Twilight Sparkle took aim again, firing a shot from her horn that knocked aside a changeling in the pack that had surrounded Scout. Being carried like a sack of potatoes on Heavy's shoulder, the Russian giant was fending off changelings with his free fist while holding her firmly (but gently) in place with the other. After more than a few ambushes by marauding changelings in the castle, she had begun to feel the exhaustion from repeatedly using her magic for fighting. Without a word he had picked her up, placing her over his shoulder with ease. He explained that Scout and himself had known each other for a very long time, and that Scout was used to his running speed. (And that Twilight weighed nothing compared to somepony by the name of Sasha.) At first Twilight had been worried that carrying her would handicap him from fighting, but he had simply shrugged off her worries with a disconcerting smile.

"Is not fair to fight cowards who are so tiny," Heavy had said, still grinning from ear to ear. "This will make things fun, yes?"

Fun. It had taken a moment for her brain to register that he had actually said that. And meant it.

Fun was the last word Twilight would have ever used to describe fending off a hostile invasion that threatened everypony close to her. Although Heavy had slowly begun to take fighting a little more seriously now that he was looking after her as well, the skinnier human that hadn't wanted to help her earlier was still treating the whole affair like a giant game.

"Disguise 'dat!" Scout shouted, bringing his bat down on the head of yet another changeling and knocking it out cold. He then let out a loud and happy laughter, wiping the blood off of his wooden baseball bat on a tapestry hanging from a wall. "Man, their skulls are so soft that it's makin' this easy."

Twilight felt something in her heart twist with disgust from watching his smug satisfaction. She harbored no love for the changelings threatening her home, but Scout showed a complete lack of empathy for the beatings he was dishing out. She had only read vague theories about the mysterious evolved apes known as humans, mostly because such information was supposedly kept secret by the royal sisters. But if the first two diplomats from their world were so carefree about being violent, what did that say about the rest of their species?

When she had charged into the castle earlier in the night, by some small miracle she had encountered Princess Luna first outside the castle grounds directing her Night Guard. It had only taken them a minute for her to explain the situation, sparing most of the details and just confirming her fears.

Queen Chrysalis had returned, leading her brood up from the crystal caverns below Canterlot to try and take over the city. She had tried to subdue Luna during the early phase of the invasion, but had failed because of the unexpected intervention of the two humans Twilight was now with. The two humans Luna explained were the first of nine ambassadors from another world who were going to be touring Equestria for a year starting later in the week. By fate or fortune, two of the nine had arrived in Equestria early and had decided to spend the night with her when the attack began. The letter sent by Celestia had been in regards to that, and Luna suspected her older sister intended to have some of the ambassadors reside in Ponyville with her friends.

All of the news at once had been a lot to take in, but Twilight had managed to stay calm when she opted to infiltrate the castle alone. At first Luna had objected, but chaotic battlefield prevented her from sparing anypony to provide her with an armed escort to Celestia's room. It was both of their fears that Chrysalis would try to kidnap Celestia in the chaos of the invasion, or worse, try to steal the powers of the elder alicorn to use against her enemies.

Instead, Luna had given her a simple suggestion: find the two human ambassadors, and take them with her.

And if she couldn't find them immediately, try following the bloody pathways of beaten and broken changelings.

Well, Luna hadn't said it so bluntly. But Twilight felt a little pride that she had helped as much as the other two humans in leaving a pathway of defeated changelings on the way to Celestia's bedroom. There was no love in her heart for changelings ever since her brother's wedding, and the part of her that felt guilt from harming another living being had been put aside. When she had left Spike behind and made her mad dash to the castle it had all been been motivated by fear. But in the brief pause they were taking before they would continue on, she felt herself motivated by anger instead.

She would be the one to confront Chrysalis this night, and Chrysalis would not just be ejected from the city. Twilight didn't know what she would do, but it would be something. Something she would think of the moment she got her chance to do it. Justice would be served, by her hoof and hers alone.

