Jachs nervously tapped his hoof against the soft carpet of his small office. Beside him, Obestluetnant Alcippe and Kommandant Second Wind sat uncomfortably in two small folding chairs. Both were massaging their temples in their hooves.

“One month.” Jachs turned on the spot, quickly throwing back a shot of vodka. In the same breath, he tossed the shot glass and grabbed the entire bottle from his desk. “One month!” He chugged back half of it in one long swig, only stopping to come up for air and nearly coughing up a lung. “Of course she expects us to vet and train a platoon of batpony soldiers in a month.” He ground his teeth so hard his fangs were in danger of cracking. “Tell me either of you have an idea? I’ll take anything. Even a hail mary.”

Jachs fell back into his chair, slamming his head on the desk in the same motion. He joined the duo, his own hooves finding his temples to softly massage them. It did little to help.

“We…could draft them?” Alcippe spoke, tapping her hind hooves against the soft carpeted floor.

Second Wind’s wings fanned himself as he stared squarely into the distance. “Bad idea. No time to vet anypony. We’d end up conscripting a full squad of E.L.F. infiltrators if we’re unlucky. If we’re lucky they’re lunar loyalists working alone.”

Jachs’ hooves began to tap restlessly against his desk before he quieted his mounting anxieties with another swig of communist vodka. At least the burning in his throat gave him something else to focus on. “We might have to roll the dice.” He exasperatedly opined, kicking his chair back to let it fall half against the bookshelves behind him. It teetered there precariously. “The Queen was quite clear in her letter. I foul this up, I’m out, a hardliner takes power and--”

“And that wouldn’t be good for anypony.” Second Wind sighed heavily, finishing the Generalmajor’s sentence. “Hell, we’re really gonna have to roll the dice aren’t we?”

Alcippe tapped her forehead with her forehoof. “I’ll draw up the papers. We’re really doing this?”

“I don’t have any other choice.” Jachs sighed. “We don’t have any other choice. It’s a gamble, but…fuck it.” He began to polish off his bottle of vodka, before drawing out yet another from his desk. He poured two glasses, and scooted each to the soldiers in front of him. “Fuck it?” he repeated.

“Fuck it.” Second Wind carefully gripped the glass in his wing.

“Oh…Queen’s mercy. Fuck it.” Alcippe answered, taking hers in a dull green magical glow.

The trio clinked their glasses together “and here’s hoping for a lucky roll.” Jachs declared.

The Queen’s airship hovered low above Canterlot, as it had only a month ago. At its prow sat Herself, regarding the town below with casual interest. She’d seen it before. She’d seen it often in the past months, even. It still felt good. For Queen Chrysalis, there could be no sweeter revenge against the perfidious ponies than taking their capital and making it her own. Only once ponies stopped seeing it as the seat of their government and began instead seeing it as it truly was; that being an arm of the changeling military machine, would her revenge be truly complete.

As it stands now, the way the little ant-looking ponies down there bowed their heads low as the ominous shadow fell across them would do. “For now”, Chrysalis thought, smiling to herself.

“Oh, y-your most excellent, most terrible and beautiful majesty!” From behind came the shrill voice of her seneschal. Chrysalis didn’t like his voice. It was nasally, sort of foalish, and altogether unpleasant.

She snorted through her nostrils. “Laying it on thick with the flattery today, aren’t we?” She turned, her tall and lithe form positively towering over him. Even among changelings he was short. Compared to her, he may as well have been the foal he sounded like.

Unperturbed, he swiftly bowed. “Oh, t-this useless, pathetic bug is but w-weak and stupid, compared t-to you! F-flattery, though it may s-seem, is but the truth!”

She knew better than to fight him on this. “What do you want, Seneschal?”

“To-” He visibly recoiled, snout wrinkling. Chrysalis gave the poor little thing some time to sort his thoughts. “To dissuade you of this-this s-stupid foolish notion o-of visitation! Y-your majesty, s-such an invitation is surely treachery in the making!” He quickly blurted out. “T-there is no way your proposition was accepted s-so quickly in good faith!

The Queen snickered, rolling her eyes. “That is your favourite word, isn’t it?” She cast her gaze back out the window, softly continuing. “Treachery this, betrayal that. Traitors, those. There is a bomb under every chair, a sniper in every window. Don’t you ever get tired of these assumptions?”

Looking aghast, the seneschal quickly paced around the Queen’s parlour. His hooves patted against the luxurious russet carpet. “I am not paranoid!” He shouted, after a few seconds of intense concentration.

Chrysalis didn’t respond, resting her chin on her hoof as she looked down at Canterlot. Her city. Hers.

“Y-you will see.” Throwing his head back, he turned and trotted quickly out into the confines of the flying battleship.

Chrysalis picked at her fangs. “Idiot.” She whispered under her breath.

A heavier knock rapped on her door a moment after Seneschal had left. Armoured hooves. Praetorian. “Yes Tremor?”

“Are you ready to disembark, Your Majesty?”

Chrysalis stood from her comfy chaise lounger and stretched. “I am.” She grasped the heavy bulkhead door in her magic and flung it open. The praetorian, well used to such things, stood there with his hooves at his side at attention. “I want you and three of your best to accompany me.”

His hoof fell to his magical lancegun. “Are we expecting trouble, Your Majesty?”

“No, Tremor.” She shook her head. “Seneschal is. I’d rather be over-prepared than under-prepared, even so.”

He bowed deeply. “Your will be done.”

Queen Chrysalis threw open the throne room doors like she owned the place, flinging them hard enough with her magic to trip an unlucky sentry bug. The bug in question quickly scrambled to stand and salute as she stroud proudly into the room.

There were the officers. Generalmajor Jachs, Alcippe, and Second Wind. She mentally ticked each off in her mind, quietly proud of herself for remembering their names this time. The Generalmajor, caught off guard, was scrambling to put his cap on and bow. The queen did not give him time to.

“Someling told me we have some thestrals to inspect!” She canted in a sing-song voice. An emerald green magic took hold of Jachs’ chin and she tilted his gaze up to meet her own. “I don’t want to waste time on formalities today! I want to see my new soldiers!” Her voice boomed, an affectation of the Queen’s own ‘royal canterlot voice’ just like the Princess Luna. Only, hers was better, because it was changeling.

Jachs nearly fell forward onto his face. “Right away your majesty.” His voice remained effortlessly even, thwarting Chrysalis’s attempt to throw him off his game. Quietly, the queen mourned the chance to see him squirm.

“And why were you not there to receive me on my landing?” She had yet to release her grip on him, cantering back and forth like she was pacing on the spot. “It was very hurtful, you know, my little changeling? It’s almost like you don’t want me here.” Chrysalis looked over him and saw the other two officers, Second Wind and Alcippe, share a quick and telling glance. She filed that little nugget away for future reference. “I’m very sensitive, you know. I get anxious when I think everyling doesn’t like me. You do like me, don’t you?”

She was toying with him. She knew it and he probably knew it too. Still, such improprieties demanded a little punishment, even if only a little. “Regretfully, your majesty. We’ve…received word of a-- some missing items. I had just finished addressing the situation. I apologise for any offence I have caused.”

Chrysalis made a show of pursing her lips and pouting. “And…I do like you, your majesty.” Added the generalmajor, a bit sheepishly.

