Queen Aurora flopped down on the bed she’d been given and let out a sigh. “What a long day.”

“Agreed,” Echo said as he flopped down beside her and placed a kiss on her cheek. “But you handled it admirably.”

“Thank you,” Aurora replied as she leaned back into the luxurious bedding.

Then she gave him a kiss on the lips and pulled him close to her with her hooves. Echo smiled and let her lift his suitably smaller frame atop her chest so that he could lean his head against the bottom of her neck. Echo let out a sigh of contentment.

“This whole city... it’s so full of love,” the guard intoned.

“Yes, I can see what motivated my littlest sister to act the way she did,” Aurora agreed with a small chuckle. “Though as usual, she bungled it up in the execution.”

“Yes, yes she did,” Echo agreed with a small chuckle of his own. “So, what do you think of Celestia’s offer?”

“I think that it is doomed to failure,” she answered with a shake of her head before she leaned it back into the pillows. “But if nothing else, it will buy us time to prepare for the eventual war.”

“And if it doesn’t fail?” Echo inquired with a raised eyeridge.

Aurora chuckled at his tone, it was almost eager. “Well then, my little guard, you will no longer be needed,” she told him flashing her most sultry smile. “And I suppose I’ll have to move on to someone new, maybe one of those guard stallions perhaps. They seemed suitably impressive.”

Echo gave her an unamused look that was so flat that the Queen couldn’t help but smile.

“Oh, Echo, you know I wouldn’t,” she said with another grin before she pulled him in for a long kiss. When they parted Aurora smiled, her mask broken completely. “You’ve been with me for two hundred years now after all. It would take simply forever to train a replacement.”

Echo just snorted and gave her a kiss on the jaw. He was about to begin making his way down when there was a knock at the door. Aurora frowned for a moment before she identified the stallion on the other side.

“Oh, Jack, do come in,” she called sweetly.

“Don’t mind if I do,” Jackdaw said with a casual grin as he walked into the room, closing the door with the back of his heel. The stallion looked between Echo and Aurora for a moment before his grin widened. “You two started without me eh?”

“Hardly, we were kissing,” Aurora replied airily as she gave Jackdaw a seductive, almost predatory smile. “You’re more than welcome to join.”

“I think I will, after we go over a few things,” Jackdaw replied as his thestral wings sent him flying onto the bed and nestling down beside the Queen’s waspish figure.

“Oh?” Aurora asked with a small frown. “What things?”

“Well, firstly, my job is very important to me, and that means I’m a guard first,” Jackdaw answered, giving her a hard look. “Just like Echo is.”

Echo looked down on the stallion for a moment and then nodded his head. “Your first duty is to Luna and Celestia and anything that we say will be reported to them,” the changeling stated.

“Yep, and thus if I find out that you’re planning anything nasty, I’ll be forced to do my best to kill you both,” the thestral continued, nodding his head. “No hard feelings.”

“Of course not, Jack,” Aurora said after a moment of silence as she thought it over. “Now, is there anything else?”

“Yeah... if anything you’re more beautiful now than you were last time I saw you,” Jackdaw said wry smile. “Now that that’s out of the way... there’s only one question on my mind...”

“And what’s that?” Echo inquired as he glanced down at him.

“Who’s on top?”

Fancy Pants’ eyes blinked open blearily and came to rest on the modest old fashioned alarm clock that sat on the nightstand beside his edge of the bed. It read nine o’clock. The stallion let out a yawn and was about to drift back to sleep when he noticed something else. There were a pair of slightly cold, chitinous forelegs wrapped around his back. His eyes widened in surprise and he turned to stare at the changeling who was cuddling with him.

“You-you’re- Fleur wake up! You’re going to be late!” the stallion exclaimed, nudging the sleeping changeling mare with an urgent hoof. Fleur grunted, in a most unladylike manner, and rolled the other way so that she wasn’t facing him before she tried to dig her way deeper into the blankets. Fancy rolled his eyes at his wife’s theatrics. “Come now, my dear Reflection, you really must wake up.”

“Do I have to?” she asked with a pout that despite the fact he couldn’t see it, Fancy knew was on her lips.

“Yes, yes you do,” Fancy said, nudging her again with his hoof. “You wouldn’t want to miss your ‘train’ now would you?”