Heavy shift underneath her, and he wiped the sweat off of his brow with the flame-stripped boxing gloves still over both hands. He surveyed his own work, as if he were keeping score in his head over how many changelings he had beaten over the course of the night.  "Pony, how soon until we reach control point?" he asked her, looking around the room to double-check that the changelings around them were down for good.

"Control point?" Twilight shook her head in confusion. "Do you mean Celestia's room? We need to keep going down this hall, and take the stairs all the way up to the top floor!"

"Stairs?" Heavy groaned, rolling his eyes. "Of course. Is too much to wish that giant castle has elevator."

"If you want, you can put me down now," Twilight offered. "I feel better now, really!" she took a deep breath, feeling the tiring ache of her muscles in all of her legs start to compound with the exhaustion of pouring her magic out repeatedly in such a short time. She didn't want to admit it, but Heavy carrying her around like a magic cannon on his shoulder was a lot easier than trying to keep up with Scout who had a seemingly endless amount of energy to split between running and fighting. Where and how the skinny runner was getting his vigor from was an utter mystery to her.

"Is not a problem, Heavy assures you." Heavy gave a snort like a bull, turning his nose up pridefully at her offer. "You are like mini-sentry for Heavy's shoulder. Small but deadly."

Twilight didn't know what that was, and suspected that she didn't want to know. Continuing forward, they all stopped at the intersection of the hallways with the Scout holding his hand up in the air as some signal Twilight was unfamiliar with. Heavy stopped quickly, slowly shuffling up to the corner behind the Scout to peer around the corner with Twilight doing the same.

"What is it?" Heavy whispered. Twilight leaned in closer, able to hear the sounds of many hoofsteps going by up ahead.  

"More shapeshiftin’' freaks," Scout whispered back. He glanced around the corner again, and Twilight saw a grim expression of worry cross his face. The first time in the entire night, in fact. Looking for herself, she could see a line of changelings marching ahead one behind the other. After watching for a few seconds, the train of changelings continued without any signs of ending. "Dat's a lot more than we can handle, that's for sure." He glanced around the corner quickly one more time. "But they're all headin' somewhere, like, outside the castle or something. What's up with that?"

"Princess Luna is fighting outside. Maybe they need more soldiers outside to fight the guards with her?" Twilight remembered while thinking aloud.

"Heavy is not good at sneaking. But perhaps it is time that I learn."

"Yeah, you and me both brotha'. But I'm worried 'bout those stairs up to da' top floor." Scout jerked a thumb at the stairwell entrance around the corner. Twilight glanced around the corner again, and could barely even see the stairs up to the higher levels. "If we get caught in 'dere, we could get our brains beatin' in from both sides."

"Well? What do you think we should do?" Twilight felt herself growing impatient.

"I'm gonna' do what I haven't done in a loooong time," Scout pulled his track bag around, putting away his sandman and taking out another can filled with the weird green liquid Twilight had seen him drinking before. Opening it as quietly as possible, the can popped with a sharp crack and let out a slow fizzle that went unnoticed by the changelings passing ahead. "I'm goin' out ahead to scout. You two stay here until I come back, cool?"

"Da'. Good luck, little man." Heavy gave Scout a thumbs up.

Twilight watched as Scout began to chug the contents of the yellow and red can, a little off put by how fast he was drinking down the foul (vaguely cherry) smelling soda. Still with the can with his hand, Scout burst around the corner so fast that she could actually see a red and white blur streaking behind him as he ran. It reminded her of the prismatic effect Rainbow Dash's mane and tail could have when she flew by at high speeds. As quick as a bird in flight but as silent as a mouse, he ducked into the entranceway of the stairwell without the changelings further down the hall noticing him.

Watching his partner go, Heavy nodded solemnly and placed Twilight back onto the ground next to him. "Now we wait," he said, although it sounded a little like a command to her.