Chrysalis threw her head back and laughed heartily, releasing her magical grip upon him in the same motion. “Oh fine. I forgive you.” Deeming him suitably embarrassed she chuckled softly to herself and tossed her mane. “But you still hurt my feelings.”

Jachs quickly righted himself, adjusting his uniform and brushing his shoulders. Everyling in the room, he noticed, had politely averted their eyes while he was being disciplined. At least they respected him enough to do that.

“I’m curious what ‘missing items’ would be so important as to distract from my arrival.” The queen wondered aloud, brushing past the trio and taking her seat upon Celestia’s old throne. She lifted a hoof and inspected it, as if assuming the position of a goddess was the most casual thing in the world.

Alcippe stepped up. “Three light tanks and a heavy.” The room quieted. One could hear a pin drop. Jachs internally groaned.

“Ah.” Chrysalis settled upon the throne, throwing her hind legs out over one of the arm rests, resting her back between it and the other. “Would you like to explain to me how one loses multi million bits worth of changeling military machines?” Her voice was sickly calm. Not even a hint of anger was betrayed.

“An old warehouse in Ponyville we were using to store surplus was empty when logistics came to inspect it.” The oberstleutnant replied diplomatically. “They were discovered missing only an hour ago. The garrison in the region had--”

The queen blew a raspberry. “Oh, whatever. Drunken soldiers taking the tank out for a joyride. Not the first time it has happened. Not the last it ever will.” She lifted a fore, stretching it out as she settled sideways into the throne. “Now, Kommandant. My thestral jaegers if you please.”

Second Wind glanced at Jachs who gave him a subtle nod. Jachs said a quiet prayer. Here goes nothing.

“The Queen’s Own Thestral Jaegers!” Second Wind announced as the procession of nocturnal bat ponies trotted into the throne room. One-hundred soldiers dressed in a mockery of the Lunar Guard armour, changeling tridents laid over old alicorn emblems. Bat ponies, or ‘thestrals,’ as the three tribes called them, had fangs not unlike the changeling’s own. They had membranous wings and thick ear tufts.

Luna’s most ardent supporters, reduced to Her own servants. How delicious.

Queen Chrysalis watched closely, leaning up over the throne, sharp green eyes drawing zig zagging lines along the armoured troops-- and she could tell they were poorly trained. They did not march in step. They fidgeted, rather than standing stock still at attention as a proper soldier. Closer inspection further revealed a general lack of discipline among them. Their armour was clearly second hand, their bat pony hoof blades unpolished and worn.

She settled back into her throne, with a slowly deepening frown. “This is it?” She spat the words, disappointment creeping into her tone more than anger. “These lot are barely more than a militia, much less a jaeger team.”

Jachs was beginning to recite an apology, no doubt one he’d prepared in advance, when Chrysalis heard something. A word no mare likes to hear. A word like this, said to a Queen, which caused her cheeks to burn in rage and humiliation. It was quiet. Spoken in as soft a voice to be mistaken for the wind, but there was no doubt. From within the bat pony ranks came a tiny, infuriating whisper.

“Bitch.”

Alcippe gasped. For four uncomfortable seconds there was a terrible silence.

Then Chrysalis felt her eyes narrow, her fangs bared. Rage lit her horn in a green flame. “Who among you just signed your own death warrant!?” She threw herself to her hooves, marching down the stairs directly into the ranks. One unlucky bat pony, the closest soldier in front, found himself lifted by a magical hold around his neck. “Was it you? You cowardly flying rats-- I’ll burn you alive!”

His hooves pawed uselessly at his throat. He shook his head ‘no’. “Then who!?” Around her, her praetorians were already surrounding the bat ponies. Each one drawing their lanceguns and bracing the heavy magical weapons against the floor. “Answer me-- or by your soon-to-be dead, pathetic goddess of the night, I will have all of you rats slaughtered!!”

Second Wind’s teeth clenched shut. He knew he should intervene here-- but what could he say? Plead for mercy, be thought of as agreeing with the unlucky sod? Lie and say he did it? Why couldn’t the idiot just stay quiet for a little bit?!

Alcippe found herself stepping closer to Second Wind. The pair shared another nervous glance. This situation was deteriorating rapidly out of her control-- and what’s worse was she had no way to stop it.

“My Queen.” Everyling and everypony turned to Jachs, who had strode up beside the queen. His voice was kept even and calm, practised and diplomatic. “There’s no reason to punish all of them.”

Scoffing, Chrysalis threw the pony in her grip down onto the floor. “Oh I didn’t want to-- but if all these little monsters harbour one of their number capable of saying such things, then they’re all traitors!” She panted a shout, fury glittering on her brow.

They were ex-lunar guards and served in a pegasi division during the war. It was a stroke of luck so many were willing to join up. Still, these idiots were loyal to each other, Second Wind knew that. Even to the less serious and more infantile members among them. He also knew that they would gladly all die for each other. They would gladly be martyrs just to insult the queen. A lot of needless deaths would happen if he kept his mouth shut. But if he did speak up, then…

“Praetorians, arms.” Chrysalis commanded. The black-armoured changeling soldiers answered, their hooves finding the triggers of their guns. The lancetips began to glow an azure blue that harkened back to the Crystal Empire. “I’ll make it simple.” She began to back away, and Jachs began to panic.

“If nopony speaks up in the next five seconds,” her voice dropped. It turned low, guttural. Like a growl. “Then clean this Equestrian filth from my throne room!” Jachs saw looks of determined resignation on chiropteran faces. Eyes closed. Some mouthed words of silent prayer.

Four, three. Jachs couldn’t stop this. Damnit-- he hadn’t been paying attention. He was focused on Chrysalis. If he’d just been paying more attention to the volunteers. Another atrocity, all at his hooves. Goddamnit why didn’t she just kill him instead?

Two. Jachs closed his eyes, whispered “I’m sorry,” and waited.

One. “Private Sunfall Dream!” The voice came from beyond the pony volunteers, from their commander. Second Wind had taken wing, flying directly over the platoon. “Would you like to explain to everypony why you think it is proper Heer conduct to insult the Queen, of which the Changeling Queendom is named for, right in her very own throne room!?”

Silence met him. “I asked you a question, private!” His voice shook the throne room, almost matching Chrysalis’s own in sheer volume.

Chrysalis let out a dark laugh. “Ah, it seems somepony has spoken up.” She waved her hoof, a silent command to her guard. They lowered their lances. “Though not one whom I expected.” With her hoof, she shoved aside the few bat pony soldiers between her and the curious Sunfall Dream.

The pony of the hour! He was wiry and thin, a red mane and orange coat that looked quite warm and sunny for a bat pony. As she took hold of his chin in her magic and forced him to look at her, Queen Chrysalis saw not fear in his eyes, but defiance. Anger. “Are all thestrals so cowardly? To allow their entire team to die in the vain hope to save themselves?” His eye twitched, betraying said anger poorly hidden behind the facade of attention. Chrysalis could feel it emanating off him. “Or is it just that you are singularly pathetic?”

Second Wind hovered nervously. The fool was being punished-- but this is just what she did to Jachs. Public humiliation. Nothing more. So long as he doesn’t do anything else stupid, he should be fine.

Then Sunfall Dream spat in Chrysalis’s face.

