Author's Note

It’s kind of funny how I didn’t originally intend for Odonata to become an important character, but here we are lmao

Chapter 19: The Plan

Queen Chrysalis was standing in front of two young males, one had yellow eyes while the other had light grey eyes. She then leaned down, her horn illuminating as she mentally transferred something to them. Once she was done, they both bowed before flying out of the room, leaving her alone with General Mantis behind her.

“Remind me again of what your plan is?” He inquired, tilting his head.

She giggled before lightly tapping his horn, making him blush at the intimate contact. “It’s very simple, my dearest, those two are Mayfly and Sowbug, two of my very best spies!”

“And they are going to...?”

“Disguise themselves as the prisoners I promised to release, and they’ll be the reason we win this war,” she explained.

Mantis raised an eyebrow, “how will they do that? I doubt that there’s much for them to do outside, we don’t even know what the prisoners did before we captured them.”

Chrysalis stroked the back of his neck, saying with a grin, “it’s rather interesting what those two were up to, the Royal one is a soldier for the Equestrians,” before Mantis could express his surprise, she continued, “and the other one is in a relationship with one of the soldiers. I’ve already drained the both of them of their love, and as a result I’ve received some of their memories. Now my spies have an idea of how to act around the Equestrians since I’ve transferred that information to them.”

The General was impressed, even he didn’t expect his Queen to do so much in such a short time. “Th-that’s... that’s amazing, my Queen! I could never do something like that,” he was kissed on the cheek, making his mouth snap shut.

“Of course you can do something like that... silly,” Chrysalis teased, but went back to being professional as she said, “they should be done sabotaging the Equestrians in less than a week, then Vietrot shall be ours.”

The two imposters were dragged out of the camp, being thrown in front of the Equestrians who gasped in horror. Mayfly (the yellow eyed Changeling that was disguised as Odonata) made note to himself to beat those two soldiers with a chair once they got back.

The ponies ran towards them, helping them stand up. Pear Butter hugged the imposter James tightly, crying out, “oh thank Celestia you’re both okay! We were so afraid that you had been...” she looked like she could barely utter her next words, so instead she sobbed into his neck.

“I-it’s okay, we’re going to be okay now! Thank the Gods that you remembered us,” Sowbug whimpered, it took everything Mayfly had to not cringe at the ‘Gods’ part.

He felt like he was abandoning his morals by doing this, but then again he had other things to worry about. The brown stallion that embraced him was supposed to be his lover, it was a disgrace for a Changeling to ever submit themselves to a disgusting Equestrian.

It wasn’t the first time he played a role like this, so he choked back his gag and kissed Burnt Oak on the lips. He was thankful that it was quick, as the stallion whispered in a weak , “I-I didn’t know what I was going to do without you...”

“I missed you too,” Mayfly cooed, cupping Burnt’s cheeks in his hooves.

He wasn’t actually in a relationship so he had to try his best, although part of his training was seduction. “C-can we go home?” He uttered, looking at Burnt innocently.

“Of course we can, sugar.”

Mayfly wanted to gag at the sight of the small home, was this really how the city Changelings were living? And he thought he was dirt poor! The mattress was far too small, the carpet looked old and the paint on the wall was faded.

Not much to work with, but oh well!

He hopped on the bed, making his best shy expression, “honey, there’s something I really need from you...” Burnt nodded, sitting next to him.

Burnt Oak took Mafly’s hooves into his own, saying, “anything.”

Mayfly leaned forward and feigned a confession, “you know how we feed on love when desperate? I-I need to do that now, you have no idea how starved I was back at the camp!”

“I thought that you never wanted to do such a thing?” Burnt questioned, beginning to feel a pit in his stomach.

Why was Odonata acting so strangely?

Suddenly Burnt was pulled closer to his ‘love’, who looked up at him with a needy expression. Mayfly pouted his lip, tilting his head in a coy way, “I promise it won’t hurt at all! It even feels nice when done correctly,” his stomach churned as he began kissing at Burnt’s neck, not used to such intimate contact.

He better be getting extra pay for this, he wasn’t a hooker for Chrysalis’s sake...

It surprised him when Burnt pushed him away, saying, “why are you acting so weird? You weren’t like this before you were captured,” then an idea crossed the stallions mind, and he felt sick at the thought of it.

“What’s your full birth name?” He asked, clearly startling the disguised Changeling.

‘That whore told him his birth name?!’ Mayfly thought in a panic, stammering out, “w-why do you ask? My love, come on don’t get distracted about the silly things! Just let me make you feel good,” he attempted to kiss Burnt again when he was shoved away.

“Answer me!” Burnt snapped, making the Changeling cower in fear.

He didn’t think to ask about the hooker’s birth name, he didn’t expect for a Changeling to be that deep in a relationship with an Equestrian! So he said nervously, “I-I don’t understand why you’re asking me this, my love—“

“You never call me that, who in the hell are you, and where is Odonata?!” Burnt shouted, getting off the bed and stepping away from the imposter.

Mayfly could only sigh and grumble to himself, “of course I get caught first...” then he hopped off the mattress and admitted in a sarcastic tone, “well, you caught me, congratulations!”

He turned into himself, looking unamused and even a little embarrassed. Burnt Oak was obviously disgusted by this, and immediately felt horrible for almost betraying his sweet Kim because of a shameless imposter.

The stallion attempted to run out of the home, but was tackled to the ground before he reached the door. He was pinned down, the Changeling leaned forward to whisper in a singsongy tone, “I wouldn’t do that if I were you!”

