Interlude (Recina)

Opportunity. That was not something that Recina liked to approach when it came to life-or-death situations, but there were times this wasn't even a choice to begin with.

Born to the previous Queen of the Ditrysium Hive and sister to the current one, Recina's birth was what many would call 'one robbed of a chance'. Minutes before her, her 'older' sister Helvia was recognized as the future queen, thus cursing the Princess to a potentially bleak circumstance: either she faced death for survival or she accepted to become a no-one nymph to please males and produce more strong royal changelings.

Luckily for her, however, a chance was given to her through the little friendship she held for Helvia. Despite the heinous circumstances that made them different than one another, both siblings were not shy to show a degree of acceptance of one another. Where Helvia was always the more feminine of the two, Recina mustered what many would call a 'masculine drone-mindset', confused many times as a male due to her direct and 'dirty-handed' attitude.

The real saving grace came when she got permission to serve in the Navy. She had to work her butt through the ladder before ultimately becoming captain and then Generaladmiral. The hive she was born to was one that enjoyed a long naval tradition, so there was no genuine oppositions to her plans to lead the navy one day... and those dreams manifested when her Hive submitted to Chrysalis.

Sure, it would be wrong to assume everyone was pleased with this, but Recina was not shy to take humiliations for the sake of a long-term goal and Chrysalis gave her something to look forward to. In 1002, when the Queen promised a victorious war against Equestria after personally infiltrating and taking care of their leadership in Canterlot, Recina had been given a schedule to work with to have all ships ready to take care of the Equestrian Merchantile Fleet.

Admiral Mimic, a beloved friend of hers she made during their time studying to become leading figures in the Changeling Navy, would have had fun sinking those ships with her submarines but... that hope was sunk faster than anyone would have envisioned at the resounding defeat endured by Chrysalis.

In hindsight, Chrysalis' plan was too daring to be seen as a certain victory, but the way it was propagandized before its unfolding made the backlash following the failure outright deadly for the leading Queen's political career. And with the schemes between queens shredding into what stability had been achieved after three decades of intense struggles, Recina had quietly brought forth her resignation letter.

The reasons behind this move, which was only accepted by Mimic, were tied to two fatal mistakes she made: 1) She allowed her ambitions and pride to best her common sense by letting Chrysalis tell her what she wanted to hear, and she allowed herself to be entangled by the fake promises the silver-tongued queen had forwarded.

When they faced defeat in Canterlot, Recina felt part of her youth perish that day. In a single day, Recina felt twice as old as she truly was; 2) Her connection with Helvia and Chrysalis triggered issues in her home-hive. It was not a surprise, really, and Recina knew that staying in the navy was akin to letting her sister take a blame she wasn't responsible for.

She couldn't let anyone but herself take the fall for these repercussions.

Retirement came and it was a major blow to Chrysalis' dwindling reputation. Even a year after the Canterlot Defeat, and the Queen sought to have her back in her rows. Helvia moved to prevent that, out of genuine sisterly worry and... Recina appreciated. To an extent.

This protection wasn't absolute and while it did prevent legal means for Chrysalis to force her to do anything, goons and thugs were not off the book. Three attacks happened, none of which was lethal but that had seen her cornered just once and almost beaten up by 'disgruntled officers'. The excuse used by the VOPD's officers, the Intelligence Service, investigating the matter failed to make sense to Recina.

And not before too long, talks with Helvia suggested this was only going to get worse.

So, rather than becoming the victim of a potential purge from the panicking queen, Recina asked one last favor from his sister and family: a safe route out of the Changeling Land. The idea would have been outright ridiculous a month or so ago, but this had changed after news from the Crystal Empire had raised a major issue to Chrysalis.

The new King, a 'Hyooman' or something like that, had signed an edict together with Queen Apocrita, formerly a vassal of the Queen of Vraks' hive that had left due to the political and social strife aimed at her own small hive, to create an odd 'social experiment'.

Anyone that was part of the Changeling Land was allowed to enter the Crystal Empire, petition for citizenship in exchange to forfeiting their old allegiances, and then become part of a semi-hive/kingdom within the Crystal Empire.

The idea of an 'open hive' was not something many changelings would see positively, but since it was about a hive that was protected by another species that was willing to offer resources, shelter, alliances and even Love... yes, Recina could see why Chrysalis was outraged by such a move as it further damaged her grand-standing, but it didn't help that any orders to prevent numerous drones from various loyal hives to just migrate east was met with utter silence and 'miscommunication'.

Still, Recina had not planned to leave when she heard this. In fact, she would have lingered if Chrysalis hadn't gotten more paranoid of those that could have 'betrayed' her. And since the Princess Changeling was someone that already 'stabbed her back', it didn't take much to realize her life was now more in danger than before.

Helvia was upset that her sister was 'running', but she could understand the logic and... promised to do right. A promise that Recina returned back to her, a hopeful light shining in her green eyes as she ventured for the very place that sounded ironically wrong for an admiral to retire to.

A land with no seas or oceans... truly a potentially ugly way to find peace. The chariot she was riding for the border-pass was also cramped, and her homesickness made the whole trip horrendous to face. The controls were more tame than she had imagined, and soon she was given new documents and a temporary place where to live in Whinnypeg.

And while life sounded unpleasant for the time being, Recina loved the sea as much as she loved her distant home...

So she was going to find a way to return to it, one way or another.

Author's Note

AN

There are repercussions for all, Chrysalis in particular, in regard to the recent alliance between John and Apocrita.

Recina is a legitimate character in Equestria at War, and one that has a portrait made by Scroup/MrScroup as many other characters in the mod: