The inadequately lit throne room of the changeling hideout was empty, save for Chrysalis who was resting upon her obsidian black throne, and for one particular changeling who stood guard beside her throne, the changeling wore a cloak, much similar to that of Marisa's but a bit slighter darker shade of of black.

    "So, is this it? Your brilliant plan? To mind-control the human who you gave the amulet to?" A young, male changeling, stationed beside the Queen's throne, whose mane was scarlet-red and wild, and possessed grey eyes asked.

     This particular changeling was renowned for his prowess in combat, he is known to be heartless, or indifferent among his fellow changelings, thus, he is usually avoided by other changelings due to his cold personality, leaving him alone most of the time, but, he doesn't seem to care at all.

      He was part of the changeling "Reapers," the most well-trained of the changeling military, although, he was a bit more experienced than most of the Reapers.

      He views killing as past-time, even. He has a morbid tendency to seek out a random target, be it pony or gryphon, or whatever, and murder them with no remorse.

      He had a horrible history with ponies, he was once rogue, living upon ponies a long time ago. He wore the persona of a stallion named Autumn Spear. He lived his former life as a guardspony, that is, until the local ponies discovered that he was a changeling.

      They turned on him, even his closest friends didn't even bother to defend him whatsoever. So, in defense, he was forced to escape to the Everfree.

       He was being hunted by a handful of ponies who loathe the changeling race, they followed him all the way to the Everfree. Fortunately, a group of changelings managed to find him cornered, trying to fend off his aggressors. Needless to say, the other changelings managed to subdue and capture most of the assaulting ponies. He would've been killed if he was not found by them.

      "Yes, so it is, Viktor." She responded with a stoic tone.

      "So, the assault on the wedding... was to gather enough love to amplify the power of the amulet?" Viktor asked.

      "Yes, and this "mixture" that he assumes to be a detergent to combat against the amulet's corruption is actually the one we used to mind control the three ponies back in the crystal caves."

      "Hm, but doesn't this have a few issues?" Viktor asked.

      "The one we used was experimental, this one, however, is more efficient. If this was completed earlier, I would've given him this as soon as I gave him the Alicorn amulet." Chrysalis stated.

      "Hm, no wonder. For a moment, it looked like you just gave a being you just met a relic of unimaginable power."

      "Oh please, I'm not that idiotic." Chrysalis snorted.

      "What of the zebra? What was her name? Zecora, was it? We had to capture and interrogate her to locate the amulet, and we stationed another changeling there to disguise him, or herself as her. Don't you think that some ponies would be dumb enough to traverse the Everfree to find her?"

      "She does have a fair amount of potion brewery experience. It's no doubt that some travelers would brave the Everfree for them."  Andrei added.

      "Her? The disturbingly high presence of monsters recently has discouraged the majority of ponies from venturing here. And if there are that is 'brave' enough to go look for her little hut, they would be quickly dispatched by the wildlife." She explained.

      " And just to be safe, we've destroyed the road that ponies usually take to travel to her hut." Chrysalis stated.

       Suddenly, the door leading to the throne room opened, a female changeling mage entered the room as the door swung open.

       The changeling mage had an emerald mane,

      The mage halted in the center of the throne room and bowed, "My queen, the "forced compliance" potion has been completed." The changeling stated as she levitated a bottle of greyish liquid with magic.

      "The imperfections of the last one has been erased, this one will no doubt control the human with ease." The mage added.

      "Perfect! Viktor, find the human and offer him the bottle immediately." Chrysalis ordered.

       The changeling coldly smirked, "If I'm lucky, I might be able to find something to kill, it was getting fairly boring just standing here," The changeling took the bottle before walking towards the door.

       The changeling paused and unsheathed his blade, a finely crafted sabre stolen from an armory long ago. Not a single scratch, nor imperfection was present. It's cold steel shined in the greenish-light, it would be such a shame for a weapon of such fine craftsmanship to be tarnished with blood.

        But, it would be a waste for it not to be used in combat.

       "Hm, sharp as ever. Hope something's unfortunate enough to get in my way," Viktor muttered, chuckling as he exited the throne room.

       Chrysalis heard that particular laugh, it was not uncommon for him to do that before painting the ground with blood from several fallen foes. She heard that chuckle a long time ago, when she and her changelings found him in the burning ruins of what was once his former home.

                                                                         Shifting into Chrysalis' perspective...

       It was back when my changelings rescued him, when her changelings repelled the ponies from killing him. We brought him back to the hive. When he got there, he barely spoke. He was... so filled with spite and anger, she could feel it, hell, any changeling could detect emotions.

       He headed back to the village, he had a score to settle with. Of course, my changelings and herself followed him, in an attempt to not get himself killed. But before my changelings noticed his absence, he already took off, with a saber that he found in one of our weapons cache in his magical grip.

       We tried looking for him, that was, until one of us spotted smoke coming from the village. We rushed to see what happened, expecting the worse. And so it was, in a sense. The entire village was engulfed in a colossal inferno, the screams of ponies being emitted from the town are still embed within our minds.