Reflection/Fleur let out a groan and slowly turned back to face him. She really was a beautiful mare, no matter which face she wore, all graceful lines and feminine beauty. It was a wonder that Fancy’s heart didn’t stop just by looking at her. Fancy Pants brought his neck down to kiss her on the cheek and she closed her eyes and let out a sigh as the love filled her. He would have kissed her on the lips, but they both knew their morning breath was atrocious.

“I guess there’s no helping it,” Reflection said with a sigh as her horn flashed and she was near instantaneously transformed back into Fleur. The mare let out a sigh and kicked the blankets off of herself and slid out of the bed as Fancy Pants did the same. “Thank you for waking me up, dear.”

“Of course,” Fancy replied with a light chuckle as he put on his monocle on and smiled as the magical piece of glass cleared his slightly foggy vision. “You know that I don’t mind at all.”

“Oh, I know,” Fleur said with a roll of her eyes as she grasped her travel bag in her magic and began to make sure that everything was where it needed to be. “You never have any trouble kicking me out of the bed, do you?”

Fancy chuckled as he walked over and placed a kiss on the side of her neck, causing Fleur to blush as even more love seeped into her.

“You know that’s not why I do it,” the stallion said lovingly. “It’s so that you don’t blow your cover and so that I don’t lose you, which would tear out my heart.”

Fleur sighed and leaned her head against his and for a long moment, the world was perfect. Then just as quickly as it had come, it left them and the mare took her head away.

“I’ll miss you,” she whispered desperately.

“I know,” he replied just as softly.

“I love you.”

“And I love you.”

With that said, the mare walked out of the room.

“Are you all ready?” Chrysalis asked the five Operators she’d chosen for the task of breaking down Sarah’s mental defenses. They were her eldest living children, minus Reflection who was still on her way back from her latest assignment.

“Yes, mother,” they all answered demurely as their horns began to glow and they brought them together with her own against Sarah’s forehead. Her cocoon had been turned on its side as she slept so that each of them could reach her.

Chrysalis waited for a long moment before joining her horn with theirs and the world fell away.

This time, she did not find herself in a forest. No, this time her surroundings were much closer to that of where she herself lived. The ground was cracked, broken and brown and the sky above was grey and featureless.

The changeling Queen frowned as she looked around spotted what looked like a giant fortress of grey stone and standing atop its battlements was Sarah herself. The woman stared down at the changeling and her five helpers for a moment before shouting.

“Alright bitch, no more tricks or mazes, come and take me!”

Chrysalis smiled smugly, the day before must have drained her more than previously thought. The fortress may have been visibly impressive, but in the land of the mind, things like that came and went with far greater ease than in the physical world.

“Forwards, children, let’s tear down her walls,” the Chrysalis stated with a small evil chuckle. She would pay for what had happened last time.

Not only was the environment different, but so was the force behind it. It felt... weaker, less experienced, soft. All of which pointed Chrysalis towards one conclusion. Sarah had been intending to kill her last time and the sheer effort of it had exhausted her mental prowess.

This thought only served to invigorate the changelings as they took to the air.

Are you sure I can do this? Sarah asked the invisible form of Nim as they stood atop the edge of the ‘Citadel’.

You’re very strong willed, Sarah, you’ll do fine, Nim replied as she gave the woman a nuzzle that managed to not ruffle her hair in the least. Just focus on what you want to happen and it shall work.

Right... focus, Sarah closed her eyes and stared at the closest changeling as it flew at her. A sniper rifle appeared in her hands and she seamlessly brought it up to focus on the changeling.

Then she pulled the trigger and the bullet shot down towards it. To her surprise, the changeling’s magical shield deflected the bullet to the side and it simply continued its flight towards her. Sarah’s eyes widened as she drew another lock on the changeling.

Sarah, you must WANT it dead for this to work, Nim informed her anxiously.

“GO FUCK YOURSELF!” Sarah shouted at the bug as she pulled the trigger again. This time the bullet shattered the shield and slammed into the changeling’s body. It’s flight wavered for a moment before it continued onwards towards her.

Nim, why didn’t it die? Sarah asked as she fumbled with the sniper rifle as a shock of unexpected pain ran through her body.

Sarah! Are you alright? Nim asked worriedly.

Gah, that hurt... this venom is turning more and more painful every time it runs through me, Sarah grunted as she dropped the rifle and created a copy of the Perforator, opting for something with a faster fire rate.

Nim looked at her worriedly. She hated putting Sarah in charge of this... but she just didn’t have enough energy to do what she had done before, nor to do much in the way of actual attacking. Much as she despised admitting it... she was not nearly as powerful as Luna. No where near strong enough to keep Sarah safe.

