"

Tarsus smiled, staring over at Mandible, who shared the same look. "You see... that's the good thing about this..." He started.

Mandible continued. "Because the queen never initiated a system of inheritance, we can decide it. We can simply appoint our own heir, one we can easily control."

A wide, crooked smile spread across Trochanter's face, his eyes widening with glee. With the queen dead, the hive was theirs.

"I shall go dispatch several squads of Mantis Guard to collect the heirs," Mandible said turning towards the door. "Wait here and explain the situation to the other members of the circle."

He stopped just as he reached the door, and looked back to them.

"Oh, and kill the guard that comes with them."

Pharynx stood in front of a platoon of changeling soldiers, their blue armor polished to perfection and their stance perfect. Their cyan eyes stared at him, and his purple eyes stared back with pride and determination.

"You did well Stinger, these men loom like some of the finest specimens the soldier caste has churned out in years." He chuckled as he turned to a changeling officer.

"Thank you, sir! It was a pleasure to train these lings. I'm sure that when we next meet those equine scum in battle my men'll knock um flat on their furry behinds." Stinger said with a chuckle.

"Indeed." Pharynx laughed as he approached one of the soldiers. "Name and rank soldier?" Said soldier quickly snapped into a salute.

"Sir! Private Antenna, sir!" The private said. Pharynx chuckled.

"Got any family Antenna?" Pharynx asked with a smirk.

"Sir! A daughter named Ocellus, sir!" Antenna replied, a firm brow forming.

"And when the time comes to protect your hive and secure food, will you protect and serve your daughter?" Pharynx asked with a frown.

"Sir! Of course, sir!" Antenna replied, a slight bit of shock in his voice. Was that even a question?

"Good. When the time comes for battle, I want you all to look at Antenna here and remember that. You are not fighting for yourself in battle, nor are you fighting for my mother, though she is something to be loyal to. No, you bugs are fighting for the good of the hive itself! Remember that!" Pharynx roared to the platoon.

"Sir yes sir!" They roared back, saluting the general.

Pharynx let out a boisterous laugh, but he was interrupted when two armored changelings landed on either side of him. Their armor was heavier than his own soldiers, letting him instantly recognize just who they were. He let out a loud sigh, as his men nervously shuffled on their feet.

"Prince Pharynx. You are to come with us." One of the Mantis Guards said, eyes narrowing at him. "Mandible requests your presence."

Pharynx let out a loud growl. "First that fat bastard interrupts all my patrols and displaces all of my guards in the entire hive, now he is dragging me away from my troops. Who the hell does he think he is?" he snarled, grinding his teeth together. "Fine! Take me to him."

The two guards took to the air, Pharynx quickly following after them, one in front of him and one behind him. As soon as they were out of the sight of his soldiers, however, the guards both stopped, causing Pharynx to come to a halt as well.

"Guards? What's going on?" Pharynx asked with a raised brow before he suddenly found himself grabbed into an aerial chokehold from behind.

"What the fu-!" Pharynx started but he was cut out when a wet rag, which smelt distinctly of chemicals was pressed against his mouth and nose. He tried resisting, but he rapidly found his hooves too heavy to move. He tried transforming, but he found all his horn could do was weakly spark. Before long, everything went black.

Thorax was sitting in his room in the Crystal palace, reading a light book he had borrowed from Twilight. She had brought it during her last visit to the empire, and had been all too happy to let him read it!

It was on Crystal Imperial history, something he would definitely have to read if he was going to be here for a while. He was quickly alerted to the sound of his door opening and two sets of hooves walking in. They sounded heavy and metallic, like the Crystal Palace Guards. He smiled and turned around. He didn't hear the roaring of magical fire or see the green light that filled the room for a microsecond.

"Oh hey guys, what's going..." he stopped when he saw exactly who was standing there. Two Mantis Guards, their eyes narrowed into slits as they stared at him.

He felt his heart leap into his throat. He tried getting up to run, but his legs felt weak. Too weak to stand on. The guards slowly approached, smiles slowly forming on their faces.

"H-help! Help! Hel-" He tried screaming, but he was silenced by a rag being pressed against his mouth. Everything went black shortly after that.

A single changeling roamed through the halls of the hive, a bottle levitating in the air next to them, wrapped in a green aura. Well, roamed was the wrong word. More like they stumbled.

"Hive damned council and their stupid guards and their stupid mom and their stupid... stupid... urm..." It slurred in a distinctly female voice, rapidly losing its train of thought. She took another swig of her drink as she approached a door built into the side of the hall. As she wrapped a hoof around the door handle, the sound of buzzing filled her ears.

Two Mantis Guard landed on either side of her, towering over her and looking down at her.

"Princess Elytra. You are to come with us. Mandible requests your presence." One of the guards said.

"Go fuck yourself you two-bit fascist faux-intimidating knock-off," Elytra said before she took another swig of her bottle and pushed herself into the room, walking away from the two guards.

The two guards blinked several times, turning to each other before simultaneously growling and rushing into the room after her.

"We are not to be-" One of them started before they found her passed out on a bed in the middle of the room, bottle collapsed uselessly next to her, spilling its contents onto her sheets.

The two looked at each other and shrugged.

"That'll work." One said before rushing forwards to grab her.

Author's Note

Sorry, this took so long.

Meet the newest OC of the story, the youngest of Queen Chrysalis's children Princess Elytra. She a sassy drunk bitch.