It was almost a week after my conversation with Luna and Queen Amore in my dreams. Near the end of our conversation Amore had convinced me to let her send some soldiers to help me, considering the potential Changeling Threat. We'd argued about it for a while but she convinced me that this could be a good opportunity for her soldiers to get experience fighting changelings. Every other kingdom at least had an idea of what they were dealing with, having centuries of experience with Changelings. The Crystal Empire didn't and that made them vulnerable and put them at a disadvantage if they were to help me in this war.

So I relented.

Now I had about ten bodyguards from the Crystal Empire and fifty soldiers in total who would be acting as additional security for the competition. They'd all arrived just three days ago, and I filled them in on the situation. Amore probably would have sent more but she didn't want it to look like an invasion. Rather, it was able to pass as a display of comradery with me and my hive considering I didn't have any soldiers of my own just yet.

They had a couple unicorns versed in Love magic who Amore had taught how to make love crystals. So they could work with the other guards to fill love crystals for me. Which meant I was going to be eating far better than I'd expected to be able to while I was here.

I was currently getting ready for the coming press conference. Which meant I was in a meeting with the captain of the soldiers Amore had sent.

He was a crystal unicorn in his early to mid thirties named Duke Sapphire Lance. He had sapphire blue fur and eyes, while his mane was white. His cutiemark was two spears crossed. He wore steel plate armor of a similar design to that worn by most soldiers in the Crystal Empire, except just a little more ornate, signifying his rank and wealth. He was one of the unicorns Amore had taught to make love crystals.

"Let's get straight to business. Have any of your men been attacked or replaced or are any of them acting suspicious?" I asked.

"At this time, it doesn't appear so. Just this morning, the squad leaders asked their troops yesterday's pass codes one by one, in whispers. Most of them got it correct. There was an issue with one soldier in squad three who used the code from two days ago by mistake. We detained and questioned him, and were able to confirm it's really him. He's just having issues keeping the codes straight since they change daily. We're having his squad keep an eye on him just in case. That said, some of our squads noticed they were being followed a few times. So nopony goes off alone. They go in teams of three or full squads of six, nothing less. I've also personally put alarm spells on each of our tents and doubled the night watch around our camp. So it should be near impossible, or at least very difficult, for anypony to be picked off and replaced. Other than that there's nothing to report, your highness." The Captain reported dutifully.

"Very good. I doubt anything will happen today at the press conference, but be ready just in case. We still have no idea what Chrysalis' Changelings might be planning." I told him.

"Indeed. It's troubling. We've only been in the city for four days but I would have expected them to act by now."

I shrugged. "It depends. The race isn't for a while still. So they might be evaluating things and trying to find an opportunity. Or they could be plotting to do something during the race. Personally, if I was Chrysalis I'd try to stir up the Griffons into trying to steal the Idol for themselves. Incite a riot. Failing that, I'd try to find an opportunity to steal or destroy the Idol. Something to cause chaos and further divide and weaken the griffons while ruining my attempts at gaining allies."

"Hm… I did notice some Minotaurs speaking ill of you to the Griffons. Claiming this was a ruse to seize power over Griffonstone. Do you think that may be them?"

I sighed and rested my face in my hoof. "Possibly, but it's just as likely they're normal Minotaurs. Unfortunately Chrysalis and her Hive genocided the Minotaurs at least four separate times. So they hate me because I'm a Changeling. It makes it incredibly difficult to tell if any Minotaurs want to kill me because they're Changelings in disguise or if they're just normal Minotaurs."

The Captain frowned. "How unfortunate… And the Princesses haven't assisted you in mending relations with the Minotaurs?"

"I'm not sure that's possible. At least not until Chrysalis is dead and given a couple hundred years… Not that it matters. I can't focus on the Minotaurs right now. I have to deal with Chrysalis first. To that end, I have a press conference. I guess I should get ready."

The Captain bowed respectfully. "Indeed. I suppose that will conclude my report. I'll keep you informed if my soldiers notice anything, or discover any evidence of the Changelings."

I nodded before turning and heading off.

After making my preparations, I arrived at the podium early. Already there was a crowd gathered around. A mix of species. Griffons, ponies, minotaurs, zebras, even a couple dragons.

Reporters with cameras were among them, already taking pictures of me as I approached the crude stage that had been set up for this conference.

How many in the crowd were Changelings? Was Chrysalis herself among them? Would she dare come here in person? I felt hatred and a desire to kill me from several people in the crowd. Pretty much exclusively from Minotaurs and Griffons.

I was wearing my armor, I had crossbow bolts and my bag of flechettes ready in case there was an attack here. I wish I had my flamethrower working. Or a proper gun. It would have been nice as some extra insurance.

I kept an eye on my pocket watch, and as soon as it struck noon, I put it away and cleared my throat.

