The walk to the throne room, where Chrysalis presumed her rival queen was currently lounging at, was a rather dull one, really, it was simply just walking, and a bit of unproductive conversations.

To accurately describe it, we were basically walking for a good five minutes or so in the darkness, hoping that you don't accidentally collide with the walls of the cave. Idly listening to your footsteps, since that the cave interior is almost dead-silent.

Chrysalis and I stood just a few steps away from the large door that led to the throne room. I never really took time to examine the door more thoroughly, due to the lack of interest and the poor lighting of this place.

But thanks to my eyesight that just recently adapted to the poor lighting, I managed to get a more adequate look at it.

The door was obsidian black in color, it had green runes, that I couldn't even decipher, marked throughout the surface of the door. Said runes were emitting some sort of green glow, making this door exceedingly ominous and eerie. And somewhat intimidating, due to the sheer size of it alone.

"That is one beast of a door!" I heard my escort, specifically the Bulldozer, or more colloquially known as, the Skulldozer, regarding the skull emblem painted on his visor, remarked behind me at the sight of the colossal door.

"You damn right it is." The Cloaker added, "Who the hell needs a door of this size, anyways? Is there loot stored in there? Hell, there better be." If I had to guess, the Cloaker had a grin of avarice adorning his face right now. "I could go for some goodies right now."

"Ha, I'd love to take something from this place as a souvenir, preferably, something valuable." The Bulldozer commented. Seriously, if they weren't donning their respective helmets right now, I'd be able to see them smiling.

"The both of you sound like a certain crew of robbers, and that doesn't make me reassured." The Taser interjected. I, along with Chrysalis, collectively ignored them as they continued in their pointless colloquy.

"Relax, it wouldn't be stealing..." The Cloaker trailed off, "It would be more like borrowing things for an indefinite amount of time... without permission."

"Where did I hear that one before?" The Taser commented.

At this point, I, and presumably Chrysalis, began to ignore their pointless discussion. And while we're at that topic, they were conversing and bantering for the entire duration of the walk here. And I must admit, It's starting to drive me into the abyss known as insanity.

Chrysalis turns her head to face me, "So, what are you going to say to her once we enter?" She asked. "She isn't exactly easy to persuade... And I am speaking from experience."

"Honestly," I began, "I have not a single clue, but, improvisation is my forte after all." I stated smugly, which made Chrysalis shake her head in response.

"Improvisation. You?" Chrysalis chuckled, "I suppose that the only reason for why you say that is because the majority of your plans fail in a massive catastrophe."

I sigh in despair, "Well, chances are, this is going to result in a skirmish, but screw it." I said rather dismissively. "Right, if the tensions rises too high, you're going to teleport us out of here, right?" I asked, "eh" was the simple reply from Chrysalis.

I did a turn to face my escorts, who were still mindlessly discussing about something. Catching their attention with a resounding cough, I ordered them. "I want all of you to stand guard just outside this door, and if you hear something awry, such as screams of agony, or panic, or perhaps a mixture of both, just barge into the room."

"You got it boss." The Cloaker said, prompting all of them to do a mock salute.

Rolling my eyes, I faced the door once more. I took a slight pause, and breathed deeply in preparation to finally encounter this mysterious changeling individual. I pushed the door to gain entry to the room, but the door refused to even budge by an inch, both bewildering and irking me slightly.

I hear a chuckle emanating from behind me, judging by the tone, it was the Dozer's. This was further confirmed when he proceeded to say, "Door giving you problems, boss?"

"Uh, Chrysalis?" I asked, ignoring the remark of my escort, "Mind opening the door for me? I'm not exactly certain on how to open this thing..."

With an audible sigh from Chrysalis, her horn lit up, and her respective aura enveloped the door, momentarily, she pushed the door open via unseen kinetic force. The door scraped the stoney, cold ground below it, sending a thunderous grinding sound throughout the cave.

I cringed at the sudden noise, covering my ears with both of my hands, as I was unprepared for it. If I had to guess, my escorts are also cringing at the piercing sound of the door.

Peering inside, I could see a quantity of changelings, though, they did not feature the usual green color scheme, instead all of them were a slightly dark, scarlet red, save for their black carapace that did not appear to be different to the green changelings'.

They had red manes, and their eyes, unlike the the changelings I'm more familiar with, were a deep shade of red, instead of the deep turquoise eyes Chrysalis' swarm had.

And it appears that their transparent wings had a tint of red, in comparison to Chrysalis' changelings, who had wings that had a greenish tint.

Huh, so, it seems that changelings of different hives don't vary that much, I mentally noted.

There were two columns of them placed on the left and right corners of the room, if I had to assume, they are stationed for the purpose of security. Despite the deafening sound the door emitted, they were less than concerned, they all stood sharply, not even the slightest of movements were made.

In the middle of the upper corner, was Chrysalis' throne, or what was formerly known as Chrysalis' throne anyways. Reclining on said throne was a taller, and more slender changeling. Her physique was comparable to Chrysalis'. Her mane was, obviously enough, red. But shorter than Chrysalis' mane, and it was more unkempt.