       My changelings and I entered the city with caution, to our surprise, the entire streets were littered with corpses that were either burned to death, or either stabbed to death. Some of my troops even fled, I can't really say I blame them.

       Of course, we can't drain the love of dead ponies, rendering the corpses useless, so, we scrambled to locate any survivors. Sadly, there was little to none.

       And those that did survive weren't even grateful to be still alive, they either had severed wings, severed horn, or severed legs, or suffered extreme injuries due to the flames.

       Eventually, out of all the changelings there, I was the one who found him. He was pointing his blade at a mare who I assumed to be his former friend.

       He was laughing like a madpony, the mare was pleading to him by the looks of it, although, her words were unclear to me as I was too far away. He then plunged his blade into her throat, causing me to recoil back. Somehow, he spots me, then he started trotting towards me.

       I did nothing but simply stood there, I was too stunned to do anything, really. The fact that this one changeling set ablaze to this entire village was quite an ungraspable concept.

      Finally, once he was near enough, he simply spoke these words, "I had a score to settle, sorry to kill off your entire food-supply." He then proceeds to walk past me.

       Viktor was a remorseless killer. He was feared by my other changelings, even disgusted by some.

       However, his skills in combat were far too impressive to be ignored, so we took him in. Up to this day, he serves as a Reaper, and occasionally a combat instructor.

       Eventually, we had to set up another hideout closer to a source, so that's how we found this abandoned castle in the Everfree, the pony establishment dubbed 'Ponyville' was relatively nearby, so it was an optimal spot to relocate to.

       We then found a Zebra, named Zecora. She lived in some sort of house in the middle of the Everfree. We captured her, and shortly replaced her with another changeling, though, the changeling we used to replace her has a habit of making her sentences rhyme.

        I wanted to see if she knew anypony, so we started asking her questions, rummaging through her belongings, and checking to see if there were anypony who would visit her.

        Apparently, she wasn't really well known, she claimed that whenever she headed out to the nearby settlement, Ponyville, every single of them would avoid her, fearing that she might he a monster of some sort. Ah, pony xenophobia at its finest.

        We wanted to see if she was telling the truth or not, so we sent the changeling disguised as her to Ponyville, it seems that she was honest after all as every single inhabitant concealed themselves from her. Ironically, a single filly apparently followed her all the way back to her hut in the Everfree.

        'Zecora' had to improvise, but I feel like this story should be saved for another day. She was stationed there, in the guise of a potion brewer, just incase anypony would want help from her.

       Recently, a blue showmare named Trixie apparently got her hooves on the alicorn amulet, this was appealing news to us. We began to devise a plan to take it from her, but all we needed to do was to simply wait.

       One of the Elements of Harmony, Twilight Sparkle, headed out to 'Zecora' for some advice. And some time later, the lavender pony challenged Trixie to some sort of due, unfortunately, it wasn't to the death.

       Somehow, 'Zecora' managed to take the amulet away from Twilight, saying that she's going to "Keep it somewhere safe."

       The love we managed to gather from the raid on Canterlot was ample enough to increase the powers of the amulet significantly, all we needed now, was a wearer. Coincidentally, a changeling found a long forgotten spell written in a dusty tome deep within the Canterlot archives. The spell was intended to summon beings called humans, these humans are exceptional in terms of warfare, or so the book described them as to be.

       Intrigued, I summoned one, and lo and behold, Wilson was placed here.

      "My queen, is it really wise for you to send him off like that?" The changeling mage spoke, breaking my train of thought.

      "Hm? What do you mean?"

      "Like you said, the presence of monsters lurking around has increased by a disturbing amount."

      "Have you not heard about him? He is Viktor, the finest there is in the changeling army. No manticore could hope to bring him down."

      "But a pack of them might be able to-" Before the changeling could finish, Chrysalis interrupted her.

      "Not even by a long shot. He once found a den filled with them, there were newborn manticores there as well."

       The changeling had a visible slightly half-startled, half-fearful demeanor as Chrysalis said that particular sentence.

      "So, the rumors about him is true?" The mage asked.

        I simply nod.

       "Well... I must go now, my Queen."

       "Very well, you may go now." I responded.

       The changeling promptly bowed and shortly vanished in an array of green flames. The eerie silence has once settled upon the throne room once more.

        I relaxed on my surprisingly comfortable throne. Suddenly, I finds herself bored. I sighs in boredom, "Ugh, why is this place so dull?" I muttered in annoyance. My boredom is justifiable, the throne room was indeed dull, only a chandelier burning a mysterious green flame lit the room, however, changelings have exceptional night-vision, so it didn't matter.

        The decors are dreary, the walls are dreary, the ceiling is dreary, the portraits on the dreary walls are dreary. Is there not anything her that is not dreary?

        Then I remembered, we found a crate filled with wine bottles a few weeks ago. Now might be a good time for a nice glass of wine. Next Chapter: Chapter 9. To Canterlot! Estimated time remaining: 15 Minutes