Fancy Pants had called another meeting of the Canterlot Progressive Society in hopes that this one wouldn't end in a borderline riot like last time. Ponies whispered annoyedly among themselves, frustrated over the impromptu nature of Fancy’s meeting; it was being held at the same time as the grand opening to an art gallery.

Fancy Pants, flanked by Fleur, banged his gavel and cleared his throat, “All attention forward please!”

The audience quieted down, progressively shifting their attention to the monocled unicorn.

“Now then,” started Fancy as he produced a small scrap of paper from under the podium, “I have here a petition. It contains signatures from many very influential ponies from throughout Equestria. I believe that if I could obtain even a few signatures from this audience, I could bring it to the princess and—”

One of the older mares stood up. “Scandalous! How dare you even consider tarnishing her majesty's eyes with a document of—” she said as her nose flared in disgust, “-petition.”

Fancy Pants frowned and banged the gavel once, “I merely wish to bring to her sovereign's attention that—”

“How would she not know? She knows everything!” one of the other posh ponies yelled, followed by waves of agreement.

“Now see here!” The echoes of the gavel's strikes rang throughout the hall as Fancy Pants attempted to restore order. “I am simply requesting—”

“Why should we listen to you anyway?” Upper Crust asked, “You're the one who let those barbarians from Ponyville run amok at the garden party!”

“Order, I say!” Fancy Pants protested, but it was too late. The entire audience had turned against him, and it was unlikely that he'd ever gain their support. Fancy gritted his teeth.

“Fine!” he yelled, teleporting to the hall’s entrance, “make your own blasted choices!”

“You ruffians can freeze in Tartarus.” he mumbled as he walked out the door and into the street.

“Absolute savages, the lot of them.” Fancy complained. Fleur was daintily pacing behind him, completely unfazed by Fancy's dramatic exit.

He continued his audible monologue, “Aristocrats and reactionaries! Bah! If I was twenty years younger, I'd rig up my airship and...”

Fancy Pants lurched forward and his feet refused to budge another inch, and he contemplated his last words, “Wait a Manehattan minute. I'm not some old colt who can't chew his own food! I'm Fancy Pants, explorer and playcolt extraordinaire! Who needs the forsaken bourgeoisie! I'll do it myself!” he exclaimed.

He whipped around to face Fleur, who was watching his inspiration with amusement.

“Come now, Fleur! I have a plan!”

“Are you going to the Fancy Cave?” she asked in a bored tone.

“Stop calling it that! And yes!” he said. He suddenly picked up Fleur and tossed her on his back and took off toward his mansion.

For a pony as wealthy as Fancy Pants, his mansion was rather modest. It was more of a large house with an meticulously kept lawn and a few fountains in a front. A small gate surrounded it, and the gate entrance bore the initials 'FP' in intricate lettering.

Fancy Pants smashed right through it, making a note to replace it when he returned to Canterlot. As he dashed through the mansion's main lobby, he tossed Fleur onto his butler.

“I'll be gone for a few days! Get my brother Prissy to stand in for me at the parties, will you?”

Without waiting for an answer, he ran out the back door and down the flight of stairs that had been carved into the mountainside. He quickly made his way down the steps and into a rather small hole at the end of the stairway.

He navigated through the cramped corridor, which eventually opened up in a huge hangar, carved out inside the mountain. In the middle was his masterpiece, an airship that he had christened the Grand Royale.

It was massive; likely the biggest non-dragon object capable of lifting into the skies. The entire hull of the ship was coated with imperial purple. The balloon that suspended it was a brilliant cobalt blue, and a golden trim accented the ship's regal appearance. Three large silver propellers lined each side of the ship, along with smaller pair on each side of the bow for extra control.

Fancy pushed a large red button next to the entrance, and the entire hangar began to shake. Little rocks and dust fell from the ceiling as an entire section of the mountain pulled upward, creating a gargantuan exit to pilot the airship out of. As the last of the thick wall withdrew, Fancy boarded his creation and walked towards the navigation room.

Just as he was opening the door, the hairs on his back stood on end as he felt a sudden surge of magic and the unmistakable bzzzt of a pony teleporting.

He turned around to see Princess Luna, who looked rather taken aback at the hanger she had just transported herself into.