"Do we have to?" Twilight waited and watched, seeing no signs or sounds of a fight breaking out where the Scout had run to. "Can't we just follow behind him at a distance?"

"You are hasty. Is dangerous to run ahead alone." Heavy continued to peer around the corner. He turned back around, and waggled a massive finger at her. "Scout will return and then we go. Heavy promises."

"Fine," Twilight fumed impatiently. She forced herself to sit on her hind legs next to him, choosing to remain silent.

Together they sat side by side, hidden by the shadows of the night that twisted in and out of the royal castle. Heavy looked down at Twilight, and she looked back up at him. Neither said a word, unsure of what would happen in the future and unsure of what to say or do in the present. The small break they had happened upon by chance was being silently welcomed, and maybe both feared that anything spoken would interrupt it.

After a few minutes, Heavy broke the silence.

"So... This Princess Celestia. She is close to you, yes?"

"...Is it that obvious?" Twilight felt herself becoming self-conscious in the presence of a total stranger. She let out a weary sigh, feeling all of her worries from earlier in the evening still in her chest. "She is my teacher. She taught me everything I know about magic from when I was young. We are very...close."

"Do you live here in city? Is crazy invasion by bugs normal?"

"No, not at all. Equestria has been at peace with the rest of the world for hundreds of years. Every now and then something crazy happens, but nothing like the last two years..."

"Hundreds?" Heavy seemed impressed, the thought weighing on him. "Heavy has a hard time believing such words."

"But it's true! I mean... There have been a lot of problems lately, like Nightmare Moon and Discord, but Equestria is a very peaceful place to live."

"Nightmare Moon? Discord? Heavy is unfamiliar with such things. You will have to tell Heavy more later. This new world is interesting place to be."

"I will, but do you trust me?" Twilight asked. Ignoring the situation they were both in, it still seemed strange how friendly this giant and ferocious human was suddenly acting toward her. "We've just met, how do you know I won't lie?"

"No. You have honest eyes. Heavy can see as clear as sunny sky." The Russian heavyweight reached around at his side, unhooking the large tin box from his belt. Twilight watched as he pulled out a strange square wrapped in paper and foil, and to her surprised it turned out to be some kind of brown bar. The bar itself was segmented into pieces, almost like a box of arranged candies Bon Bon would sell at her store in Ponyville. Breaking off two pieces, he held one in his large hand to give to her.

"Here. You take, yes? Pony can eat shokalad?"

"Shoko--?" she looked at it hesitantly, taking it from him with her magic. She levitated the large brown fragment of something in front of her, before sniffing it. "Is this chocolate?" she asked, and took a hesitant nibble. On her tongue she felt a rush of sweetness, followed by a mild bitterness and something else unknown to her.

"Da," Heavy smiled, taking a large bite of his own. "Is good time for break, yes? We will not be interrupted here."

And so the two sat, both eating away at their candy while the world around them continued to rage in chaos and destruction. Around the corner changelings continued to pour steadily onward wherever they were headed, and the echoes of battle elsewhere could still be heard in the empty halls of the castle. But in the shadows where they sat there was peace. Their tiny corner of the castle, unaffected by the rest of universe. Both of them knew it wouldn't last, but neither wanted to be the one to stop the other from enjoying it. But as the saying goes, time stops for nopony...

As Twilight had finished her piece, Heavy suddenly broke the silence.

"You have never been in a war, have you?"

He watched the purple pony stare up at him, with shock in her eyes and a little chocolate still around her lips. A stare that understood, but found itself unable to answer. A stare that held so much fragile emotion because of his question, that he regretting asking.

...War?

What could she say to a question like that? The idea of war; all of the death and destruction brought about by so many different reasons was something she was only familiar with from reading books. And even then the idea of being more familiar with something that produced so much tragedy seemed... Equestria had its problems in the past and the present, but nothing that could ever be called a war. A war.