“SHIT!” Sarah yelped in pain as a blast of green flames lashed into her right arm. The limb was consumed in flame and she let out a scream despite the armor. Nim’s eyes widened in surprise and then she growled within her mind. She should have seen that coming!

Sarah! The pain isn’t real! This is your mind! You’re not on fire! Nim shouted at her.

TELL THAT TO THE FLAMES! Sarah screamed in agony as she desperately tried to smother the flames that were consuming her arm. The pain was worse than any she’d ever experienced before, enough to bring tears to even her eyes. The woman’s eyes fell on the arm within the flame and saw that it had been reduced to white bone.

Before Nim had a chance to do anything to assist the woman, the changelings touched down on around Sarah’s writhing form with Chrysalis directly in front of her.

“Well, well, well, it looks like I made it through with a Zero,” the Changeling Queen stated with a wide smirk. “And you... you went down far easier than I was expecting, my pet.”

Sarah stared up at Chrysalis, her body contorted in pain as she attempted to something, anything to keep the changeling away from her.

NIM! HELP! Sarah shouted desperately as she tried to claw herself away.

Nim was shaking with inarticulate rage at this point as Chrysalis began to slowly stride towards Sarah. “It’s time, Sarah... time for you to become my pet physically and mentally,” the changeling continued, licking her lips as she bent her face down towards Sarah’s.

Nim’s brain rushed forwards at lightning speed as the scene played out around her. Sarah was in danger, terrible, terrible danger and here she was standing here like a useless sack of wet paper. There was only one thing that Nim could think of to do that had the slimmest possibility of working. She did not have the strength left to kill the changeling’s drones, let alone the Queen Bitch herself, but... perhaps she did not have to do it intentionally.

“Oh if it isn’t a bunch of insects for me to play with,” Nim drawled slowly as she appeared before Chrysalis... though she was not herself.

No, instead she… or he appeared as the most horrifying beast to ever walk Equestria. A green dragon scaled talon extended down from his right leg and a brown furred hoof came down from his left. His wings were a mismatched set of thestral and pegasus while his arms were those of an eagle and a lion. A slim body stretched up into the head of an ass that twisted into the disturbing love child of a goat and an owl. A pair of horns erupted from his head, one a jagged stags and the other that of a ram. The monstrosity opened its mouth and revealed a single crooked tooth.

There are few beings capable of silencing Queen Celestia herself with their appearance alone and Discord was one of those creatures. With a single word he could reshape almost anypony he wished into a cracked reflection of their origin. A talon in your direction and you could lose your mind. Should he touch you, your flesh would liquify and be replaced by something... different.

Furthermore, in his thousand year rule over Equestria, he had personally instilled an instinctual fear in each and every species on the planet a dozen times over.

Nim had fought the beast as Luna for a very long time, she knew what he was like inside and out, down to the littlest detail from the twitch of his tail to the flaps of his wings. What she knew best was the sound of his voice... that squirly menacing tone that seemed to just leak its way into someone’s brain.

“I-I-I how, how can you be here?!” the changeling Queen stuttered as her Operators stared in abject terror at the beast. “You, you can’t be here!”

“Really? Whyever not?” Discord asked with a curious glance at her.

“Be-because Celestia and Luna killed you!” Chrysalis protested through a jittering jaw.

“Oh no, no, no, no,” he replied in amusement. “Those two pesky foals merely turned me to stone, hehe. My mind still wanders wherever it likes.”

One of the changelings mustered up the nerve to launch a beam of fire at him but Discord simply smiled indulgently at it, as if it was a child who had just discovered how to shit standing up. With a bored gesture he caught the beam of fire and twisted it into a balloon animal before sending it flying into the sky. The changelings around Chrysalis let out screams of absolute horror as their brains were assaulted with image after image of Discord in his prime, images that would drive the average pony insane.

In this case, they hemorrhaged. With casual grace Discord floated over in front of Chrysalis who was staring in horror at her five prized children who had fallen to the ground, bleeding from their eyes. The beast let out an amused, mocking chuckle as he gazed down at the now terrified changeling Queen.

“You know, Chrysalis, this whole thing has been pretty amusing for me,” he commented as a decanter of chocolate milk appeared before him and he took a long drag from the bottom. “I mean, yesterday was a treat and today... today you were soooo close to getting what you wanted.”

