"You struck them a terrible blow." Grogar paced in front of the canine in finery. "All the other attacks, all of them, paled in comparison. They still have a holiday of remembrance of that day." Grogar scowled in thought of it. "Why they have holidays for the times they lost... Beyond me, and off-topic."

The diamond dog queen shook her head slowly. "We paid a price for that. The humans won that war. We lost." The surrounding dogs hung their heads in memory of it. "What is idea, anyway? I want to hear."

Grogar smiled viciously. "When you hear of it, your mind will change." With glowing horns, he drew down a map of America, with fine lines criss-crossing it. "They still set firmly ahead their eyes to view across land and sea, a few upwards, but very few downwards."

The queen held up a hand for silence. "No."

"No?" Grogar flinched, not expecting that sharp a refusal. "No... what?"

"No." She pointed to the map. "Fool them once, not twice. They watch, and have friends. The worms will not let us make tunnels in America. Even just passing through, they will demolish our tunnels. They have learned from the ponies, the humans. They made friends. Their friends watch their bottoms."

Grogar clenched his teeth, glaring daggers at the diamond dog queen. "You didn't have magic to help you. You didn't have me."

She leaned forward, rising to her feet. "Nothing you say changes what is true. The worms will crush our tunnels, then us. We will die. For you? Not worth it." She turned, frills of her skirt raising in the twirl. "Goodbye."

"Wait! There is one lingering matter." She paused, as he had hoped. "This is... a delicate matter. Can you be trusted to, at the least, keep your mouth shut?"

She peeked over her shoulder. "We have no love for humans. Do what you want. Not helping. Not talking to them either."

One dog raised a finger. "I like their videos."

The queen slapped him across the head. "Falling for traps. We go!" And they marched off, refusing to work for Grogar.

Grogar didn't stop them from leaving. "Fools..." They wouldn't help them, but their untimely vanishing could set up an alarm.

He waved for his minions to escort them away. They wouldn't swim. "Useless digging dogs..." They would use their own tunnels.

As useful as that would have been, things were in motion. "You two!" He stormed in on their little den, a computer glowing in the darkness. "What are you doing and how is it helping me to achieve me goals?"

Chrysalis looked up from her beanbag chair, tossing out her holed mane. "We're getting things done."

"A whole lotta things, gosh. What are you doing?" Cozy crossed her arms under her chest. "Have you even started?"

"Of course I started," stormed Grogar, stomping towards Chrysalis. "In fact, I discerned another ally with an equal dislike of the ponies to stand at our side, but there is a catch."

Chrysalis rolled a hoof in the air. "There always is. Did the humans capture them already?"

Cozy ventured, "They were alive a long time ago?"

Grogar huffed, no longer coming closer, but looming over Chrysalis' prone form. "Not entirely incorrect, but not captured, destroyed. Or, I should say, dispersed. That isn't the problem. Thanks to some... assistance..." He polished his dreadful bell. "I have the power to bring them back easily, but their ego is as large as either of yours! Larger by many measures."

"Gosh."

"I doubt it." Chrysalis rolled her eyes with heavy disbelief. "How bad can they be?"

Grogar huffed, nostrils flaring as he half-turned. "Have you never heard of Sombra? Lord of the Crystal Empire? One of the few military challengers the ponies had faced before the humans arrived?" He chuckled darkly at that thought. "Starting a trend of their lackluster ability to wage wars."

Chrysalis buffed her chest. "Were they saved by a last minute explosion of love, or friendship, or whatever sappy thing they were feeling at the moment?"

Grogar's face twisted in revulsion. "Ugh, thankfully not. They were actually preparing to wage a proper battle. Sombra withdrew, to come back another day. Pity he was weakened by the trip, and defeated before he could recover. He has several abilities I want. And what I want--" He chuckled darkly, power running along his horns. "--I get." He directed a hoof at Cozy Glow. "Time for you to take a trip."

"Mmmm, nah." Cozy shrugged. "Grogie! We're busy." She pointed at the laptop there. "We're expanding your army, gosh, show some respect."

"What?" Grogar stormed up to the laptop and its squinting text chatter. "How is any of this helping me?!"

Chrysalis snickered softly. "For every depraved taste, there's a human group that adores it. Whatever it is, some of them want it. The chance to become a hulking beast of power? We're getting bites, without having to foalnap them. They think it's all very secretive, which it is, and they come to us instead of the other way around. The grand fortress of America, defeated by its own people." She cackled in delight at their subtle victory. "Who do you think has been turning over humans for your touch?"

"That wasn't Tirek?" Grogar twisted to look at Tirek, but the centaur wasn't there. "What has he been doing?!" He stomped a hoof. "My apologies... ladies... It seems my ire was directed at the wrong lazy good for nothing..."

Cozy watched him storm off. "I didn't even get to tell him my special part."

Chrysalis rolled her eyes. "Making sure any human stallions that show up remain nice and docile is hardly that 'special.'" She snorted with a lash of her tail. "It's what you do. It'd be stranger if you weren't doing that."

Cozy crossed her arms. "That's only, like, half the job." She leaned forward, a smirk on her face, fire in her eyes. "Their mindset matters, gosh. I've seen it. Grogar takes what's in them and cranks it up all the way. I get to help decide what's in there when it happens."