“Your majesty!” Fancy Pants exclaimed, and immediately bowed.

After a sufficiently awkward time had passed, Luna nodded.

“You may rise.”

Fancy got up and dusted himself off. He had only ever seen Celestia's sister a few times, and she could hardly be described as sociable.

Luna was the first to break the silence. “We heard of your plan to petition sister.”

Fancy rubbed his head, “Ah, yes. That business. I'm afraid it's old news now. I was just about to—”

“Our sister knows what you were hoping to do, and of this cavern you've hidden in her mountain.”

Fancy coughed, “Ahem. Yes, well. You see, I—”

“That is why she wanted us to give you this.” Luna said, summoning a small scroll and unwrapping it in front of Fancy Pants.

The unicorn adjusted his monocle as he read the parchment.

By decree of her royal majesty Celestia, Rightful sovereign of the Principality of Equestria and Protector of the Sun, does hereby bequeath commission the Grand Royale and its captain Fancy C. Pants.

This letter does give full legal right for captain Fancy C. Pants and lieutenant Her Royal Highness Princess Luna to seize all unlawful cargo belonging to illegal pretenders to the changeling throne, and hereby orders all seized cargo and vessels hereunto mentioned to be transferred in ownership and become rightful crown property of Queen Vertex XII.

Signed in full witness and in good faith,

Princess Celestia

(PS, I’ve known about your little hideout for a while.)

“How did she—”

(PSS, millionaires don’t buy two hundred cases of custom-made silent dynamite for no reason, Fancy.)

“I say,” Fancy muttered, and turned the parchment toward Luna, “Is this—is this a letter of marque?”

“Indeed.”

Fancy turned back to the letter. “And according to this, you're to be my lieutenant?” He looked at her, quizzically.

Luna averted her gaze for a second, tapping her hoof on the deck. “Sister...wishes me to come with you. She wants me to see the world beyond our kingdom.”

Fancy paused momentarily, before beaming excitedly. “Capital! Well then, let's not keep the changelings waiting, shall we?”

Fancy turned and headed into the navigation room. Luna followed with guarded hesitation.

In the center of the command center was the ship's wheel, which sat upon an elevated platform. Around it was the glass that allowed a full panoramic view of the outside, and below the windows sat a few swivel chairs, which were bolted to the ground and appeared serve as the stations of the ship's non-existent crew.

“Here it is!” Fancy exclaimed, “the nerve center of my brainchild, as it were. Navigation is done at the wheel, all the secondary tasks are handled by the crew at their stations.”

Luna looked at the empty seats before turning to Fancy. “You do not appear to have a crew.”

Fancy hopped up on the wheel platform and turned to her. “Funny you should mention that. My original plan was to swing by some of the more unsavory ports of Equestria to gather one, but your appearance changes things quite a bit. With your magic, you could be an entire crew by yourself!”

Luna frowned, but Fancy continued, “I'll be a second getting Gyrole ready for launch,” he said as he produced an absolute tome of a manual and tossed it on the floor in front of Luna, “In the meantime, everything you need to know about the ship's operation is right there.”

Fancy turned his attention to a box of knobs and levers to the immediate right of the wheel as Luna cracked open the thick bindings and began flipping through the pages. After a few minutes of playing with the settings, he called back to Luna.

“I'm finishing up early, dear. Almost—”

“Done.” Luna stated, closing the book with a loud [thump for emphasis.

“I say.” Fancy mumbled, and grabbed hold of the wheel. “Well then, no more dillydallying! Lieutenant Luna, to your station!”

Luna teleported to the crew's work area and assumed control of all their machinery. She walked up to panel of the station that displayed all the areas of the ships and their conditions with a flip display. She retained control of the machinery and nodded to Fancy that she was ready.

“Right then!” Fancy exclaimed, pushing large black button to his left. The ship roared to life, and the propellers began to slowly turn.

“Engines one through six, lieutenant?” Fancy called down to Luna.

“Operational.”

“VTOL propellers?”

“Operational.”

“Automated coal plant and air brakes?”

“Operational and ready.”

“I feel forty years younger!” Fancy hollered as he pushed the propeller lever to half-speed and the colossal airship slowly maneuvered its way out of the hangar. Just as the Grand Royale was nearly free, Fancy locked the wheel in place and bolted outside onto the deck. With the ship running on autopilot, he picked up a rock that had fallen from the cavern roof and hurled it as hard as possible at the gate button.

