There wasn't much for me to do, really. I simply had to wait. Wait until this rather not-so-touching reunion to pass. I watched in silence as I stood there, simply listening to their conversations.

"So, how's your mercenary work, Avarice?" Chrysalis asked, a hint of genuine curiosity, although not much, behind her tone. Huh, Avarice? So, I suppose that's her name then?

"Oh you know, the usual. Wake up, retrieve today's bounty, set out to find myself another bounty, and finally, assign my children some of the bounties. Although, I don't mind hunting down a poor bastard myself occasionally." She stated. There was some pride in her demeanor, she must be proud of being a mercenary. Well, either that, or it's just that the pay is decent.

"What about you, Chrysalis?" She asked, "Managed to recuperate from that rather awful failure of a siege at Canterlot?" A subtle, but grim smile appeared on Avarice's face as she said that.

Also, Chrysalis targeted Canterlot for a siege? Judging by the fact that Canterlot is still rather fine, that is, before I got here. And of course, by what that red changeling queen just said, it is probably safe to say that Chrysalis did, in fact, fail in seizing Canterlot.

"Ugh, really now?" Chrysalis spoke with irritation. "That was several months ago, and I simply underestimated the strength of those damned ponies."

"But if you must know, yes, I have recovered from that tragic incident." Chrysalis added. Avarice, the red queen, nodded.

"Tell me, what did you do with my changelings?" Chrysalis questioned, her tone far too aggressive for that to be a simple question, but it was held back enough for it not to be considered as a demand.

"Oh relax, why won't you?" Avarice dismissively waves her right hoof, "They're in the lower interiors of this place you dare call home." Avarice looks around with a grimace, mocking the poor appeal of this place.

Honestly, I can see why she would disapprove of this place, it was far too dreary for my taste. But I am quite certain that she's not here to give decoration advice to my insectoid colleague.

I hear Chrysalis sigh. "Alright, enough of this, I know you want something from me, you can't possibly be here for mere "catching up"," Chrysalis stated. This triggered a rather hyperbolic reaction of persecution from the red queen.

"How dare you, I am simply here for your acquaintance, my dear friend." Avarice looked upright, her eyes closed, her smirk turned into a disapproving face. Opening her right eye, she admitted, "Alright, alright, you know the Elements of Harmony, correct?"

"How could I not? The purple one, who I despite with the most intense spite, was the one who allowed the ruination of my plan." Chrysalis said, her tone expressing more aggravation. Most likely due to the mention of the so called Elements of Harmony.

So far, I've made a few notes within my mind: One, Chrysalis has psychopathic friends. Two, Chrysalis herself is a psychopath. Though, that one was already noted long before I've met Avarice. Three, Chrysalis' friend is a mercenary. Four, Chrysalis tried to capture Canterlot. And finally five, Chrysalis despises the Elements of Harmony, presumably due to their interference.

I am most likely missing a few things, but oh well.

"Well, about them they took a train ride all the way to the Crystal Empire. Oh, no, no, I take back what I previously said, they're about to take a train ride to the Crystal Empire." She stated, to which Chrysalis reacted with a skeptical glance

"And you think that I'll believe you that simply?" Chrysalis asked, her eyebrow arched questioningly. Chrysalis inquired further, "Riddle me this, why would they even go there? More importantly, how do you even have this information?"

Avarice shrugged. "Got it from one of your own changeling spies," She answered casually. "He was awaiting your arrival in order to give you the information, but surprise, surprise. I got here first before you could. And I was curious on what your little espionage experts are up to, so I simply had to ask."

Somehow, I assume that she had to do more than simply ask...

"I would ask that spy myself just for confirmation. But, it doesn't matter. I was planning to go to the Crystal Empire anyways." Chrysalis said.

If I was drinking something right now, I might have spat it out suddenly due to what Chrysalis just said. Frantically, I turned to face her.

"Since when did we plan to go there?" A face of slight panic is what I donned.

"Do you even know what the Crystal Empire is?" Chrysalis asked.

"No, not exactly," I admitted. "But it sounds really far away."

Chrysalis shook her head, "I am planning to go there to see if I can bring a permanent hiatus to the production of those Crystal Heart replicas."

"Ah, so you've encounter those things too?" Avarice asked. "I've seen them, yes, when they were testing it, they had the brass to actually deploy it near where I was."

"Needless to say, I found it as a potential nuisance. Just think, those rich bastards will probably use those things in order to deter me from murdering them." Avarice said, her face displaying aggravation.

"Well then, shoo shoo." Avarice said, doing a shooing gesture with both of her hooves. "Get going, I still have things to do here. For example, to await the arrival of news regarding the death of my rivals." She said.