Chrysalis ground her teeth together and tried to look up at Discord, her eyes filled with anger... but there was something that prevented her from doing so. Some built in defense mechanism within her brain that stopped her from doing such a thing.

“I helped create your eldest sister you know,” he continued conversationally. “She started out as an ordinary little changeling, of course, back then changelings were just a bunch of bugs... but I, I gave them a real purpose.”

“I...” Chrysalis was unable to respond and every inch closer to her that Discord hovered was another that she retreated. She knew he was telling the truth... but only... only the Queens knew of their origin! This... this was REALLY Discord! This revelation shocked, no terrified her, so much that what came next caught her off guard.

Discord slid his arm around her neck and gave her a noogie, sending her mane flying in all directions as he drilled the flat of his talons into her skull.

“And by ME did you carry it out,” he said with a chuckle as he continued to noogie her. “You’re the A-typical Love Bugs now aren’t you?”

Chrysalis squirmed and clawed at him but nothing she did would allow her to break free of his grip. That grip suddenly tightened and Discord brought his jaws down next to Chrysalis’ ear.

“Now then, my little Love Bug, you’re going to leave this mortal’s mind, I claimed her as my new digs until I can upgrade to something better and I don’t want you traipsing around in here,” the draconequus said with a hearty chuckle as he slapped her on the back hard.

“But... but-but-but- why do you need her?” Chrysalis managed to ask around teary eyes, strange, she hadn’t even realized that she was crying.

“Because she’s an ape that walks upright and talks but doesn’t have any fur that ALSO EATS MEAT!” Discord exclaimed as he hugged her tighter. “Can you possibly imagine anything else twisted and strange enough to be used as my body?”

Chrysalis shuddered and finally broke free from his hold. She jumped away from him and within half a second she’d vanished from Sarah’s mind entirely.

Discord stood there in mid air for a long moment before he let out a sigh and wiped sweat from his brow as he began to slowly change back into Nim. The alicorn collapsed on the ground beside her love and let out a long sigh.

“Okay... I’m officially completely out of energy,” Nim said exhaustedly. “Luna better find us somehow or we’re dead once she realizes that the story I just told her is total bullshit.”

“Why... why wasn’t I able to help?” Sarah asked with a dark frown as she looked down at her now whole arm.

“Because Chrysalis has had centuries of practice where as you had a single night’s,” Nim answered tiredly, too beat to be sympathetic. “Now hush... I need to go to sleep.”

The world around them shifted back to Nim’s typical glade and the alicorn fell to sleep almost immediately. Sarah stared down at her for a moment before moving closer to her and lifting her head so that Nim’s face rested in her lap. A wave of pain roared through Sarah but she ignored it. Instead she placed her hands together and closed her eyes.

“Luna... God... whichever of you is listening... please... I need you, Nim and I need you,” she prayed softly before opening her eyes and staring down at the nearly comatose alicorn in her lap and began to run her hand through her mane, her jaw hardening. “Just wait, Chrysalis... just wait.”

Reflection touched down inside the Hive’s main hall and barely withheld an irritated sigh. The place never changed, ever. She began to walk down the corridor until she saw something odd. Double, a fairly new Operator was sprinting down the hallway. When she spotted Reflection her worried eyes shrank back to normal size.

“Reflection! You’re back! Thank Mother! We need you! We need you really badly!” the topaz maned changeling shouted.

“I just got back, what is it?” Reflection asked curiously, though she did allow a bit of ire to leak into her voice.

“It’s the prisoner again! She’s hurt mother again!” Double exclaimed.

“Prisoner? Which prisoner?” Reflection asked with a frown, there had to be several dozen.

“Sarah the human of course, you twit!” Double shouted, as if she was an absolute idiot.

Reflection stared at her for a long moment, barely keeping her jaw from falling open. “Okay... what do you need me to do?” she asked at last. “And wait, why are you giving me orders? I out rank you by quite a bit.”

“Nauh,” the little changeling replied shaking her head. “Five of the top Operators just died and I got promoted up to number two!”

Wow... was Reflection’s only thought before she said. “Okay... and what am I supposed to be doing?”

“Feed the prisoner so it doesn’t starve to death while I tend to mother!” Double replied before her little wings sprang into action and carried her off down the hallway.

“... guess I’ll just find my way there by myself,” Reflection stated flatly, shaking her head at Double’s behavior. “Oh well...”