That quiet. That same four seconds of terrible quiet, like how the tides recede before calamity slams onto shore. “So be it.” Terrible coolness in her voice. Lacking anger, simple matter of fact resignation. Chrysalis wiped her face with a hoof, and magically grabbed the pony by his mane.

He cried out as she dragged him before his platoon, hoof blades scrabbling uselessly against her chitin. “You are a tyrant!” He shouted, as she threw onto the soft red rug that led from the throne to the entrance door. “Heartless, evil bitch!”

The praetorians had moved to form a wall between chrysalis and the rest of the bats. They began to shove and jostle one another. Some holding others back. Somepony began to sob.

Sunfall Dream climbed to his hooves. He stood before the Queen of the changelings. She regarded him with something approaching pity. The stallion bared his fangs. “You killed my clan! You insult my goddess-- our goddess! You dare to take her place!?”

Second Wind knew there was nothing more he could do. He’d just condemned this pony to death. His hovering slowly stalled until he fell into place by Jachs. They shared a sad glance and a nod. They both understood. They’d tried. Across the room, Aclippe had closed her eyes and cast her gaze downwards.

Chrysalis flicked her hoof. One of the changeling soldiers drew up his lance at the bat pony. “She’s not much of a goddess if she can be beaten by a bunch of mere bugs then, is she?”

He roared in anger, bared his teeth, and launched himself on wing with hoof blades out, aiming dead on at Chrysalis’s throat. He was answered by a thunderous ‘boom’ of the praetorian’s magical energy weaponry slicing him in twain. The heat of the charged shot turned his body to ash. Little specks of ashen bat fell upon Chrysalis. Her nose wrinkled.

She brushed a speck of pony from her nose and winced. “Would anypony else like to test the effectiveness of my guard today?” The other bats, though outnumbering the guard twenty-five to one, shied away and back. “At least the rest of you have some sense. Now get out of my throne room! And someling clean this traitor up.”

The bat ponies were marched unceremoniously out. Simply, out. Away from Chrysalis, out of her sight, and the rat’s own goddess willing they’d march completely out of their uniforms and into tartarus.

“Dumb, flying rat ponies, the lot of them.” Chrysalis rested her cheek in her hoof as she sat back upon her throne. On Celestia’s old throne. “If this is truly the best you can do, Generalmajor, I question the efficacy of the ‘thestral jaegers’ at all.”

Jachs had doffed his cap. The other two had escorted the bat pony volunteers back to wherever hole they’d crawled out of. Chrysalis had begun to dislike bat ponies. “I do apologise. That was an unbecoming display. We should have been more prepared. On behalf of Canterlot, I accept complete fault for--”

“Oh, shut up.” She interrupted him. “Spare me the diplomatic spiel just this once and give me solutions. If you can’t make these thestrals work, I want volunteers that can. ” Shaking her head, she snorted. “Honestly, I expected better of you, Jachs.”

Ever the diplomat and ever affecting the calmest and most reserved tone imaginable, Jachs replied. “I’m…as you said in your letter, we only had a month to get everything in order. It was a mad dash to find suitable candidates. We’re lucky we got as good as we did.”

To his side, Jachs noticed one of the praetorians' ears twitching. Then, a knock on the throne room doors. Alcippe and Second Wind had cleared out to escort the bat ponies, so it was just him and a couple of the Queen’s elite. Mid conversation, the queen absentmindedly waved a hoof in the vague direction of the door in silent command.

The soldier passed jachs as Chrysalis’s ears perked. “Oh so it’s my faul-- wait, letter?”

“Yes.” Jachs’ magic hovered his cap in front of his chest. “We received a letter a month ago exactly, not stamped with the Vesalipolis seal, but your own. You ordered us to have a platoon ready within thirty days or you’d have me tried as a traitor.”

Chrysalis glanced over Jachs shoulder. There was apparently some argument going on beyond the door. Her praetorian was shouting and gesturing very angrily. “I’m certain I would remember making such a declaration. Do you still have the--”

The shouting from her changeling was beginning to carry across the throne room. Annoyance flitted across her brow. She turned to the other guard at her side. “Rah! Tremor, would you remove whatever is happening out there please? I’m having a very important conversation and all this racket is making it very difficult to concentrate!” The black armoured changeling nodded, and slipped down the throne and past Jachs. He slung his lancegun forward and the Generalmajor felt slightly sorry for whoever was beyond those doors

Then, Chrysalis turned back to Jachs and did a small breathing exercise. Breathe in, and then out. Calm. Zen. “Now, my little changeling. Fetch this letter for--”

The Queen’s ear twitched yet again as the shouting from beyond the door grew to a crescendo. She shouted upwards and leapt to her hooves, throwing the colossal doors open with her emerald magic. “What is the meaning of--”

For Jachs, time slowed down.

He saw a flash of steel in a batpony mouthgrip. The lifted lance of a praetorian pinning one down. Another, fighting with two more, asssailed upon by two sets of hoofblades. Three other bat ponies, guns in wings, turned to aim at him. No-- at the Queen behind him. For all her power, right now she was a massive target in front of a machine gun firing line.

He did not think. He did not weigh his options, did not consider saving himself, he simply acted on instinct.

As much as he and Chrysalis had disagreements, every changeling felt this instinctual drive in their very blood. Protect the queen. Secure the hive. Guard the larva. As the wings racked the guns and they fired, Jachs leapt into Chrysalis, putting all his strength into shoving her sideways-- off the throne, interposing his body between her and the bullets.

By some miracle, he’d mustered up enough strength to topple her. Jachs felt her legs give, and she came down onto her side. “Stay down!” He shouted, commanding his queen and disregarding the sacrilege, leaping to his hooves in front of her.

The praetorians, having finally decided to use lethal force, began dispatching their own bat pony assailants. Jachs saw the azure corona of a vaporization behind the trio, and the tell-tale low ‘churr’ of an uncharged lancegun shot. They would not be fast enough to stop them.

Jachs did his best to summon a shield-- he never was good at that spell. His horn glowed dull green. It was taking form. A small bubble in front of him. A half shield. It wasn’t fast enough.

Another burst from three submachine guns. He heard the tell-tale magic ‘crack’ of bullets on a thaumaturgic wall, but it wasn’t enough. Pain split his chest. He looked down and saw blood. He tried to speak-- to tell the queen to run, but all that came out was a pained gurgle. His shield, and he, fell.

Jachs’ body was wracked in agony and blood. He couldn’t speak for the pain, couldn’t move lest he lodge the bullets deeper into his carapace. As the next volley came, Jachs closed his eyes. At least he’d finally get what he deserved.

Then, a slender chitinous hoof stepped into his vision. A green bubble shield, strong enough to rival an alicorn, enveloped him. He’d given Chrysalis enough time. Goddess, by some miracle, he’d given her enough time to put her shield up. He did his job. He tried to look upwards, to crane his neck, but the pain was too much.

So, he looked downwards, at the blood spilling from his chest. Jachs thought it was quite strange how much blood the changeling body could hold. Then, Jachs thought it was funny that that was going to be his final thought. Then, he passed out.

Queen Chrysalis stood in front of three would-be assassins, her love-fueled shield stronger than it’d been even during the first battle of canterlot. She dared the fools to fire-- they did.

The idiot bat ponies let loose on her bulwark, hundreds of bullets splattering harmlessly against her magic. She simply smiled while the praetorians ripped them apart from behind. One brained in painfully with the butt of a lancegun, another vaporized in magical fire.