"Thank you all for coming. I can sense many of you are very excited for the race, and I'm sure you have plenty of questions. I'm not one for big speeches and I don't have anything to announce, so we'll start with that immediately."

The crowd practically erupted as they shouted over each other, each trying to catch my attention to ask me questions.

"You, in the front." I pointed at a pony reporter at the front of the crowd.

"Queen Weaver, thank you for accepting my question. Why reclaim the Idol of Boreas for the Griffons?"

"Let me put this in terms the Griffons will understand. It's a business transaction. I need things for my war with Chrysalis. They can provide those things. I was able to get the Idol of Boreas easily since I can stick to walls, so it's a valuable bargaining chip for me. So by doing this, I get what I need and they get a new king or queen to bring unity and stability, and hopefully solve the massive socio economic issues they're having. Thus the contracts everyone has to sign in order to enter as contestants in the first place. I'm not doing this out of altruism or generosity, or anything of the sort. It's purely business. Something I'm sure the Griffons in the crowd understand quite well and can appreciate. Next question."

Queen Chrysalis was currently in the form of a Minotaur, standing amongst the crowd as this other "Queen" held a press conference.

She chose a minotaur specifically as her drones had reported Weaver had frankly ridiculous empathic abilities. A minimum range of two blocks and seemingly highly precise. She doubted the reports when she'd first received them but having spent several days in Griffonstone, she had come to realize how true it was. If anything the reports were an underestimation. From her own testing it was at least five blocks and she seemed to be able to pick out the most miniscule of hostile emotions even in the midst of a large crowd.

Even Chrysalis' own empathic senses weren't quite that strong, much to her chagrin. She could sense emotions from about a block and a half at most, and in crowds emotions would become a haze blending together and making it difficult to differentiate one set of emotions from another unless she focused on specific individuals.

Chrysalis absolutely loathed this insolent upstart who dared call herself a queen. Hiding her hatred would be near impossible. So she chose a species she knew hated Changelings more than anything to disguise herself as. The Minotaurs. She and her hive had almost driven the Minotaurs to extinction several times throughout the past thousand years so their hatred for changelings was truly immense.

Their impotent wrath was almost funny. Occasionally it brought her a laugh as she remembered the first of the genocides. Keeping families together to let them bond and grow as loving towards each other as possible before dragging them away one by one to be drained completely dry. The screams as lovers, calfs, or family members were dragged away to be drained of love. Then the burning hatred the survivors felt towards her hive. Until the moment they too were dragged away and they saw their loved ones again, only for it to be her drones in disguise. At which point every last scrap of love was drained from them with their last sights being her or her drones as they dropped their disguises. The surviving minotaurs were forced, in chains, to deal with the corpses left behind. Burying them in mass graves or burning them on mass pyres.

Grief, hopelessness, and soul crushing despair had completely permeated the camps. Said despair couldn't be fed on, unfortunately, but she'd learned to "love" the bitter flavor all the same as it was the taste of her victory. Something to be savored like a fine wine, even if it provided no nourishment.

She'd really taken her time with that one, dragging it out as long as possible to squeeze every last possible drop of love out of them she could. And it worked beautifully. Then it was interrupted by the Equestrians, she was driven off, and had to find another source of food. Only for the Minotaurs to attack her hive in retaliation a couple centuries later after their population had recovered. Thus sparking the second genocide. The third was simply because she'd had difficulty finding another viable source of love to feast upon and she remembered the other two genocides. The fourth was similar to the second, a failed retaliation by the Minotaurs.

How they managed to keep coming back every time was as surprising as it was amusing. At this point she was starting to consider the bipedal cows as nothing but livestock. Something to feed on once every few centuries whenever their population was large enough, then to leave until they recovered just to do it all over again. A self sustaining supply of food.

Regardless, the hatred they felt towards Changelings as a result of her actions was proving quite useful here. Weaver wouldn't look twice at a minotaur holding such hatred towards her.

This was Chrysalis' first time seeing Weaver in person. So far, she was about as Chrysalis had expected.

The way she carried herself was not the weak simpering prey-like posture Chrysalis had initially expected when she'd first heard of Weaver shortly after her arrival and thought her some pathetic pacifist like the Ponies. No, she carried herself more like a predator. Like she was ready to kill every creature around her at a moment's notice. That look in her eye was far too aggressive for some placid pony-lover. Rather she fit Pharynx's report perfectly. This was definitely more like what she expected after listening to his tale of how Weaver slaughtered the soldiers Chrysalis had sent to kill her.

It was almost a pity. If she wasn't a threat to Chrysalis' power and wasn't allied with the ponies, she could have been an excellent second in command. That kind of ruthlessness could be invaluable to her. As it was though, Chrysalis couldn't tolerate a rival Queen running around.