The stone managed to push the mechanism far enough began to begin raising the gate, and Fancy headed back inside. The giant mountain closed right behind the Grand Royale, and the airship sailed into the sky.

Fancy’s butler, who can come down to see if his master needed assistance, sighed as he watched the giant gate close shut and inspected the possibly broken button.

“Why does he always close the gate like that?”

“Now that we're in the clear,” Fancy said as he walked up behind a concentrating Luna, “I believe I need to settle one thing.”

Luna jerked with surprise as Fancy stuffed something onto her head. She nearly lost control of the ship as she lifted the object on her head to see that Fancy had put an old-fashioned admiral hat on her.

“On this ship, you are Lieutenant Luna, not Princess Luna. And you may address me as Captain, or Mr. Pants, or Fancy Captain, if you prefer.”

Luna shook her head and returned to her duties.

“And so, we journey into the wild blue yonder!” said Fancy as he climbed back up on the pedestal and assumed manual control of the wheel, “And if we make certain buggy queen's life miserable in doing so, all the better!”

~

It took a few hours for the swarm to completely dig out all the larvae from Deep Tunnel. When the last one had been pulled from its hexagonal home, the changelings began to congregate at the entrance. Shutter Shot, who had set up camp in the central chamber and was napping, woke up to see the last changeling exiting the chamber.

As his eyes drifted open, the changeling turned to him and bestowed the greatest act of kindness one of the drones had extended to him thus far:

“We leave. Soon.” the drone said, and disappeared into the winding tunnels.

Not wanting a repeat of Rolling Hooves, he quickly scrambled up and bounded towards the tunnel that led to the largest entrance. He huffed and heaved as he bounded toward the changelings preparing to leave, some of them already hovering in mid-air.

“Hold on!” he called, and every changeling turn around and glared at him. He skidded to halt and averted his gaze, blushing.

“Uh, could one of you give me a lift?”

Acid looked at Brood and exasperatedly pointed at Shutter, causing Brood to shake his head in response. Acid merely rolled his eyes and took to the skies, along with his entire army. Brood turned toward one the changelings and gestured at Shutter Shot.

The drone seemed to whine in protest until Brood hissed and angrily buzzed his one good wing. The drone sunk down and walked over to the unicorn pony. Defeated, the changeling picked up Shutter none-too-gently and followed Brood out of the caves and back onto the cliff edge.

As soon as they were over land, the drone dropped Shutter on his rump at a height much higher than necessary as all the changelings landed and the two commanders began talking amongst themselves. Acid pointed toward some grey mountains in the distance, and Brood nodded. With a sharp cry from both of them, their drones immediately dropped into file and began marching behind them, almost all of them carrying larvae salvaged from Deep Tunnel.

Ignoring the pain in his flank, Shutter ran up to Brood.

“Where are we going now?” he asked, looked back at the changeling army carrying a future generation.

“Gray Nest,” Brood replied, “home of our queen. We will deliver the children to her.”

“Queen Vertex?”

As soon as he uttered her name, the entire battalion of drones stopped and raised one hoof.

“ALL HAIL QUEEN VERTEX!” they cried.

“All hail Queen Vertex!” Brood replied, his support genuine but more reserved.

Acid mumbled something that sounded like “All hail Queen Vertex.”, but Shutter couldn’t be sure.

Their march continued for most of the day until it was once again time to set up camp, and each division of drones repeated their ritual for gathering firewood and lighting it. Commander Acid once again took up his role as storyteller, and Shutter didn’t even have to ask for clarification as Brood began to translate to Shutter without prompt,

The Vowst woke.

She saw the land that she had created now covered in life. But this life was simple, and without direction. She lauded their beauty but pitied their ignorance.

“They must know what must be done,” she said, and reached into the vastness of her own mind and pulled out just a small sliver of her own knowledge. She scattered it on the winds, and all life soon knew the gift of intelligence, and emotion.

The life that received the knowledge of strength became the buffalo, harsh and unbudging.

The life that received the knowledge of skill became the griffins, masters of art and war.

The life that received the knowledge harmony became the ponies, greatest in brotherhood and peace.