Except for the final bat pony. That one was hers. She gripped the creature in magic, lifting it by the neck. “Disgusting rat.” It squirmed in her grip, throwing its gun at her shield, kicking uselessly at her with its hind hoof blades. “Yet, not every meal need be gourmet.” It cursed her in a strange bat pony language. Then, she drew its love out.

For Chrysalis, it takes several ponies to safely sate her love craving. Drawing enough to sate her from one pony would be like drinking their soul through a straw. This one? This little assassin, who’d just tried to kill her and very likely killed her best Generalmajor? She was going to make it hurt.

She started slowly. Draining its love-- gently, tender, then just as the little beast got comfortable she latched onto its love and ripped it out like she was starting a fucking lawn mower. The beast cried, it screamed, and then it went silent. It fell, dead in spirit and soon to be body. It wouldn’t get up again until judgement day. She chucked the creature aside and her body felt alight with arcane power.

She breathed strength, tasted raw might. Oh, yes.

“Queen Chrysalis.” She arched an eyeridge as Second Wind stumbled through the door. His uniform was dirty and matted with flecks of blood. “We’re under attack!”

“Truly? I hadn’t noticed.” She stepped over the corpse of one of the bats and pointed to a praetorian. “Escort Jachs to medical. Now.”

“Jachs!” the smaller one, Alcippe, followed soon after Second Wind. She nearly leaped to the Generalmajor’s side. “Oh no-- oh Queen’s Mercy. Is he?” Then- thought better of it, pulling back from the poor bug’s side.

As Tremor slid over to chuck Jachs on to his back, Chrysalis cast a quick healing spell. Something small to staunch the blood flow-- that was all she could do right now. The rest would be in the surgeon’s hooves. “He will live.” Chrysalis turned to the female changeling.

Then, she gripped Alcippe in her magic, and pulled her side-to-side with Second Wing, who had been silently staring at the Generalmajor in the meantime. What loyalty he could inspire among his peers, she silently thought. “For now, both of you focus. I need the situation and I need it now.”

Shaking herself, Alcippe nodded. “We were attacked from two sides. An Equestrian Liberation Front force from the East, and the batpony volunteers from the inside. It was coordinated.”

Second Wind followed. “We were handling the batponies-- we’d diverted the garrison from the walls, but they were planning on that. A stolen changeling tank platoon is leading the charge. They’re heading here right now. We have to get you out of here.”

Chrysalis scoffed. Much to the surprise of Second Wind, who seemed utterly flabbergasted. “And abandon my city?”

The pegasus was quick to respond. “The garrison is under equipped to fight on two fronts at once. We just don’t have enough ponies. It’s only a matter of time before we collapse and you’re in danger, we have to get you out of here! Queen C-- My queen. Please.”

Chrysalis smirked.”My dear little pony. I will forgive you this.” Sickly sweet in tone, she drew up her hoof and hooked it beneath Second Wind’s chin. “You are used to pretty pony princesses, afraid to get their hooves dirty in the trenches. Who command wars from cozy castle meetings behind legions of armoured guards.” Her hoof fell from his chin, and she walked confidently towards the door. “Changelings, kommandant? Changelings lead from the front.”

The throne room doors were thrown open in a great magical fling as Chrysalis strode onto the palace steps and the sound of war greeted her. Down below amongst marble stairs and farther down into the royal quarter proper, garrison troops traded shots with bat pony infiltrators. Those thestrals seemed very interested in trying to kill her changelings until she strode into view. At once, every single one of those stupid flying rats turned their guns on her and fired.

Second Wind leapt into her shield bubble and interspersed himself between the bullets and her. Her shield did not fall. Yet again, hundreds of bullets pelted her magical barrier and she didn’t break a sweat. She glanced down at the funny pegasus pony, wings spread and eyes closed, fully willing to sacrifice himself for her. “That’s cute.” Her voice was barely audible over the violent thaumaturgic sounds of bullets on magic. “I see why you get along so well with Jachs.”

From a bar, a burst of machine gun fire met her would-be assassins. The garrison was using her distraction expertly, pushing up to crush the batponies whilst they focused on her.

Hesitantly, Second Wind peaked an eye open to see her magic not only holding strong-- but not even budging. He suddenly felt strangely embarrassed, lowering his wings sheepishly.

The thestrals never stood a chance. They’d all been focused on her and when that didn’t work, they were reduced to watching her like hawks. They’d all been so absolutely terrified of her the garrison-volunteer counter attack barely took any casualties. The whole operation took less than twenty minutes.

“And so I have defeated an insurgency by simply standing.” Chrysalis’s shield dropped, and Second Wind abashedly stepped from inside it. Alcippe, previously busy with coordinating said counter attack, had trotted up. “Now, the hard part. Oberst?”

Alcippe, panting, began. “The attack from the East has pressed in halfway. The tanks are older models, surplus, but more than our garrison can handle. We lack anti armour weapons-- just the old stuff, panzerfausts. There are two panzerschrecks in our entire armoury.”

“Battlefield layout?” Chrysalis turned and talked as she walked.

“The East wall is built like a hoofshoe. A big ‘U’ shape, with the castle at the open end. They’re advancing aggressively and they’re not stopping.”

“Civilians?”

“The Eastern section was turned to ruin during the second battle of Canterlot. It’s only recently been rebuilt and hasn’t been repopulated yet.”

“That’s why they’re going in from that direction, then. They want to avoid civilian casualties. Collapse the entrance arch. Trap them in.”

Alcippe nodded. She tapped a portable radio upon her lapel, and Chrysalis arched an eyeridge. “And--” continued the queen, “get me one of those.”

Second Wind hauled two massive changeling bazookas onto his back and crawled back into the palace. From the sheer bulk he had to drag one behind him like he was pulling a sled with his teeth. The pegasus managed it, albeit scratching up the royal marble on the way. As he made his way back to the throne room he spotted the temporary command post hastily constructed about the middle. Radios and equipment he didn’t understand, the Queen and her own guard, and Alcippe herself right in the middle.

Panting heavily, he heaved himself beside the group just in time to catch the tail end of the conversation.

“...center of town. They’re likely working alone, but we can’t take the chance of pegasus spotters in the clouds.”

“I agree, Oberst.” That was the Queen’s voice. Second Wind found a big enough plastic table to lean against. “Form any pegasus volunteers into task forces and have them sweep the clouds. Once the air is secured, they will join the garrison on the walls.”

“Ja, meine Königin”

Second Wind stayed politely quiet until addressed, not wanting to arouse the ire of Herself. He did not have to wait long.

Chrysalis spoke in an even voice. “Kommandant.” He bowed his head respectfully. “Attend to your volunteers as you see fit. You’re no longer needed.” There was no dismissal in her tone. She was simply relaying his portion of the plan. Still, it was a bit unpleasant to the pegasus.

A smidgen of the old pegasus pride tried to creep in as he spoke, which he successfully squashed. “What are you going to do?”

“Worried about me, my little pony?” The queen flashed a fangy grin. Second Wind was polite enough not to respond. “Pegasus volunteers will assist the jaegers in sweeping the clouds. Earth pony and regular changeling units will assault the walls, and hold them.” She paused. Dramatic tension was a guilty pleasure of hers, apparently. “While this is happening, I will lead a lance directly into the heart of the enemy.” Her snout jutted upwards proudly.

