Author's Note

Alright, I'm ready now! Let's hecking do this!!!

Chapter 8

The three villains find themselves in a bit of a competition, and all three were neck and neck, all resulting in the snow-white pony judge to make the final call: Who has the best-looking pancake stack? It didn’t go towards the larger goal of conquering all of Equestria, but everyone was hankering for some breakfast so a friendly bonding contest was just what the villains needed to reaffirm their pact. Rosie even let Tirek go ungaged, just to show how trusting she can be if he’s on his best behavior.

First was Chrysalis’ stack. The pancakes looked either undercooked or overcooked, and the whipped cream and strawberries were in the form of some mare’s face Rosie didn’t recognize, “It’s Starlight Glimmer if you couldn’t tell.” Chrysalis explained, “She was the one who destroyed my queendom and turned my subjects against me!” Rosie simply nodded and moved on to the next stack.

Cozy’s stack looked well-cooked all the way through, and the pancakes were decorated with whipped cream and edible cookie dough. Except when Rosie tasted it, the cream was heavy. In fact, it wasn’t whipped cream at all! It was buttercream. When Rosie made that discovery, Cozy simply shrugged, “I know you can’t stand whipped cream, judging by you only having one can of it and a bunch of pre-made buttercream bags you had in the fridge.” Rosie smiled and nodded, turning to the last stack.

Tirek's stack was something to behold: The stack was craved up to look like Terik’s face with the whipped cream acting as his horns and the chocolate chips as his eyes. Despite the fact he was a barbarian at heart, he had quite the artistic talent, Rosie could tell. She smiled and nodded, “There is no contest, Terik wins.”

“Ha ha! Yes!” Tirek cheers.

“Oh golly, congrats Tirek! I guess...” Cozy says, saying that last bit in a not so subtle sarcasm.

“Noooooo!” Chrysalis yells in a dramatic fashion, falling to the floor as someone would on a fainting couch. The villains look at each other funny before Chrysalis pulled herself together and sat in her chair again.

“Well, since Tirek won, I guess you deserve a prize for not only winning but for not even attempting to steal magic.” Rosie walks over to one of her many drawers in her kitchen.

“Well since we are now allies, for the time being, I see no reason to burn bridges so early,” Tirek explains, with Cozy and Chrysalis nodding along, agreeing.

“Well, as allies, it’s only appropriate that everyone is at their full strength to aid our common goal.” Using her magic, Rosie takes out three glowing crystals and places them on the table. Her horn glows brighter and brighter, the magic becoming more opaque as the crystal shards glow radiate into a ball of glowing energy, as the energy from the crystals drain. Once it is done and Rosie has drained the crystals from all their energy, which was magic, she floats the orb to Tirek, who gobbles it down, restoring himself to his 2nd form. Once rejuvenated, Tirek flexes and kisses his muscles, “Yes yes, I am aware you miss your biceps brachii.”

Tirek stops mid-kiss and looks at Rosie confused, “I... Know that first part.”

Rosie raised a hoof to silence the centaur, “I like to freshen myself on the anatomy of all creatures. As a wise being once said, ‘If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.’. Now I am not saying I see you as enemies, however, is the time comes that we are no longer united, I wish to be ready to crush you in battle.”

Chrysalis munches on her pancakes, “Big words coming from a pony.” She swallows her food, “considering you have done nothing much in the form of powerful magic outside what you and Cozy claim.”

“Oh, my dear Queen Chrysalis. That’s because I have yet to show my true power in battle.” Rosie gets up and walks away to the other side of the kitchen, using magic to take out some ink, a quail, and some parchment, “But that’s not to say that battle is the final outcome; I wish to avoid it if I can. But I am indeed ready for it. Now... I must summon the only being in all of Equestria that can really fuck me.”

Cozy spits out the orange juice she was drinking and turns to Rosie, wide eye, “What did you say!?” She says terrified.

“That can really protect me! Protect us.” Rosie started to write on the paper, “Since we are all immensely powerful, expect for Cozy-“

“Hey.”

“-Discord can easily track us down if we are not careful, and we don’t want that now do we?” She rolls up the scroll and sets it aflame, sending it to whoever, “So I am summoning an ally of mine, while also requesting he brings along another ally, one that will help us build the army we need to start conquering towns.”

The three villains looked at each other, eyebrows raised, with Chrysalis looking very unconformable, “And just... What does that entail?” She asks Rosie.

Rosie simply giggles, “You know what it means. I know something about you.” Rosie giggles some more and walks out of the kitchen, taking some apples with her.

Tirek sighs and sits on the ground, as no chairs were strong enough to support him, “So. What’s our plan then?”

“Uh... Our plan?” Cozy questions.

“Yes! Our plan! We’re going to backstab her as we did with Gorgar/Discord, yes?”

“Well actually.” Cozy flies up next to Tirek, “I think Miss Plague has a pretty solid plan. There aren’t any flaws with it that are obvious. Sticking with her is the best course of action.”

“Did she bribe you to say that?” Tirek says accusingly.