Without warning, Mayfly began to quickly feed on his love. Burnt felt a rush of nausea hit him, and his stomach felt empty all of a sudden while his heart seemed to hurt for a quick moment. So this was exactly why James and Odonata despised Chrysalis, her methods of feeding her subjects was barbaric, even borderline parasitic!

Mayfly was surprised by just how much love the stallion held for the Changeling, his emotions went beyond just lust and desire. They reached to the points of adoration and even devotion! He figured that it was good for his hunger, so he saved his pity for later.

Once he was done, he turned back into Odonata and was about to leave the barely conscious stallion when... he noticed something peculiar. There were two green eggs on a table, wrapped in a navy blue blanket.

He realized that they must have belonged to Odonata and Burnt Oak, which almost made him vomit in his mouth just at the thought of it. Of course a hooker didn’t have a problem with cross breeding, disgusting...

But then again, it would be an advantage if he were to use them against both him and the illegitimate Royal. So he grabbed a satchel that was lying on the ground, and placed the two eggs in the bags.

He could hear Burnt struggling to move, cracking out in a hoarse voice, “pl-please... leave them... a-alone!” Mayfly felt a weird ache in his chest, but ignored it as he began to exit the home with his head held high.

The door shut, and he swore he could hear the stallion begin to cry softly.

Mayfly had tried his best to ignore the pitiful sound before he began to walk down the sidewalk, he didn’t need to draw any suspicion to himself by running off. It didn’t help when an elderly male walked past him and stopped as he said with a smile, “what adorable eggs, may Caritas bless them with beauty and Medella with good health!”

The disguised Changeling smiled back kindly, saying in a grateful tone, “thank you very much, and may the Gods bless you.” He then bowed his head in genuine respect to the Elder, having not see many Elders back in Chrysalis’s kingdom.

Then he giggled, “let’s just hope that silly old tale about twins being bad luck is purely fiction! My poor grubs will already be picked on for that rumor, they don’t need it to be true.”

The Elder nodded in agreement, “yes, let us hope. Have a lovely day, young one,” then he continued on his way.

Mayfly glanced back at the eggs, mumbling to himself, “maybe that silly old folktale is true, your parents and their friends seem to have rotten luck... I wonder what Sowbug is up to.”

Sowbug was sitting across the Equestrian General and the Drill Instructor, still in disguise as the fourteen year old. The older stallion, General Fig, had tears in his eyes as he expressed genuine happiness at his friend’s ‘return’.

The DI even seemed teary eyed, but hid it a lot better than his superior.

“Thank goodness you survived, many of the prisoners are killed the day they enter that cursed camp,” General Fig said as he wiped his tears away.

“I’m happy to be back, sir,” Sowbug responded with a grin, thankfully it was easy to pose as a nymph.

He couldn’t imagine how much Mayfly was struggling with his role, he was beginning to suspect the poor guy was asexual-aromantic. Mainly due to how much he hated speaking about not only romance but the idea of sex, he said it disgusted him beyond anything else.

At some point he was told that he was being promoted from Corporal to Sergeant, which was the same as e-5, which was what they usually called it back at home in the hive.

His conversation with both the Equestrians lasted maybe ten or twenty minutes, he wasn’t keeping track. Before too long, there was a knock on the door and a Lieutenant requested for both the presence of the General and the DI.

General Fig gave Sowbug and tight hug before he left, sending a surge of strong fatherly love through the imposter. He could get used to this type of thing, he waved goodbye to them and said that he’ll get to his work as soon as possible.

Sowbug thought he was alone until a high pitched voice exclaimed, “James, I missed you!” He looked across the desk to now see a small filly with a shiny smile.

In her hooves was a glass jar, full of sweets that he didn’t recognize. Then she opened it with a grunt, pulling out a wrapped sweet and pushing it towards Sowbug.

“Have a candy!” She giggled, blushing a soft pink.

Sowbug was hesitant, not wanting to seem suspicious so he gently pulled the wrapper off and was greeted with a brown ball with small specks covering it. He popped it in his mouth, hoping that it wouldn’t taste as weird as it looked.

He was surprised by the sweet taste of it, his taste buds clearly enjoying it as he slowly chewed on it. He almost asked for another but stopped himself, remembering just how torturous it was to switch his diet completely from solid foods and liquid to just emotions.

He did not want to ever go through that again.

So he held back, instead beginning to really look around the room. He quickly figured out that the filly in front of him must have been related to the General, as there were pictures of them together on the wall with a young mare who she resembled greatly.

His eyes soon fell on the sheets of paper that were sitting on the corner of the desk, he couldn’t help but ask, “what are those for?” She looked at them as well, answering, “Abuelo says that he writes stuff down for the news buggies, and then they show it to the buggies in the city.”

Sowbug assumed that ‘news buggies’ meant the Changelings that ran the newspaper, which made an idea pop into his mind. “Hey kid, you mind handing me a pen? I think I have a story to share with these... ‘news buggies’.”

She dug through one of the drawers and pulled out a pen, which Sowbug grabbed and began writing with his mouth. One of the negatives of feeding on love was the fact that magic was far more difficult to use, so he wasn’t able to levitate objects or even write with it.

Fortunately he was pretty neat with his mouth writing, despite how inconvenient it was. He began writing the title at the top of one of the blank papers, he made sure it was in big bold letters just to add insult towards the Equestrians.

The Sơn Mỹ Massacre