Wasn't it obvious that she had never involved herself in something so terrible!?

"No, I...I..." she stammered, caught completely off guard by his question.

The thoughts on Twilight's mind were readable on her face, and Heavy simply closed his eyes and shook his head in shame. "I am sorry," he had opened the latches to his tin lunch box, but he closed them shut once again. "But I can see  determination in your eyes. You are haunted by ghost of revenge."

"Revenge? What are you talking about?" She felt herself still in shock from his first question. "I don't--"

"Yes, revenge." Heavy looked down at Twilight very seriously, and the purple unicorn fell silent under his weighted stare. "Heavy knows. You have lived generous life, filled with loving friends and family. But also filled with responsibility and hardship. You are angry that monsters attack your home, but is more than that. You do not kill changelings when you shoot, but you are still angry and impatient. Why?"

...Why? Why? How could she possibly explain to him everything.

Everything that had happened in only one day. The suspicion. The fear. The betrayal.

"Their queen, Chrysalis," Twilight looked down at the ground and could feel her emotions threatening to overwhelm her from her memories. "She...she hurt a lot of ponies close to me. She also used her powers to trick them, during my older brother's wedding..."

"Hmm, I see." He scratched his chin and frowned. "You have been wronged by both your friends and her then, yes?"

"No!" Twilight shouted, forgetting where she was for a moment. She quickly covered her own mouth with her hooves and looked away sheepishly. "I mean, my friends didn't know. They didn't know they were being tricked. I can't--"

"What will you do when you see her?" Heavy asked, interrupting her. "Their queen. Will you kill her? Kill her to avenge your honor?"

Twilight felt her mind blank out, having been bluntly asked the question she had avoided thinking of ever since leaving the train.

Would she kill Chrysalis?

Kill her? With her own...

No! NO! Twilight stopped herself from even entertaining the thought. The past could not be fixed from deaths in the present. Princess Celestia had taught her that, over and over. And even if she hadn't, she knew well enough that problems could never be solved by recklessly taking lives for personal vendettas. There was nothing to be gained from entertaining her own idea of vigilante justice in the heat of a passion.

"I don't know what I'll do," Twilight looked back up at Heavy sternly. "But I value life; even those of my enemies."

"Hmm, very well said." Heavy rubbed his chin, thinking about her words. "Such ways are for those who are strong. Weaklings do not have choice over what is right and wrong. They must only survive. You are very strong to say such things for someone so tiny."

"Thank you?" Twilight said unsure. Her ears perked up immediately, hearing the sound of steps descending from where Scout had ran up before. Sure enough, after a few seconds the red runner appeared in the frame of the stairwell, waving a bandaged hand in the air and signaling for them to come over.

♪~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~♪

The delicate art of leaching of emotional energy from a target was a delicate operation for any changeling. The room for error was high since their magic could inflict mental trauma on the host when reducing them to a more docile state. A more apt comparison would be to consider the act of emotional feeding to vampirism, in that a dead or mentally deficient host would be incapable of naturally producing what changeling parasite sought. It was one of the primary reasons why changeling encounters and kidnappings over centuries had been relatively death free, often with the parasitic predators relying on surprise and cunning to subdue targets.

Even for queen Chrysalis, the challenge of probing Celestia's mind while she slept and controlling her own frustration at the solar monarch's resistance was proving to be...tiresome.

Breaking into Celestia's chambers had been easy. With the chaos of her invading forces springing up directly from the castle's bottom, the extra security to spare to protect Celestia had been diverted elsewhere. And even without using brute force to subdue the two guards at the door, it would have been easy enough for her to sneak into the bedroom through other means. Celestia was sloppy, after all. The same sloppiness that had allowed her to kidnap and replace Princess Cadance remained, and probably would until it cost the alicorn something irreplaceable in her mind.

