"There are no friends among nations; today's staunchest ally may be tomorrow's bitterest enemy when our interests come into conflict."
–Big Hoss, 897 CE

Life was inherently unpredictable. Events completely outside of an individual's control dictated much of their environment. Nine years ago, Thunderball had utterly given up hope of reconciliation with his family, yet now his cousins stood before him, on the eve of his discharge from the hospital. The impromptu celebration that had arranged was touching, yet he could not shake the nagging sensation at the back of his mind that something was wrong.

But this was hardly the time to press the issue, so he turned to Meriwether and struck up a conversation. "So, how's the estate?"

"You won't believe what we've done with the place," she grinned. "Added two new sublevels to the bunker. Medical bay, research lab, engineering shop, and a new armory."

He raised his eyebrows. "New armory? What was wrong with the old one?"

"It is full," Daisy added, with a hint of pride. "Artifact recovery has greatly increased this past year, due to a very profitable arrangement I initiated."

"Anything interesting?"

"Come up to Canterlot and see for yourself," she smiled.

"Or you could visit Van Hoofer," Meriwether interrupted. "I've been working on electric weapons. I'd love to get your input."

Thunderball chuckled as his cousins glared daggers at each other. "Sounds like you're gearing up for a war."

All conversation in the room ground to an immediate halt.

"Guys?" Thunderball slowly looked around the group. "What's going on?"

Meriwether looked hesitantly between Thunderball and Daisy, who cleared her throat and stepped in front of Meriwether so that she was closest to Thunderball.

"As you know," she began, as if she was delivering a presentation, "There has been a high incidence of threats to Equestrian security in these past few years. While the Elements of Harmony have successfully addressed many of them, we do not know how effective they will be against others."

Thunderball frowned. "The only significant enemy the Elements of Harmony weren't used against were…" His voice trailed off as his eyes suddenly widened.

"Changelings," Daisy continued seamlessly.

For a moment, Thunderball could have sworn his ears were playing tricks on him. "What?"

Meriwether pushed Daisy aside and laid a hoof on his. "Look, I don't like the idea myself, but Chrysalis can't be reasoned with, and her control over the hive is absolute. This is our only option for ensuring the security of Equestria."

"Without sanction from the Princess?" Thunderball looked from face to face in shock. "What if they decide to retaliate against Equestria?"

"What makes you think the bugs will be in any condition to?" Flash Point conjured a sheaf of industrial chemical safety documents and let them drop onto the floor in front of Thunderball. "We'll fumigate them. They'll be dead before they know it."

"You're advocating genocide."

Dive Bomb leaned so close to him that their noses were almost touching. "I was under the impression that you hated them as much as we did."

Phrase Mark's eyes instantly lit up. "Say, certain rumors about changeling defectors in Ponyville wouldn't happen to have a ring of truth about the, would they?

Thunderball buried his head in a pillow and cursed vigorously, and at great length.

"You should have been a sailor," Daisy commented dryly as her eyes lingered on Phrase Mark's copy of The Daily Sun. "I don't suppose that coltfriend we've been hearing so much about is one of the changelings?"

"He's a pony," Thunderball snapped.

Phrase Mark cocked her head. "A pony with no birth certificate, or medical, educational, and employment history?"

Thunderball buried his head in his hooves and took several deep breaths. Meriwether stroked his mane to help calm him down. He leaned back into her massage and composed himself. "Yes, changelings have defected. Yes, Creme Brulee is one."

Daisy rubbed her hooves together gleefully. "Changelings are sentient? Perhaps we should be recruiting."

"Anything that involves less killing is fine by me," Meriwether grinned.

"It'd be safer to go with the original plan, though." Dive Bomb earned him a swift hoof to the back of the head from Flash Point with that comment.

Phrase Mark rubbed her chin thoughtfully. "If changelings can break out of Chrysalis's hive mind, that would imply that we can focus our efforts on subversion, such as spreading dissent."

"See, that's exactly the kind of harebrained scheme I'm worried about you getting yourselves into." Thunderball flicked his tail in annoyance. "You could destabilize the entire situation! Have your forgotten our role is to provide discrete assistance to the Princesses rather than directly engage our enemies?"

Daisy slammed her hooves into the floor. "Praytell, what is your alternative? For us to sit on our flanks while Chrysalis recovers? Who do you think she will attack next? Perhaps the Crystal Empire? Or maybe she will continue her vendetta against Princess Sparkle?"

Thunderball stared her straight in the eyes. "I trust Celestia. She is aware of the situation, and I am sure she will to handle it appropriately. You're going to leave the changelings alone, or I'm marching up to the castle and requesting royal intervention. Do I make myself clear?"

"As a crystal pony," Daisy sneered. "First sign of us defending the nation, and you run off to the Princess again."