“What!?” Second Wind nearly choked on his own saliva. “I…I understand you’re powerful, my queen, but this is…needlessly risky. We are trained for this, your volunteers stand ready to repel the E.L.F. You don’t have to put yourself at risk.”

“I’d agree, but I won’t be at risk.” She shrugged with such absurd confidence Second Wind wondered if she thought this was all some sort of game. “If you are worried, Kommandant, join me. March with your queen. Then if I do fall, perhaps you can perform some silly pony tricks to save me.” She snickered quietly, the idea of a pony saving her apparently was too absurd a notion to entertain.

Second Wind met her challenge. “Wouldn’t I get in the way of your guard?”

“My guards are the most experienced and lethal soldiers here. They are better served as task force leaders, spreading their skills around, than staying at my side for the entire battle. I would be alone, besides you.”

Second Wind tapped his hoof against the marble floor. He supposed that meant his volunteers would be led by one of these praetorians and that’s why he wasn’t needed. Well, he wasn’t the type of pony to sit back and let a freaking bug get shot for him. That’d just be embarrassing. “Alright. Consider me your personal guard for the duration of the operation, then.”

An eyeridge arch from Chrysalis met him. “Truly? You continue to surprise me. Perhaps--”

“I should go too.” Alcippe cut in. “With the defense organized and the task forces assigned, I’m not so useful here. I want to be on the front lines.” She trotted up by Chrysalis, checking her pistol and tucking it away into a chest holster.

Now, as far as bugs getting shot in his stead, Alcippe was right on the bottom of ones he’d want that to happen to. “With all due respect, Oberstluetnant, perhaps--”

“Have you ever fired a panzerschreck, Second Wind?”

“No, but--”

“Then I’m going.”

“And you have!?”

Alcippe giggled, surprisingly playfully, for the situation. “I am a trained jaeger, Kommandant. That includes demolitions.”

“No more delaying then.” Chrysalis stood up and stretched, nodding to her guard. Each of the black armoured ‘lings returned a little salute and zipped off to lead their own forces.

Turning to stride beyond the palace doors, she spoke a command over her shoulder. “Fall in.” Second Wind felt his whole body tense.

Hefting one of the bazookas to his back, and Alcippe taking the other in her magic, he felt her flankbump him. “You know you don’t have to do this.” Alcippe hovered the launcher onto her back as she spoke.

Second Wind sighed. “I do. If she got killed out there and I could've stopped it I’ll never be able to live with myself.”

“That shows remarkable integrity, Kommandant Wind.” Alcippe kicked up her pace to a trot to follow nearer the Queen. “Even with how she…”

“I still wouldn’t let her die.” The pegasus tersely snapped. “Sorry. I don’t like to think about myself in that…way. Ugh. Not the time.” He matched her pace, trotting quickly despite the weight on his back.

“Okay.” She turned to softly smile. That classically Alcippe smile that made you feel like everything was going to be okay while at the same time telling you she’d be there to help if it wasn't.

Together, the pair crossed the palace doors and stepped hoof onto a battlefield.

Chrysalis stood atop the palace staircase, her gaze falling onto the embattled Eastern section. She could see the tiny ponies down there, fighting in the streets, just like that desperate Vesalipolis naval invasion so long ago.

Her two little followers, the pegasus and the changeling, fell into step behind her. As far as royal guards went she’d seen better but she knew well what they said about beggars and choosers. Her hoof found the tiny radio sized for a changeling drone upon her lapel and she began to speak.
.
“Wackere Soldaten eines entspringenden Reiches! Ich richte mein Wort an euch als euer-”

“Queen Chrysalis?” The Queen’s snout wrinkled. “Uh, most volunteers here don’t speak Changeling. They probably wouldn’t be able to understand you.” Second Wind quietly reasoned.

Stupid ponies and stupid Ponish. Chrysalis cleared her throat again.

“Brave soldiers of a nascent empire, I speak to you today not as Queen! No, not Empress! As changeling alone.”

Second Wind cast a glance down the ramp. The combined garrison-volunteers had begun to notice. A few were looking up at her. More were checking their own radios.

“As I stand beside you today, know that you fight with an equal. As I lead this action, know that she is proud of all of you! You brave soldiers, changeling and ponies all! All who would stand in defense of your Queendom with your brothers and sisters in arms!”

A few heads down the ramp nodded. Second Wind saw a couple smiles. Alcippe had tilted her head upwards in what looked like prayer and pride at once.

“Soldiers. Comrades. Friends. Families. Today, all count on you. Remember them and rally to me! Route this insurrectionist filth and by my honor I’ll see you all rewarded! No retreat, no hesitation, no mercy! For the Queendom!”

Somepony down below fired off a shot into the air as they readied themselves, before it looked like he was quickly reprimanded by the overseeing praetorian. Second Wind had to smile. Hell, he was starting to get into it too.

“How’d I do?” Chrysalis queried casually, giving her extending insectoid wings a little stretch.

“Not too bad.” Second Wind’s own extended as he took his place next to her.

“I thought it was pretty good.” Alcippe slipped into place at the other side of her. Still, she wore a grin so wide Second Wind worried it might break her mouth. Patriotism, it seemed, was ingrained in every bug.

Letting out a little sigh, Chrysalis’s hoof found the tiny button upon her radio once more. “By Queen’s Command, commence Operation Lancer!” The ponies down below began to quickly trot off to the side. They’d be taking the South, the pegasi and jaegers the clouds, and the garrison the North. She had the very center.

“Fall in and keep one another safe. We’ll proceed cautiously and move slowly. We outnumber if not outgun them, so we can wear them down. Make them waste their ammunition and supplies.”

“Ja, meine Königin”

“Yes, Ma’am.”

Fires started in the skies and Chrysalis glanced upwards. Volunteers exchanging gunfire with the pegasi rebels in the clouds. The gunshots and bombs lit the clouds like tiny booms of thunder and cracks of lightning.

“That’s our cue.” Chrysalis leapt forward, and bade her tag-alongs to follow. They did so, the pair of smaller equines landing to her side, tucked beneath a building. She herself sat square in the middle of a street. Across from them, a squad of E.L.F. soldiers nearly stumbled upon seeing her. She grinned as they opened fire.

“Is that all!?” Chrysalis’s voice boomed as a plethora of earth pony battle saddles and unicorn-hovered guns met her iron-wall of a magical shield. She grinned like mad, returning fire with a few uncharged horn blasts, nailing one unlucky bastard and sending the rest scrambling for cover.

Chrysalis inhaled. The scent of gunsmoke and rubble met her sinuses and she couldn’t stop herself from smiling. Oh, she missed this.

But the cretins had called for backup.

Down the street, a light tank swerved around and held her in its sights. Older model, one of the first types deployed. Her grin only widened. She braced her chitinous hooves in the cobble streets and pawed at it like a minotaur about to charge. She dared the smoke belching monster to meet her.

With a 20mm gun, it answered. The shot rang out across the street in a deep ‘boom’ as it hit home against the queen’s shield. The sheer force shoved her back a foot, and nothing else. After the smoke dissipated, she still stood-- shield up, and her own horn charging to meet the tank.