“Oh golly, of course not Terik. And even if she did, would I be telling you something I didn’t believe in?”

“Eh, I don’t know to trust you when you have that face. Uhehhh...” Tirek scratches his chin, “I don’t know, I fear the Princess and her friends are still too powerful.” He turns to Chrysalis, “What do you-“ He stopped mid-sentence when they see Chrysalis stabbing at her food, looking worried and stressed.

Cozy flies over to Chrysalis, “I’m not asking because we’re friends or anything, but are you ok? You’ve been pretty mopey lately.”

“Yeah. Aside from the imprisonment and the chains and that stupid gag, Rosie has been a decent hostess. Why are you looking a gifted horse in the mouth?” Tirek nudges Cozy, “Haha, get it? Because she’s a horse?” Cozy looks at him unamused and Tirek's smile drops, “Yeah ok...”

Chrysalis sighs and straightens up in her seat, “I don’t want to speak about it!”

“Come on Chrysalis!” Cozy pestered, “Spill the beans!”

“I will not!”

“Come on, we are all allies here.” Tirek pestered as well.

“I will not indulge in the fact that I cannot hatch out a new army of changelings!” Chrysalis, upon realizing what she just said, covered her mouth.

“‘Hatch out a new army of changelings’? What does that mean?” Cozy questions.

“For as smart as you are Cozy, you aren’t that bright in other aspects.” Tirek deadpans before turning to Chrysalis, “You want me to tell her?”

“Yes...” Chrysalis banged her head against the table.

Tirek rolled his eyes and turned back to Cozy Glow, “Cozy Glow, you know the life cycle of a queen bee, yes?”

“Yeah, I think so.” Cozy shrugged.

“Well, I’ll quickly explain it to you. When a bee larva eats royal jelly, it becomes a queen bee. Once she has matured, she flies into the air with several other queens and drones, male bees whose only purpose is to provide the other component to make more bees.” Tirek notes the sudden face of realization on Cozy Glow, “Once that’s all said and done, she flies to a suitable place to build her hive and...” Tirek pauses to watch Chrysalis banging her head against the table, “... Lay her eggs to hatch out her colony. She keeps laying eggs for most of her life.”

“Oooooh. And Chrysalis can’t hatch a new army why?” Cozy asks.

“You want to know why?” Chrysalis lifts her head from the table, and Cozy and Tirek could see she was not happy. Chrysalis looked like she was seeing red, and it was not Tirek, “You want to know why I can’t hatch out a new army?! Because in the month leading up to my invasion of Chanterlot, I banged Shining Armor so many times, I wasted all of my ‘reserves’! That stallion knows how to make a mare squeal. I- I mean squirt.”

Cozy Glow hovers for a moment, just processing what she just heard. She sits back down and places her hooves on her temples, “Welp, I heard everything I needed to not sleep at night.”

Tirek rolled his eyes, “Least you never accidentally walked in on your parents, er... ‘Getting everything ready to giving you a brother’.”

“That actually happened?!”

“One of the many reasons why I dislike my brother. Hm... I wonder where he is now, now that I think about it?” Tirek pondered for a second before turning his attention back to Chrysalis, “So what do you mean by ‘reserves’ anyways? Are you completely out of-?”

Chrysalis cuts him off, “No no, I am plenty fertile, trust me I checked.” More gagging from Cozy as Chrysalis continues, “I just don’t have any more fertilized eggs left in me. And I don’t dare go back to the hive to changeling-nap one of those... specimens...” Her voice had a sense of disdain.

“Yeah, I know what you mean. There was this one changeling named Ocellus, and she, along with several other students, stopped me from taking all the magic from Equestria!”

“Mhm! More reason not to risk it.”

“Hm. So all you need is a drone?” Tirek questioned.

Chrysalis nods, “Once I... Finish with him.” The two could hear Cozy going to town on the trash can, “I’ll be ready to build a new army within the year! 3,000 eggs every day with the changelings maturing within a month!”

“Golly, that’s fast.” Cozy comments.

Tirek counts on his fingers for a second, “If you lay eggs every day for the next month, by the very next month, we’ll have an army of 93,000 changelings!”

“However, that's counting if I have 3,000 eggs every day, which is unrealistic for me.” Chrysalis said, “But it is a maximum, which is still a sizable number. Soon, if what I think is true, I will raise my army to be greater than the Equestrian army could ever muster!”

“And we can finally destroy Twilight and her friends,” Tirek added.

“And take over all of Equestria!” Cozy proclaimed.

The villains laugh evilly as Chrysalis jumps on the table, “We all thought too selfishly the last time we teamed up. We thought powering ourselves up with Gorgar’s bell was enough to destroy anypony in our path, and it nearly was, but our bickering caused us to fail. Now, with the support of our patron, we will be able to shape the land however we please!”

“Yeah!” The other villains cheered. They all had a laugh in triumph, agreeing that their plan was flawless!

Unknown to them, a ghostly pink coat unicorn watched them from the corner of the room. She’s been there all morning, taking notes about their activity. Things were about to get interesting.