It was hard to believe that someone who had lived so long would allow herself to be vulnerable in so many different ways, but Chrysalis chalked it up to the arrogance that accompanied immortality. Circling around Celestia's cocoon for what felt like the hundredth time, she flexed her own wings out and stretched her muscles under her exoskeleton.

Something was wrong, but she couldn't place her hoof on it.

In her mouth and in her mind, she could taste and feel the emotional energy she had drained from Celestia over the last hour. And yet when she flexed her muscles and commanded her magic, the normal spry rush of energy she should have felt was absent. There was nothing when there should have been power; raw power to be used toward anything she desired. She could still feel the fatigue from her wasted effort at capturing Luna, which proved that she was gaining something and nothing at the same time.

Looking at where she and her minions had imprisoned Celestia, Chrysalis had opted for a simplistic approach and had woven the green silk cage around her while she laid sleeping in her bed. With a careful precision she prided herself on afterward, they had managed to capture the regent of the sun without even disturbing her from her sleep. Inside of her sticky slimy prison Celestia remained looking as graceful and docile as she did when she was awake.

She couldn't argue against one less major problem of resistance to her plan, yet there was disgusting about how innocent her hated enemy was behaving.

At first she had been enthralled. Thrilled. Amazed. Even if the first part of her plan hadn't gone as expected, because of some unexpected factors, capturing Celestia with no resistance was more than enough to make up for it. With the ongoing fighting in the castle, there would be nopony to stop her from draining all of the power she needed to defeat any foe that tried to opposed her later in the night.

Not sparing a moment to gloat or break into song, she had gone to work preparing Celestia's emotional state for the maximum possible yield for her to feed on. But after an entire hour of working on the sleeping princess she felt no different from when she had started, despite her magic working as it had on countless others before her.

Something was wrong, and she still couldn't put her hoof on it.

"Your majesty, is everything alright?" one of her royal guards in the room with her asked. Chrysalis knew that all three of her remaining guards could sense her emotional frustration, since their hive-mind link to her was stronger from being groomed their entire lives to live in close proximity to her.

"No. Leave it, sergeant." Chrysalis gnashed her own teeth in frustration.

"Are you sure, your majesty? Is there anything we--"

"I said leave it be, sergeant," she ordered once more. Clever. Calm. Collected. Chrysalis forced herself to stay as cool as possible, not only for her personal guard's feelings but for her own plans as well. There was no point in getting worked up over her own failures, as shameful as they were. The entire night she had remained two steps ahead of her foes, and she intended to keep her advantage.

"Sergeant! What is that status on the swarm outside of the castle!?" Chrysalis demanded. It was a redundant question, since her mental link to her swarm allowed her sense everything even the lowest drone was experiencing. But having a second opinion incase her own mental state would affect her understanding was a safe measure to take.

The three changelings in her guard closed their eyes to concentrate.

"Your majesty, the swarm outside of the castle is still engaged with the Night Guard. There is fighting throughout many places in the castle, both small and large. However, we are unsure of what has happened to the swarm sent to where we believed the elements are being stored."

"Then it is as I thought," Chrysalis muttered. She could feel her blood boiling at the thought of the stupid grinning faces of the two humans that had interfered earlier. "No doubt those two filthy apes are being used to further foil my plans."

"We are unable to track them because of how scattered our forces are. What are your orders for the survivors outside of the elements hall?"

"Have them regroup outside with those not in combat with the Night Guard," she ordered. "Those that can should try to find a way outside of the castle. Those who are too injured should accept the hospitality of our enemies, since we will find ways to sneak them out of the castle."

"Understood, your majesty."

"And sergeant?" Chrysalis cast a small glance at her personal guards, before looking out into the moonlit sky away from them. She didn't want to see how they would react to what she had to say next. "You three will join the battle outside of the castle. Be sure to do as much as possible to help our injured soldiers escape from the castle's interior when they arrive."

"What!? B-but, your majesty! It would be unthinkable to leave you alone at a time like this!"