Phrase Mark's horn flashed as sound in the room became greatly suppressed, while Flash Point placed Daisy in a telekinetic bubble. It did little to stop Thunderball from ramming into it. The ensuing static discharge from his coat ran along the surface of the shield and caused it to pop out of existence as he sailed through to pin Daisy against the wall.

A foreleg worked its way between the two; Thunderball glanced over to see Meriwether trying to pry them apart. "Come on, pone. Let it go."

Thunderball shoved Daisy into the wall before relenting. "Just keep your business out of Ponyville."

Daisy seemed poised to carry on the dispute, but Dive Bomb promptly shoved her out of the way. "Enough bickering, let's get t' the important stuff. Does Creme Brulee turn into a mare f' you, or are you actually gay?"

It took Thunderball a good few seconds to register the abrupt change in conversation before he could respond. "We're not dating!"

Phrase Mark quickly joined Dive Bomb and batted her eyelashes at Thunderball. "Pity, you two would make a lovely couple. Like Romareo and Juliet."

Flash Point looked at her strangely. "They were a pair of stupid teenagers who destabilized the city to pursue their immature romance and ended up committing suicide."

"Oh, um… Trotstan and Isolde?"

"They were involved in an illicit love–triangle and betrayed their liege–lord, who killed Trostan with a poisoned lance."

"Bonnie and Clydesdale?"

Daisy shoved her hoof in Phrase Mark's mouth. "Stop talking."

She left through the window without saying goodbye. One by one, the remaining ponies bid their farewell to Thunderball as they too departed. He looked out the window at their retreating forms and sighed.

Was it wrong of him to have expected things to have changed? His family was set in their ways, maintaining traditions that had been in place for over a millenium now. It served a purpose once, but was profoundly unnecessary in the modern age. Equestria was peaceful, prosperous, and most importantly, had a strong government capable of looking after its citizens. (Even if the manner in which it did so boiled down to throwing Celestia's prized pupil and her friends at the emergency of the week.)

He placed a hoof over a patch of scar tissue on his left side. Five months ago a changeling warrior had gored him and discharged a blast of magical energy directly into his chest during an attempted takeover of Ponyville. As much as he wanted to deny it, Daisy did have a point; it was unwise to simply let trouble brew. Sooner or later, Equestria and Chrysalis would come into conflict again, and they could not simply trust their luck, and Chrysalis's own incompetence, to see them through.

Something had to be done.

Daring Do strolled into the office of Professor Ford, Chair of Canterlot University's Archaeology department, and unceremoniously dropped a clay scarab onto his desk. The blue glaze on it glinted in the mid–afternoon sun, as vibrant as the day it was first baked on, over five thousand years ago. The aging stallion stared at it, at complete loss for words, and turned it over in his hooves.

"Told you I'd find it," Daring Do grinned. "Piece of cake — once you get past the deathtraps, mummies, and locusts."

"My word! Do you realize what this means?" Dr. Ford's trembling hooves placed the scarab in a mostly empty cigar box and shut the lid. "The mystical amulet of Hatshepstrot herself! Said to have been imbued by the scarab–god Khepri with the power to raise the sun!"

Daring Do shook her head. "You don't believe that, do you? Celestia moves the sun, not some dung–beetle inspired deity. (A discount god, no less; the 'morning aspect' of Ra. Not even the whole thing.) Listen, I tried it myself when I got out of the pyramids, and the scarab does nothing. The hieroglyphs talked about some focusing ritual involving an arcane circle, but I'll be damned if I know how a bunch of earth ponies would use it."

"Perhaps, Dr. Do, but it is not only the unicorns who have magic. Do you, perchance, have a copy of those hieroglyphs?"

A large scroll of paper landed on his desk. He unrolled it to reveal a pencil rubbing of a diagram depicting how the ritual was supposed to be carried out. A tall earth pony — the Pharaoh and high priest, no doubt — stood in the center of a circle, with followers placed at five strategic points. No doubt they drew magical energy out of the very earth with their hooves, and donated it to the ritual.

"Who's to say if it works, but this is still a huge find — perhaps the discovery of the century." Dr. Ford grabbed the cigar box and made for the door. "Come on, we have to get this down to the lab for confirmation right away!"

"I don't suppose we could stop by my tenure committee on our way there?" Daring Do asked, as she casually stepped out of the office. "There's been some neigh–saying about my work schedule."

Instead of walking into the archeology department, she found herself outside on the steps of the building. Dr. Ford was holding a press conference. A crowd of reporters had gathered in front of his podium, while all the professors in the department, along with her parents, stood behind.

"We're so proud of you," her mother whispered though tears of joy, while her father was so overwhelmed by emotion that he could only nod in agreement.

Daring Do held back tears of her own as she joined her parents in a group hug, as Dr. Ford announced her discovery to the world. The journalists listened with rapt attention, and even her most bitter rivals applauded once Dr. Ford had finished speaking. This was it; she had finally made it.