The driver, apparently realising his error, had begun to quickly back up. Chrysalis wasn’t going to let such impudence go unanswered. The fool running away only served to fuel her manic glee as she imagined the sheer terror those silly ponies must be feeling.

A thaumaturgic boom returned the mechanical one as Chrysalis horn shot off a blazing emerald lance of energy, lighting the street in green fire and meeting the tank head on. Her aim was off-- it blasted the turret clear from the chassis, so she guided the lance downward to cleave the tank clean in two. It fell, metal burning hot red as it collapsed in on itself. Chrysalis smiled like a filly in a candy store.

“Holy shit.” Second Wind cradled his bazooka, leaning out from his cover behind the ruined building. He’d been ready to assist but it seemed like she didn’t need it. “Why didn’t we do that…?”

His question, asked quietly, had been more to himself but Aclippe had overheard. “What do you mean?” Covering behind the building, she had her own panzerschreck angled Southwards, ready to meet the flanking tank she knew had to be coming at this point.

“We had like-- what, four alicorns? And they could all do that? Why didn’t they ever…why didn’t we ever…you know?”

“You’re asking me?” Alcippe arched an eyeridge. “I always thought they made a vow of pacifism or something.”

Then, Alcippe heard it. The rumbling of an engine and the movement of treads. “Oh, look alive, got one.”

Second Wind was quick to jump down beside her. “Let’s see-- loaded, yes. Check. Safety. Backblast clear. Uh, I think we’re all good here right?” He laid his own rocket launcher next to Alcippe’s own. “Right?”

“Yes. Don’t fire unless I miss.” The changeling leaned on the cold metal tube. “I haven’t used one of these since training…so, maybe pray a little too.”

The tank’s engine grew louder and Second Wind felt a very earth pony-like urge to burrow a trench. “Praying.” He answered nervously, his hoof finding the rocket’s trigger. He gulped.

The dull gray of changeling armour rounded the corner and sat its sights on them. Panzer II. Lightly armoured. Second Wind felt fear grip him by the wings, but he shook it off. He exhaled. He feathered the trigger. Alcippe fired.

The rocket tore through the air and landed a solid hit in the tread. The blast immobilized it, but it still had a working turret. “Shit!” Aclippe cursed, but Second Wind was prepared. He changed his aim to the fresh hole the Oberst’s rocket had opened up and fired. With a loud ‘thoomf’ his own slammed home, piercing the bug tank’s carapace and exploding from within. It did little visible damage to the outside, but the crew inside were not, so to speak, in any condition to operate it.

“Direct hit! Good shot Kommandant!” Alcippe nearly cheered.

Then, the tank’s escort rounded the corner. A burst of machine gun fire met the pair as Second Wind wing-wrapped Alcippe and almost threw her in front of the burning wreck of a tank. He followed soon after, drawing up his own gun.

“There’s no cover out here, this is a bad position!” He shouted, falling onto the other side of the tank.

“Just hold! Stay down. The Southern team should--” as planned, an explosion rocked the wall up above. Second Wind chanced a glance upward to see his volunteers blowing open a blocked door and rapidly spilling out onto the walls. They’d taken the high ground.

Growling, he snickered. “Celestia, they got a sense for timing.” As the first few shots of volunteer rifles met the E.L.F. soldiers surrounding them. Some unlucky E.L.F. soldier got vaporized by a lancegun. Second Wind chanced a peek under the tank to see a few old Equestrian uniforms bloodied and fallen on the ground-- and felt a pang of sadness, which he quickly squashed. Not the time.

“We’re clear.” is all he said, giving the ponies up on the wall a thankful wave. One of them returned it and then they went back to their job.

Two down. Two to go.

Second Wind crouched down under the watchful protection of the burning changeling tank, panting hard. Just in time to see another greenish blast from the Queen’s horn and a distant explosion he’d come to associate with changeling tanks blowing up. Make that three down.

A few barked updates came through Alcippe’s radio. She quietly tapped it in acknowledgement. The pair simply panted together, catching their breath, as Chrysalis buzzed down in front of them.

“Sitrep, Oberst.” Chrysalis stood proud in front of the pair, her horn still glowing with dulling emerald flame.

“North and South fronts are secured. We haven’t found the heavy yet. And the pegasi volunteers are unable to secure the clouds.”

“Hm.” Chrysalis pondered. “As long as they keep the enemy from shooting down at us that’s good enough.”

The Queen’s hoof found her own radio and she cleared her throat. “All teams, the operation is proceeding smoothly. We have secured a hoofhold and halted their advance. One final effort is all that remains. Fix your bayonets and route these invaders!”

Quietly, Second Wind marvelled at the word ‘invaders’ to describe Equestrian army divisions assaulting Canterlot, but he kept that to himself.

“Ah, it seems the enemy has answered my challenge.” Chrysalis smirked as she glanced over her shoulder. A tiger one had rolled into view, hastily spray painted over with Equestrian flags. “This will be swift.”

She leapt from the cowering equines and simply strolled into the tank’s view, casual as she could. Like taking a walk in Canterlot’s gardens. She strolled right into view of the beast’s main cannon, and smirked, charging up her horn.

Second Wind and Alcippe took their previous position behind the ruined building, just in case. The pegasus peeked out to watch the show. But, something was wrong. It wasn’t firing yet. Second Wind looked at Chrysalis who was wearing a psychopathic grin. She didn’t seem to notice.

The kommandant squinted, looking closer at the main gun. It was subtle, but he could see a little refraction around the cannon. Like heat flowing from asphalt on a hot day. It seemed magical in a way. Like a unicorn’s horn charging.

Like Chrysalis’s horn charging.

Realization struck him like a lightning bolt. “It’s a spellray cannon!” He shouted, leaping back just in time to see Chrysalis’s shield take a flaming pink magical lance of fire not unlike her own.

Chrysalis had, for the first time since the battle started, felt fear. Thanks to Second Wind’s shout, she’d just in time cut off her charging horn and slammed every bit of love she had into her shield. The heat of the spellray burned into her like Celestia’s scorching sun. Her shield held, but she was being pushed back. It was a laser, burning her off like a particularly psychopathic filly would do to an ant. Back and back she was pushed as sweat beaded from her brow. Her shield held. Just a little longer. Then, she slammed into the back of the castle wall, and her balance was thrown off.

The shield collapsed. Burning equestrian magic lit her carapace up in flame if only momentarily. Her thaumaturgic wall had held long enough she only caught the tail end of the magical laser. But she was drained of love. Exhausted. She fell with it, her body limp on the pony cobblestone streets.

“Shit!” Second Wind slammed his hoof into the cobbles and threw his head around. Had any of the changelings noticed? Any of those black armoured super soldier bugs? No? Of course not. It had to be him.

“It’s recharging its gun. We have to move now.” Alcippe’s words were in his ear, but Second Wind was already taking flight. The Oberst followed soon after. Machine gun fire from its coaxial lit up the dirt around him as he dropped onto Chrysalis.

“Queen Chrysalis!” He shouted, gunfire throwing up clouds of dust around him. Alcippe cast a telekinetic spell into the rubble to throw up some dirt as a makeshift smoke cloud, for what little good that did. “Chrysalis!” Second wind shouted. This seemed to snap her out of her stupor. She blinked, her eyes meeting his, her fangs bared in humiliation. Gunfire slammed into the stones above her. They were sitting ducks. Eventually that gun would hit them. There was only one way.