"I am aware of the dangers, sergeant." Chrysalis looked at her personal guards with touched concern. Feigned or not, it mattered little. The concern in their eyes was genuine. "Now go! Your queen orders you into battle!"

"...Yes! At once, your majesty!"

It only took those four words strung together to motivate them, and she knew it. Was it instinct for them to obey the orders of their queen? The result of subtle yet gradual changes to their mentality and physiology over the last one thousand years? She could have ordered them to jump into an active volcano, and although they would have hesitated at first, she had no doubt that they would have done so. Even if there was only a slight chance at salvaging the situation, she would have to take it. She owed it to them at this point.

The death of two of her strongest guards had been the price paid for her failure to predict the unpredictable. The time and effort taken to train common soldiers to utilize powers meant only for royalty, gone in an instant. Now with Celestia resisting her efforts to drain her power (in her sleep no less), anything further would prolong the inevitable. Slowly pulling back from the battlefield would guarantee that her brood would live to fight another day, since the Night Guard would be too concerned about their own welfare to pursue.

But she would not be leading them. No changeling queen had ever lived after failing her brood twice.

It was for the better, really. She was no so arrogant to think that the swarm's flexibility excluded herself. Every member of the changeling swarm was replaceable. Every member. The swarm had survived centuries of being hunted because of its flexibility; its ability to adapt and its refusal to tolerate useless sentimentality for things that held it back.

Staring into the stars with a wistful emptiness that betrayed her reality, she wondered what her successor would be like. Would she choose a different path than hers? Chrysalis had had the luxury of being raised in a hive by a queen in search of a successor. She had spent her youth looking down at the hive, knowing the brood would eventually be hers to lead. Would her successor be able to say the same? Or would it be a battle between candidate queens, as had been normal in the past? Perhaps if she had been forced to live a harder life in her youth, her failures in the present wouldn't have happened.

Perhaps if she hadn't been raised with so much emotion. With so much spoiled care, and with so many stories about the injustices toward her kind. Stories passed down for generations, with the dual purpose of instilling motivation and responsibility in changelings of higher breeding.

Yes, caring was her downfall. She was too passionate. Too passionate about seeing justice done...

Justice that would soon be dead forever. She had no illusions about the reason what Celestia would have Princess Luna and Princess Cadance do in the future: expanding her wealth and influence of the Equestrian Empire outward across the globe. It was no coincidence in such a short time that the number of immortal rulers in Equestria had tripled, with a suspected fourth in progress.

Celestia had moved first against the world, and she had been forced to react.

If the Dragons, Griffins, Diamond Dogs, and other creatures in the world would not object, it would be known that at least she had seen Celestia's altruism for what it truly was. The preachings of harmony and tolerance from a hypocrite who ruled atop a throne of lies and deceit. Or maybe the truth was something more depressing. Maybe Celestia was delusional over her own position. Maybe her inability to fix the flaws in her credences and governance was because she was completely unaware of them.

"How utterly depressing," Chrysalis muttered, walking back over to Celestia's prison and looking into the cocoon. "This all happened because of you. Even in your sleep, I detest you," she whispered. Baring her fangs, she ran them hungrily across the smooth shell of the cocoon. "If I cannot take your magic from you, than I will take as many of your little ponies as I can before I go..."

Before she could finish, the doors to Celestia's bedroom were flung open with enough force to knock them off of their hinges. Screeching to a halt from her mad dash, Twilight Sparkle's eyes locked onto Chrysalis with Scout and Heavy trailing behind her.

"GET AWAY FROM HER, YOU MONSTER!!!" Twilight screamed.

"Hmph, Twilight Sparkle." Chrysalis didn't flinch at all. She whimsically glanced into the clear shell of the cocoon that held Celestia, disgusted at how the solar monarch was still sleeping soundly. "How fitting that Celestia's pet would sniff me out first."