Chrysalis casually flopped to her side and onto her back. "Alright, I'll humor you. What do you 'put in there?'"

"Passion," spoke Cozy in a blunt tone, pawing the air like a cat with her human-like fingers. "When I'm done with them, they're worked up. Not in the, gosh, gotta break out of this kind way, but, yeah, gonna be big, strong, and show the whole world." She threw her arms apart and flopped backwards. "The whole thing. Show them who's the biggest and strongest."

Chryalis pointed at Cozy from her upside down position. "And they're alright with that? Some of them seem pretty miserable."

"The ones Grogar makes." Cozy huffed at the thought. "Not the ones I send him. They're happy to be here. They want to show off, gosh." She brought her fingers to her chin. "Better, way better."

"Huh..." Chrysalis rolled upright, shaking out her mane. "Fine. I'm used to my minions starting blindly loyal to my every word."

"Until they weren't," taunted Cozy, getting a glare from Chrysalis. "Relax! We're on the same side. Working together lets us both show off." She clapped her hands together. "It's kinda fun, really."

"Yeah, whatever." Chrysalis hopped up to her hooves, which became two legs, standing up. "What's next on our little schedule?"

"I had an idea." Cozy lazily stroked a few keys. "I think it's time to come out of the closet, gosh. I have fans." She waved at herself. "So maybe... we have me come out as a special guest. I can't whammy them through the camera." She glared at the camera that refused to broadcast her powers. "But they remember it. Might get some more nibbles."

"Or make the humans get all... curious." Chrysalis prodded Cozy in one of her soft chest ornaments. "Don't get ahead of yourself."

"Hey!" Cozy crossed her arms defensively. "Rude, gosh... Ugh, it was a good idea!"

"They all are... until they're not." Chrysalis looked quite proud of her returned barb. "You just keep doing what you're doing." She pressed a hoof against Cozy's face, pushing her back. "You got a thing going."

Cozy angrily shoved the hoof away. "Cut that out! You're not my boss."

"And what, exactly, do you think 'our boss'--" She paused to shudder at the concept. "--would say if we went and asked him?"

Cozy glowered at the thought. "He's probably tell me to get back to it," she grumbled out sullenly. "But maybe after he said I was super smart, golly, for thinking it up in the first place."

Chrysalis waved Cozy off. "Good luck with that. I have a show to put on. She sank onto a stool, checking a list and becoming the planned celebrity of the dead. "Let's knock them dead, darlings," she said, affecting their accent. "Literally, eventually."

"We found something." The sailor tapped at a screen that showed the readings. "With permission and zoning worked out, all the sea creatures were removed from the area, allowing us to do a full sonar sweep of the local ground." There was, clearly, a pit. The sand made it fuzzy, but it some of that sonar made it through it. Some of it came back. "This is where our lost soldier likely ended up."

The general scowled. "That doesn't look easily reached. We don't have a brigade of otters to try that again."

The sailor directing it pointed with a stick at a set of SCUBA hanging on the wall. "We sailors can operate in the water, sir. Maybe we're not otters, but we have a few seals."

The general considered it heavily. "This attack can't go unanswered. Check with the sea nations. Be blunt, firm. If any of them know about this, they need to answer for it, yesterday. If not... We have a terrorist pocket in need of a little fixing."

"In other news." A new window sprang open, showing a sea. A large form surfaced, blowing water in the air. "It seems we had some hitchhikers during our trip to this new world. Several families of whales have emerged. Scientists report they are doing quite well. Perhaps due to the sonar and other noise-pollution restrictions of the seas and oceans, they are thriving in their new oceans."

A new window popped open, showing a hippogriff reaching out, talons gently on the nose of a whale that dwarfed her easily. "She established contact with the tatzlwurms, and she's eager to try her hand with the whales."

"Look into their eyes." Her audio was fed through. "How can you say this isn't a creature. Just because they aren't talking back to us doesn't mean they aren't endowed with that same spark. Besides, just like the humans, perhaps language will find them, if we expose them to it, and treat them with care and love, as we would want to be treated in return."

The announcer returned, "Under current regulations, an animal is not a 'creature' owed specific personhood rights and responsibilities unless communication can be reliably achieved. Whales, though already known to be quite intelligent, do not qualify as creatures. Will this change in the future? Only time, and our reporters, can tell."

The window closed, just to pop open on a beach, showing things jumping free of the water. Dolphins. "These whales are not the only, or first animals to have been verified to make the trip with us. How animals, terrestial or aquatic, are adapting to this world is a topic of hot interest. Already, some are migrating to other countries, where they are becoming invasive species. Our own border agents have ramped up food and animal imports to try and dissuade any 'guests' in return. It's far too early to say how nature will react in the end to this new status quo."

The window closed, replaced with an image of the world, the new world, captured before all the satellites had been knocked out of the sky. "Many are calling for us to be better stewards of the world this time around, but how much that will be put into practice remains unknown."

Author's Note

Welcome to a new year! Global updates, and much more focused ones.

Join the special community of folks who like my stories and/or get your own written here at atreon!

Join my discord to chat!