"Wait, why are you so concerned about the Elements of Harmony anyways?" Chrysalis questioned. Her eyes slightly narrowed at the red queen.

"Well, let's just say that you're not the only one who dislikes Celestia." Avarice said, "And hey, don't you remember? The purple one that ruined your plan is the sister of that stallion, er, what was his name again? Ah right, Shining Armor."

Avarice said, finally standing up from her throne, "Well now, if you must know, I met that stallion in the fields of battle, and I hate to admit it, but we were forced to flee, but not before we, and them, had a grievous death toll."

"So hey, I've not a single clue where that bastard is hiding, so why not direct a strike at her sister, who he most likely loves? And if my memory serves, that purple pony is also the pupil of Celestia." Avarice said as she departed the room, exiting via a door behind the throne.

"Hm, where does that door lead to?" I asked.

"That one leads to my bed chambers." Chrysalis answered, "I've not a single clue why she might want to go there."

"Most likely to sleep." I replied.

"Knowing her... That's not unlikely." Chrysalis sighed before approaching the exit of throne room. "Come on, we still need to find out how we're supposed to get to Crystal Empire."

"Alright, where's this "Crystal Empire" place, and when did you plan on telling me that you are planning to go there?" I asked, following closely behind her.

"Well, it's in the upper north-west of Equestria. It'll take us days for us to simply get there. The outskirts of the empire is frigid cold, and barren; a wasteland. But in the middle of that wasteland is an empire." Chrysalis answered.

"Oh, and I didn't plan on going there this soon..." Chrysalis added. Inaudibly, she began grumbling about something. Judging by the few words I managed to comprehend from her mumbling, it was something about how much she hated Avarice.

Facing the door, she ignited her horn. Soon enough, the door was enveloped by her green aura, the door opened briefly after it was engulfed with telekinetic magic.

We were both confounded and bewildered at what the door revealed. It was the Cloaker juggling three pistols, with the two other escorts, the Taser and the Bulldozer, simply cheering, pumping their fist high in the air.

"What are you doing?" I asked. I am doubting the sanity of my army right now.

The Cloaker answered, not bothering to stop juggling, "Oh nothing, these idiots bet that I couldn't juggle three handguns, well it seems that I have proved them-" Suddenly, the Cloaker failed to catch one of the pistols, thus, it landed a ground with thud.

Fumbling the two other pistols in his hands, he reached for the the pistol that he dropped. "You idiot, this thing is loaded!"

The Tazer grasps the gun from the Cloaker, before inspecting it, there was, in fact, a clip loaded into the gun. "Huh, I thought I unloaded this thing. Oh well, doesn't matter, dropped guns aren't suppose to discharge anyways."

"That still doesn't make it completely non-dangerous, dumbass." The Bulldozer interjected.

I decided to do the most rational thing at the time, face-palm as hard as I possibly could.

"Oh hey boss, glad to see you didn't get your head blown off." The Bulldozer said in a surprisingly cheery tone.

I face-palmed once more, this time, much harder than the previous one.

The Summoner, along with his colleague and his escorts, decided it was the most appropriate time to depart the cave system. Great, even more walking.

"So, do tell, how are we supposed to get to this Empire or whatever?" I asked Chrysalis.

"Hell, we're going to an empire, boss? Hope this time we get something as a souvenir." The Cloaker interrupted in a cheery, but still malicious tone.

Ignoring the Cloaker, Chrysalis responded, "Recall that time when you basically reduced Ponyville into ruins with your army of small to colossal beings?"

"You mean the Zerg?" I asked for the sake of clarification.

"Yes, whatever. I've seen some of the trains not being to able to have the chance to depart, they were simply too overwhelmed. I'm hoping that at least one of those trains work." Chrysalis stated.

"I see, so, are we gonna do some preparations or whatever?" I asked.

"Yes, we'll have to save those pathetic gryphon mercenaries. I require them for something, and that will also agitate Avarice." Chrysalis said, "Though, I'm doing this mostly due to the latter.

"What?" Was all I could respond with. "Give me a good reason to provoke the anger of Avarice, that peculiar being."

We're saving gryphons now? Well, that's ironic, considering I've murdered quite a number of them previously... Man, I am in the wrong line of work.

"See, we need some information about the production of those Crystal Heart replicas, to be more precise, where it exactly is being created." Chrysalis answered. "I am sure that the ponies shared some information with them, considering they were there in the battle of Ponyville."

"But, won't your friend, Avarice, get pissed?" I asked. Of course, it didn't require someone to be a genius to predict what the answer would be.

"Without a doubt, yes." Chrysalis stated, "But I doubt that she'll go berserk on us... But should that happen, I'm afraid that the only option would be to slay her."

Author's Notes:

Boring part out of the way now...

I think.