The ends of Twilight's mane rose on their own from the glow of her magic. She could feel of the arcane power she had practiced over the years flowing from her horn down to her hooves. Around her in the room, furniture and smaller dressings began to shake from the power of the element of magic. This monster before her would pay! Pay for brainwashing her brother! Pay for lying and deceiving everyone close to her! And PAY for hurting Princess Celestia!

Finally catching up to Twilight, Scout and Heavy barged into the room to see the purple unicorn giving off more sparks and static than a defective cow mangler 5000. Both mercenaries looked at each other, understanding the situation in an instant. Without a word, they both jumped over Twilight and landed with a thump in front of her.

"You and me lady," Scout pointed his sandman at Chrysalis. "Let's do this."

"There is no honor in fighting weaklings." Heavy cracked the knuckles of both his massive hands. "But what do bugs know of honor? Put up fists. We fight like men."

"What!? No!" Twilight shouted at both mercenaries, trying to push past them. "She's mine to fight! Get out of my way!"

"As if I fear you imbeciles," Chrysalis ignored Twilight's squawking, and flared her insectile wings out. Her gnarled and crooked horn began glowing with magic. "I will not be denied my revenge tonight! Celestia shall pay for her hypocrisy against my kind!"

To any observer watching, the scene in front of them perfectly captured the tense moment before an all out brawl would break out. Scout and Heavy took a step apart, giving Twilight behind them a clear line of sight to take a shot at Chrysalis. Neither knew if the changeling queen could fight multiple enemies at once, and were trying to plan out ways fight that could divide her attention to overwhelm her. Chrysalis herself could see that Twilight's own magic was aimed right at her from behind the two humans, and she readied her own plan to deal with all three problems once and for all. No one dared move, all knowing that the first strike by anypony would decide how everything else went down.

But before anyone could act, a voice spoke out from the open balcony.

"Zat' is quite enough, all of you. Before you make fools out of yourselves, I would like to have a chat with her majesty."

Everyone watched as the Spy slowly appeared out of thin air, the cloaking field powered by his invisiwatch turning off and causing the moonlight to bend around him. From underneath his dashin hashashin cowl, a thin vapor of smoke rose from the burning tip of a cigarette held tight in his lips. Both of his hands were wrapped around the grips of his ambassador, the barrel of the massive revolver trained on Chrysalis' forehead.

Another human? Who is that? Twilight looked up and both Scout and Heavy, to see both of them had lowered their weapons. Wait, what's going on!?

"Oh? And where did you come from?" Chrysalis asked what Twilight was thinking, turning to the Spy with her eyes glimmering in amusement. Was it this human that the other two had referred to earlier?  "You said you have business with me?"

"Indeed." Spy moved his lips, pushing his cigarette to the corner of his mouth so he could speak freely. Slowly so all could follow and see, he took his right hand off of the base of his ambassador. With a flick of his wrist, a small book slipped out from the sleeve of his pinstripe suit into his free hand. With impressive dexterity he opened it and began going through the pages, still holding his ambassador leveled at the changeling queen. "Queen Chrysalis, the current brood mother of the Carpenter Brood. Known for their ability to cover large areas of land and turn them into dens for reproduction in short amounts of time. Over 'ze last ten years your brood has been sighted moving from location to location in 'ze south, never engaging in open hostilities ‘vith any nation or government."

Spy took a moment to turn the a page in the book with a finger, his eyes going back and forth to everyone in the room.

"It was assumed that your brood was mostly concerned vith self-preservation and survival," he continued. "But your attack on Canterlot was a surprise to many, since it was 'ze first time your brood had ever attempted to fight in a heavily populated area."  

Spy closed the book in his palm, and slipped it into his back pocket. He then put his free hand back underneath the grip of his ambassador. "I suppose you know where I am going with 'zis. Ze' question of 'ze hour is why?"

"I answer your question with a question," Chrysalis said, inching even closer to Celestia's cocoon. "Why are you fighting me? Why did you kill my children tonight? Is it true that Celestia hired you?"