“Take whatever you need.”

That was all the queen needed to hear. Her eyes lit up in emerald glow, and Second Wind felt his life dull. His love was drawn out, painfully and quickly, and he shut his eyes and braced his teeth. He felt cold. Like he was dying. Bleeding out on the ground. Then, he and Alcippe, were gripped in a great magical force, and teleported.

Second Wind fell upon the ground, crossing his forehooves over himself protectively, as if his fores might stave off the deathly chill and emptiness the queen had left within him. He fell into a ball, wrapping his wings around himself, shivering.

Alcippe was quick to leap at him. “Hey, hey!” she sat by his side, resting hoof on his haunch. “You’re okay! You’re okay. Second Wind look at me. Look at me!”

From staring at the sky, the kommandant did as he was commanded. He met Alcippe’s eyes. Purple and deep, lacking pupils. Bug eyes, he’d called them in the past. In that moment they made him feel so safe. Anything other than the queen.

“You’re okay.” She petted her hoof along his mane comfortingly. “You’re okay.” The repeated words began to take root in the pegasus’ mind. His shivering began to calm. He felt tension in his chest again-- not pleasant but, Celestia anything other than that damn cold.

Embarrassingly, he wrapped his fores around her own and held it to his chest. As if feeling her chitin against his heartbeat would help remind him he was still alive. “I’m…okay?” He panted, shaking his head to clear the dull fuzz that crept into it.

“You’re okay.” Alcippe repeated, gently. Gunshots sounded around them. Somepony from atop the wall launched a panzerfaust, doing little to the tank’s armour, but diverting its attention. Second Wind quietly thanked whoever did that.

Queen Chrysalis had never done that before. Oh, sure, she’d ripped the love out of ponies she hated. It felt good doing that. Giving them their just desserts in a way that nourished her at the same time. Like a great cosmic correction. But…this?

She’d never done it to somepony she liked before. It felt bad. It made her feel bad. Looking at this made her feel…bad.

“I’m--” she started to say something, but she didn’t know what she wanted to say. She felt like she had to say something here, but…what?

To hell with this. She’d deal with it later. For now, her hoof found her radio, and she barked an order. “Tremor, to me.”

The changeling was swift. He dodged cannon fire to meet her, buzzing down swiftly from his position atop the walls. “My queen-- what happened? You’re…” She approached him with hunger in her eyes. Tremor knew what this meant. He surrendered immediately, letting his lance fall to the earth gently so as not to damage it, and closed his eyes.

Chrysalis hefted the changeling up, eyes glowing an emerald flame, and drew every drop of love in him out. It only took a second, and she dropped him, his body falling limp against the cobbles.

Second Wind’s eyes widened in fear. “Did…did you just…?”

“They are trained to be emergency reserves for me. He will be fine, just unconscious.” The queen shivered, feeling that delightful tingle of power in her horn once more.

“Oh…” Second Wind tried to stand, but his hooves faltered him. Shaky, Aclippe had to let him rest against her. “I…I can draw its fire while you--”

“You will sit right here. That’s an order.” Just like that, Chrysalis cast another quick teleport. She was gone. Second Wind crumpled back to the dirt.

“Kommandant!” Alcippe grabbed him in her magic. It was all she could do to keep him from toppling but even that wasn’t enough. All the strength had left the pegasus and he fell once more.

“She’s…kind of scary isn’t she?” He laughed, shivering on the ground. From the shifting sounds of gunfire, the frontline had moved beyond them.

Alcippe sat with him, then. It was all she could do. “Yeah.”

When Queen Chrysalis had begun this operation it was a matter of business. Sure, she was a little miffed they’d tried to kill her in the middle of the former Equestrian capital, but that was just a regular Tuesday for a love queen. Now, she was legitimately, royally pissed.

Her hoof found the radio on her lapel again. “That heavy tank holds their commander. I have it here. Southern and Northern teams converge on my location. Kill everypony between you and me.” Her voice was an icy chill. If her fury was fire, her truest anger was as cold as the grave.

Round two.

Chrysalis teleported from rooftop to rooftop, following the betracked monster’s path. It was turning to face their Southern flank, to break their envelopment. She began to charge her horn. She wouldn’t underestimate it this time.

She shot a blast down at it. Enough to have scorched the turret, burned a little bit of an Equestrian flag away, and got its attention. It turned to scan the rooftops with its gun, looking for her. Idiots. Her ear twitched. The sound of gunfire closing in. Soon enough, her forces would have this bastard.

It found her. It began to charge its main turret, the coaxial letting loose a spray of machine gun fire in her direction. Her shield was enough to dissuade the secondary gun. It spattered harmlessly against her thaumaturgic wall. It was the charging main cannon she was worried about, but she’d learned.

Right before it fired she teleported to the other side of the street, atop an entirely different building. It lanced a magical laser upwards into the sky, well clear of her. Then, she noticed something peculiar. It didn’t turn the turret to follow her after it fired. What a silly little oversight. Now she knew why that gun never got out of the prototype stage.

Oh, but it was still active, and it seemed they had ammo to spare. After the cannon finished, it turned again to find her and once more began to charge. Testing, Chrysalis stepped to and fro along the rooftop, watching the cannon follow her all the while. Ah, so it was just when it fired it couldn’t move?

Chrysalis imagined the ponies in there. So angry, so infuriated at her. ‘Just face us like a mare!’ She almost giggled. The air seemed to crumble inwards around the cannon and it fired at her again.

Chrysalis teleported right behind the tank. “Tsk, tsk, tsk. No infantry escort? See, this is why you idiots should leave tanks to us.” She jeered at the unfeeling metal. The queen braced her forehooves on the rear panels, and while the tank was locked into place firing at where she used to be, Chrysalis charged up her horn and fired point blank into its rear.

Not an explosive shot. A very small, very precise, very powerful laser came from her horn. She cut a hole into the metal beast. Very small, barely big enough for a mouse to crawl through. Taking a form that small and complex would require quite a bit of love. Luckily, thanks to Tremor, she had a lot to spare.

“Reload, dammit! We have to kill that bitch now we’re never getting this chance again! We need to find her again, tell me where she is.”

“I don’t know-- she’s doing unicorn teleportation. I hate magic!”

“Find her! Ugh! We almost had her.”

They were so angry. Oh, anger makes ponies so stupid. None of them noticed the tiny mouse clambering into the rear of the tank. None of them noticed until that mouse was no longer a mouse, and blazing green flame surrounded the full form of the changeling queen, lighting up the interior of the tank.

“My,” said the queen. “It is cramped in here.”

The image of the four ponies in various states of shock and fear. and in one case utter terror, would remain with Chrysalis forever.

The changeling queen opened the tank’s hatch and clambered from it. She checked her hoof. A little bit of blood. She wiped it off on the Equestrian flag flowing sadly in the wind, the only remnant of the ponies here.

She smiled and tapped her radio. “I have eliminated the enemy commander. Broadcast this message on all channels: Equestrian Liberation Front forces, your commander is dead, your allies are routed. We are closing in on you from all sides. Surrender, and your deaths will be qui-”

She stopped herself, her hoof dropping from the radio. She remembered Second Wind. She recalled Jachs’ words. How one catches more flies with honey than vinegar. She recalled too, how it seemed to work. She recalled the loyalty of the pony volunteers in this operation. She recalled the…loyalty of one specific volunteer. She didn’t want to make him execute surrendered soldiers as a thank you for his service.