Already some of her less loyal drones were considering defecting and running to Weaver. Chrysalis kept them in line with Pharynx's story of what she did to the soldiers that attacked her, and telling them Weaver would never accept them thinking they were just spies and assassins trying to infiltrate her hive. So if they tried to run to her, they would die slow agonizing deaths as she ripped them apart with her horribly cruel disintegration spell. Describing in great detail the effects of the spell, the damage it would inflict upon their bodies, and every ounce of pain and suffering they would feel second by agonizing second as they died screaming.

None dared try to defect after that, fear prevented them from betraying her, yet it was still an issue. So Weaver would have to die. Or perhaps be enslaved if the opportunity presented itself. Chrysalis herself was somewhat resistant to mind control magic, and since there had never been another Queen before she could only assume the same was true of Weaver. However, resistant didn't mean immune. If Chrysalis could get an opportunity to cast a powerful mind control spell on Weaver, that would be just as viable a solution to the issues Weaver's very existence posed as simply killing her. As long as it could be sustained.

For now, however, Chrysalis just watched. Attacking right now would be foolish. Weaver was expecting it and she had guards. Not just griffons but ponies from the Crystal Empire who had arrived recently. Chrysalis only vaguely remembered the Crystal Empire from a thousand years ago. She'd almost forgotten about it entirely. She remembered she'd heard it was inundated with love and had thus been considering attacking it before it just up and vanished. Now it had returned and from the news, Weaver had been integral in saving it.

These Crystal Ponies loved her like a hero. They would all gladly fight and die for her for her role in saving their home. It was almost sickening.

She and her hive had gorged themselves on the love of some cat-like species inhabiting the land they had ended up in after being ejected from Canterlot. However while they had regained most of the strength they had during the invasion, the Griffons weren't like the ponies. They held very little love for anything except coin, and occasionally family, and were absolutely willing to resort to bloodshed if necessary. Especially when they had something to gain from it. Not to mention what Weaver herself would do. And Chrysalis wasn't certain just how well fed she was. Living amongst ponies, Weaver might have been as fed as Chrysalis herself. Or better fed, if she was smart about how she collected love.

So, impatient to slay Weaver as she was, patience was unfortunately necessary here.

Right now her priority had to be preventing Weaver from achieving her goals of gaining the Griffons as allies rather than killing her. The fewer allies she had, the less soldiers she could bring to bear, the more isolated and alone she was, the better. Especially when it came to creatures like the Griffons or Dragons who were much more willing to resort to violence and bloodshed than the ponies. More so, considering the rather frustrating tactics the Crystal Ponies that had arrived a few days ago were employing, which made it rather difficult to kidnap and replace them.

Weaver stared directly at her. Chrysalis wasn't remotely surprised. She'd been glaring at several different drones and soldiers amongst the crowd. That look in her eyes… It was like she was daring Chrysalis to attack her. A promise of death in her cold, calm gaze.

Chrysalis glared back, meeting her gaze with equal intensity. She wasn't one to back down from a challenge. But she wasn't going to rise to it now and risk ruining everything. Her opportunity would come soon.

The Idol of Boreas was Weaver's key to unifying the Griffons and getting her allies. So, that was her target. Take away the Idol and Weaver's plans would come crumbling down around her. She just needed to wait for the right opportunity.

Then in the chaos, she could attempt to kill Weaver. It likely wouldn't work, but it would let Chrysalis get a gauge of Weaver's abilities and adjust her strategy based upon what she learned. She had a few ideas for defensive spells to protect against that disintegration spell of hers. However, she needed to see it in action before she could be certain any of them would work. An opportunity she was certain she'd get once she had the Idol within her grasp.

Author's Note

A somewhat disappointingly short chapter especially for how long it's been, but I'm trying to get back into this story. Hopefully I can stick with it for more than a few chapters this time.

If I'm being honest, I had most of this chapter written for practically this whole time. Augest 17th according to the version history in Google Docs I just had the Chrysalis and Taylor parts broken into two separate versions. I just had to make them part of the same chapter, expand upon Taylor's section a bit, and polish them up a bit. I had 540 words of the Taylor version and 1366 words of the Chrysalis version written out. A combined total of 1,906, as opposed to the 2855 words of the final version.

I hate that. It's frustrating that this is all it took. I'd have preferred to put out a shorter chapter like this than leave my longest story so far to rot for over five months.

...Anyway, I really went in on the ruthlessness and cruelty of Chrysalis in this one. I am using the comics version of her as a base, the version that killed one of those cat things in front of the Cutie Mark Crusaders just to scare them. And I guess I might have stretched it just a bit further. This Chrysalis would not be entirely out of place as a member of the Slaughterhouse Nine.

If you have any questions, comments or criticism, feel free to let me know. I always try my best to address it.