"Yes. For promised riches and rewards," Spy answered before either Scout or Heavy could. "Nothing more, and nothing less."

"For money? You would take lives for something so petty?" Chrysalis gave a rueful laugh of laced with indignity. "I see. Celestia's hypocrisy knows no bounds. To sit on her throne and preach altruism, and then hire killers with her wealth to do her dirty work. I should have known from the start."

Hire killers? Twilight looked in confusion at the Scout and Heavy, remembering what Luna had told her before. What is she talking about?

"Perhaps," Spy answered neutrally. "But I am more interested in you, your majesty. Tell me 'ze reason why you fight."

"The reason why we fight?" Chrysalis looked at Spy with an incredulous look. "Why would you care about something like that? Am I not a monster to you? Some mindless animal to hunt and kill for sport!?"

"Not at all." Spy shook his head. "But as I said, 'ze past history of your kind shows 'zat you have a disinterest in violent confrontations. I find it strange that you would, not once but twice, purposefully attack a heavily populated area 'zat would likely resist your efforts."

Without warning, out from the same sleeve Spy slipped a small metallic pistol into his hand. Scout and Heavy both recognized it as a sleeping-dart pistol, a tool that Mann Co. had stopped producing a very long time ago. In an instant the pistol was flipped around into the Spy's palm, where he then fired a tart from it that flew between both RED mercenaries...

...right into Twilight's neck.

"Owch!" Twilight yelped, jumping back in shock. She turned her neck gingerly, seeing the small red feathered tail of the dart still sticking in her. "Hey! What was that for!? Who do you...think...you... Ooooh."

Twilight swayed in place, feeling a wave of exhaustion hit her system as the world began to spin. Her words continued to slur with her eyelids drooping, and after a few more seconds of incoherent rambling Heavy turned and caught the unicorn with his hands before she collapsed. Under the influence of the powerful knockout drug, she breathed peacefully with no signs of the intense rage she had shown only moments ago. Spy looked to Heavy who gave a confirming nod, and proceeded to pick her up to take out of the room.

"Now then," Spy dropped his cigarette onto the floor and stomped the ashes out. "We wouldn't want to be interrupted by an overly emotional child, yes? Why don't you start from 'ze beginning, your majesty."

"Yes, we would like to hear this as well."

Princess Luna strode into Celestia's chambers passing by Heavy and Twilight, the scars of battle apparent over her armor and body. Still maintaining an air of regality, she marched forward and took silent note of the situation. Chrysalis hunched herself over Celestia's cocoon, her horn glowing threateningly with her magic. But Luna calmly held up her hoof to show her intentions, not that of the same monarch who had tried to smite her earlier.

"We have our own grudges with our elder sister from the past, as perhaps you've heard. We would like to hear for ourselves about your claims."

Chrysalis looked around, unsure of what to say or do next. Compassion was the last thing she had expected from her enemies, after the vicious reception she had gotten earlier. From Twilight's sudden entrance she hadn't had the chance to steel her nerves over the inevitable, and a part of her suspected it was all a ruse to try and get her to lower her guard. The two apes that had surrounded her were mercenaries, and maybe they were reconsidering their agreements? And what of Luna? For someone who had been involved in the fight for the castle, how could she be so calm about speaking her? Hadn't she tried to utterly destroy her over a few words only an hour ago? Yet, if talking could stall any of them from reentering the fighting outside, it would mean more changelings could escape...

"Well? Come now, I don't have all evening." Spy was still pointing his weapon at her. Princess Luna sat on her hind legs, and Scout pulled up a chair to sit on.

"Very well, since you all insist." Chrysalis looked outside once again at the full moon reflecting the sun through the open balcony of the bedroom. The stars above glittered ominously, almost if they too were waiting to hear what she had to say. "Allow me to tell you the truth about the monsters you call Changelings!"