She had a questioning glare pointed straight at the door, the shadows of the cave-network however, managed to conceal us. Thus, she was unsure of who could possibly be here for a visit.

Without notice nor warning, Chrysalis began to slowly walk towards the throne. Slightly panicky, I followed her, stopping just beside her, the both of us stopping an adequate distance away from the throne.

"Chrysalis!" The red maned queen exclaimed, suspiciously cheery if I might add, "Was that door just for display? Sheesh, could you at least, resolve the shriek that it makes when it opens?"

"I don't usually use the door, me and my changelings simply enter this room through teleportation." Chrysalis responded, her tone had a hint of spite embedded within it. The response of the red queen was a simple roll of the eyes.

The red queen glanced at me."Oh?" she uttered in curiosity, "Who's this? I've never seen anything like that thing before, this your new pet?"

"I am more than a 'thing', mind you." I clarified, seeing that Chrysalis did not even made an attempt at responding to her question.

She seemed somewhat startled at the revelation of my capability of speech, "And it speaks! I am impressed, Chrysalis. How did you manage to find a pet that is able of talking?"

Growing slightly agitated, I clarified once more, "I am no mere pet, as well."

"Quite a feisty one, aren't you?" The red queen mocked, "Anyways, it's been a while, Chrysalis. How do you fare?" She asked, surprisingly enough, she sounded genuine about it.

"Hmph, yes, I suppose it's been a while, " Chrysalis finally said, "Still working as a mercenary, I assume?" Chrysalis asked.

Mercenary? This changeling queen is a mercenary? Changelings can be sell-swords? Hm, I suppose that would make sense, considering that changelings are regarded as a formidable threat, that is, if they are not employed under you.

"Oh yes, but of course." The red-maned changeling replied casually, "But enough about me, what are you up to these days? Still hounding down those ponies?"

"So what if I still am?" Chrysalis asked, "So what brings you here? Come to give me payback for that little incident before I left the Bad Lands?"

The more I listen to these two, the more I am curious I am about their pasts. Hopefully, I'll get some answers from Chrysalis after this... 'meeting' is over. Implying that I manage get to see the end of this meeting with my life intact.

"Hmph, you haven't changed, Chrysalis." The changeling queen, who I am not aware of her name yet, commented. "Always rushing to the point, you always disliked pleasantries. But oh well."

She continued, "But if you must truly know, I'm not here for you, hm, I'm not even antagonized by what you did anymore, considering it was irrelevant long-term." She dismissively waves her right front hoof.

"You see, the reason behind why I'm here is due to a rival mercenary group has been contracted to hunt down a strange, grotesque monster of some sort massacring Celestia's Royal Guards." The red queen stated.

"I suppose this "grotesque" monster is me?" I guessed. "I haven't seen a fiend here recently, otherwise, I'd be more than aware of its being here," I added. "And I have a rather high kill-count of those ponies..." I said with a slight amount of regret. I am still perturbed by the mountains of corpses I've created, corpses of those that were mostly innocent.

A sinister smile adorns her face, "Ah, then perhaps I'll have to thank you later, you saved me the trouble of killing them where they are most adept, their homelands." She added, "And if I might add, you're not so grotesque."

"Uh, thanks?" I blurted out. Once more, I was unsure what to say at a situation like that.

So, she's here for the gryphons, who are

"The gryphons?" Chrysalis said.

"Hm, right you are." The red one clapped her hooves, as if to create a mock celebration. "Say, how about you bring those gryphons here to me? It would be nice for you to do me a favor for once."

Chrysalis appears to be taken aback, "What? After you come here and invade my home, you-"

Before Chrysalis could complete her sentence, she was interrupted by the red queen, "I'll forget about you setting ablaze that little settlement of gryphons, and framing us as the perpetrators of such an act." The red changeling queen said, causing a look of shock from a rather bewildered Chrysalis.

Once again, my curiosity rises sharply. Although, it doesn't take much of a theory to conclude that Chrysalis, who was rather bitter from being evicted from her previous home, decided to engulf an entire town, or city, I'm not really certain, in flames.

"Really now?" Chrysalis replied skeptically, "We are changelings, we both rely on deception to live." Chrysalis added, "It's almost obvious, you're simply not going to keep your promise, and strike me down when I'm caught off-guard."

"I see." The red queen stands up, "I suppose that I'll have to do the alternative." She raises her right her hoof, the horns of the two rows of guards glowed simultaneously in almost perfect timing.

Out of reflex, I reached forth for my bag and grabbed one of the firebombs. Chrysalis prepared a stance as her horn shone in a green aura.

Suddenly, the guards disappeared in a flash of scarlet red flames, leaving us slightly confused. The red queen looks at us with an amused mien.

"What?" She asked, her tone puzzled, although, clearly her confusion was probably fake, "The alternative is finding those gryphons using my own troops, since you'd rather not bring them here yourselves," The scarlet queen clarified. "Well, since you're here, how about we do some catching up?"