These stupid ponies were starting to infest her brain now too. Damn you, Jachs…

She feathered the radio again. “That is to say, Surrender, and you will be treated as prisoners of war in full accordance with the rules of war. On my honor.” Her hoof fell to the top of the tank and Chrysalis let out a long sigh.

The battle, though history would remember it as only a minor skirmish, would be one Chrysalis would never forget.

She’d made good on her word. The E.L.F. forces that surrendered were given due process as prisoners of war. Not terrorists. Not executed on the spot. Many would say that in and of itself was a big step for her.

“Mrmp?” Jachs made an incredibly non-changeling sound as he roused from his slumber. He ran his hoof across his chest. Three holes. Queen’s Mercy, it hurt. He could barely move. Looking around, he recognized the medical post in the castle for officers. Not often frequented. Where’s the nurse…?

“Generalmajor!” Ah there she is. Sitting at a counter toying with a pencil. “S-stay down. I am under strict orders.” She picked up a phone, wavering her hoof at him. “Please, don’t try to move-- Ma’am. Yes. He’s awake. In extreme pain, but. Yes ma’am. Yes ma’am.” The phone clinked back down and the nurse rushed over to him.

Jachs could only move his eyes without sending shots of white-hot pain through his body. “Where’s every--”

“Be still!” She shouted, louder this time. Jachs recognized the tone. He took that when disciplining a youthful fool. So, Jachs was still.

“Easy, now. You were shot five times. One graze. One nipped your ear.” Jachs’ ear twitched. He thought he could feel cool air against places on his exoskeletal ear he’d never felt before. He didn’t like it. “Three more here,” the changeling nurse gently pressed her hoof to his chest. Jachs winced.

“What’s the damage?”

“One in the lung. One in the stomach. One didn’t hit anything vital and went clean through.”

The Generalmajor gulped. The evidence of one’s own mortality has a way of softening one up. “How…am I alive?”

“You are very lucky is how.” She preened. “Someling at the scene cast a healing spell. If it weren’t for that, you’d have bled out thrice over before you got back here.”

Jachs’ hoof fell upon his chest. He breathed in and out. Slowly and softly. “That’s terrifying. Uh-- would you fetch my fr-- my Oberst, and Kommandant please? I would like to...see them.”

“Not yet I’m afraid,” she apologetically shrugged. “The Queen has given me strict orders. No one is to see you before her.”

“Chrysalis?” Jachs asked, as if there were any others who’d make the trip out here. “Why?”

His answer came in the form of a slender chitin hoof stepping around the corner.

“My Queen!” The nurse quickly leapt up to bow. “As your ordered, he--”

“Leave us.” Chrysalis’s voice was even.

“Right away!” The nurse nearly sprinted past a praetorian flanking the queen, whom Chrysalis summarily dismissed with a hoof as well.

“How lucid are you?” The changeling queen sat by Jachs’ side. Her sheer size meant she didn’t need a chair to be at eye level with him.

Jachs tried to stand to salute, only for the pain to push him back down. “Been better.” He choked out. “Think I’m good enough though. What’s going on? Is everyling…okay?”

“Your officers are fine and-- and I need to say something.”

Jachs felt a strange tension in the room. Like how one feels before taking wing. “Something…?”

Chrysalis cleared her throat. Her forehooves tapped nervously into the wooden clinic floor, a bit like a filly at the dentist for the first time. “Do you know who I am?” She finally asked.

“Y-yes, you’re her majesty, Qu--”

“Good. So you know I don’t usually do this.”

“...This?”

Jachs swore he could see sweat on the Queen’s brow as she braced her fangs together in a grimace. “I have campaigned in the changeling lands for years. I unified the great hives and brought disparate changelings together towards a common goal. I have been called ‘The Great Unifier, The Queen Of Queens, The Great Conqueror.

“Doing so required a certain attitude. One that takes no quarter. Pushes forward without stopping. Aggression, relentless. Like the blitz we are so famed for. From an early age, one thing I learned was that a Queen never takes a step back. She never retreats, surrenders, or admits folly. She should never apologize.

“...and yet.” Chrysalis let out a long, arduous sigh. “I pushed you hard for the thestral jaegers. I demanded it. Forced it of you. It was because of me that we…opened Canterlot to an attack. It was my fault that you were hurt, defending me from the consequences of my own idiocy.”

Chrysalis brought a hoof up to her eye, rubbing something out of it Jachs might have imagined were a tear. But for Herself? Not a chance in Tartarus.

“Now. I’m going to preface this by saying that if you ever repeat anything I say here, I am going to deny it and have you declared insane.” The Queen’s hooves fell to the ground again. She intook a breath, her voice wavering.

“I am sorry, Jachs.”

Jachs felt like he’d been hit by a truck. In all his years, he’d never known-- he’d never believed that something like this could--his mouth hung open. He wanted to respond but he had no idea what to say. He was well and truly rendered speechless.

Luckily he didn’t have long to ponder it. Coming up from her fugue, Chrysalis’s magic had reached into her saddlebag-- which he now noticed she was wearing, and withdrawn a small paper, bound with the Vesalipolis…no. With Chrysalis’s own seal.

“That letter you received was obviously a forgery. This one is real.” She levitated the paper over to him and let it fall upon his chest. “It’s also blank. Acta non verba. If you put as much stock in actions over words as I, you should know a simple apology would never cut it. So, here I give you some of the same paper I use to write decrees. There are three like it in the entire world. One is on my desk at the Queen's Tower, another on Hivesmarshall Trimmel's. This one used to be on my airship's desk and now you have it. Do take care of it.”

Using her magic, she opened it, letting the parchment flow upon Jachs’ chest. It was indeed blank. “Write whatever you want in this space and deliver it to me personally. If it is within my power, I will grant it. Don’t rush it, of course. Anything I can give. Several year early retirements, vast sums of money, manor houses, land…something more esoteric? If you can think of it.” She chuckled. "It is the promise of my debt to you. I do not make a habit of incurring debts."

The changeling stared dumbstruck at the paper. It was like being handed the keys to a bank vault. “It is…an amazing honor, my queen. I am…I don’t know what to say.” Jachs’ own magic recurled the paper. He held it tightly to his chest.

“Well, it comes with some bad news.”

Jachs’ ears drooped.

“With you out of commission, I believe I shall take over administering the realm until your recovery.”

The Generalmajor’s eyes widened. “I-- uh, that’s. No I’m quite capable of--” He tried to stand, but again the pain shot through him. He fell back, baring his fangs. “That’s…really, not…I’m sure Alcippe could--”

“Oh, don’t worry. I won’t do anything to disrupt your weird little ‘ponytopia’” Chrysalis spat the word. “I’ve already admitted it works, didn’t I?”

Maybe not in so many words, but Chrysalis did put him somewhat at ease. Perhaps she really was…?

Well, he supposed he’d see. For now, he still had some questions. “What exactly happened while I was out?”

Shaking her head, Chrysalis beamed. “Now, that, my little changeling? That is one hell of a story.”

Author's Note

You ever sit down and write and write and then you're writing and you're still writing?
Well, I hope the extra length makes up for the wait.

As always, comments inject dopamine directly into my brain and give me reasons to keep writing.