And so did Vowst pass down every aspect of knowledge to all the races, but noticed that she had overlooked the tiniest speck of life, still stupid and helpless.

“For you,” she said, “I will give you the greatest gift of all.”

She imparted upon that speck of life the knowledge of change, and that life became the first changeling queen. Vowst bestowed upon her the name Metamorphosis, and sent her out into the world.

The changelings all showed their appreciation for Acid’s storytelling by chattering and buzzing. Shutter turned to Brood.

“Is that the whole story?” he asked.

“No. There is one more part.”

Shutter raised an eyebrow, “You said that it’s bad luck to tell the entire story to one night. Why?”

Brood took a deep breath, “Three hundred years ago, one of our greatest generals told the entire story before the night of a great battle.”

“Uh huh.”

“During that battle, he won a great victory.”

“That sounds like good luck.”

“He became arrogant, and blind to his weaknesses. Shortly after his victory, he lost his entire army in a surprise attack.”

Brood turned, “That general was Commander Acid’s ancestor. Do not mention this to him unless you enjoy your digestive system staying inside of you.”

“Eh, okay.” he answered. He made a mental note to just avoid talking to Acid altogether and began searching for a place to sleep. When he found one, he made himself as comfortable as he could and nodded off.

~

The next morning, the drones woke up even earlier than usual, and they were busy talking amongst themselves. They seemed much more active, and if Shutter was getting any better at reading changeling emotion, happier.

He shook himself out of his droopy state and looked for Brood, who was consumed in the sight of their destination: A towering mountain range, gray as ash. It stood stubbornly in the flat and unforgiving land that surrounded it, much like the balky changelings that inhabited it . Shutter squinted at the large mountain range, and could just barely make out what seemed like a slightly darker grey city in the foreground.

“Is that Gray Hive?”

“Yes.”

“That’s where the queen lives, right? The real one?”

Brood slowly turned and raised a brow. He sighed and began to follow Acid, who had already begun marching toward the city.

The journey to the rebel capital did not take long, and within only a few hours the city’s details became much more apparent. Gray Hive appeared to be an ancient castle or fort, long since taken over by the changelings. Green catacombs and hives permeated the structure, and only the castle’s keep and outermost walls appeared intact.

When both armies came to the gate’s entrance, a small changeling poked his head over the ramparts. He gave the two armies a look-over before barking at someone out of sight, and the giant iron gate began to rise. Shutter noticed both commanders seemingly puffing themselves up and they marched triumphantly into the city, carrying a full bounty of larvae and news of a victorious siege. Changelings everywhere emerged from their catacombs and subsections of the keep to greet their heroes, hissing with joy and jubilee.

Shutter kept low to the ground, unsure of how these changelings would react to him. He certainly didn't risk taking a picture, as the flash of the device would likely seal his fate.

He wasn’t even sure they knew he was there, and he wanted to keep it that way. As the parade made its way toward the castle and he passed by an alley between two hive clusters, a holey appendage wrapped around his mouth and dragged him into the darkness as the parade went on without him.

The unicorn protested with muffled screams, which only caused his kidnapper to squeeze him tighter. He must have been unfortunate enough for nobody to have seen him taken into the shadows.

“Ssssssss!” it hissed, “Quiet!”

The reporter ceased his cries for help, and opened his eyes. He was at the mercy of a stocky changeling with a broken horn.

“I am not going to hurt you.” he said, reassuringly. “I am just going to take you to the castle.

His abductor removed his hoof from Shutter’s mouth, who looked back at the parade reception.

“Can’t I just go in with them?” he asked, pointing to Acid and Brood.

“They will deliver the larvae first. That will take time, and the queen wants to speak to you as soon as possible.”

“Queen Vertex?”

The scruffy changeling groaned, and let go of Shutter. He raised one hoof.

“All hail Queen Vertex!” he shouted, and instantly returned to restraining shutter.

“Now, castle.” he said, and his horn began to glow.

“Wait!” Shutter screamed, “not agai—”

The spell hit Shutter straight in the gut, and he went down like a sack of bad cheese. The changeling tossed the pony over one shoulder and began to fly to the highest tower of the keep, no other changeling in the city any the wiser.

~

Shutter awoke, once again, suspended in a changeling prison of green sticky goo. He didn’t even bother struggling this time, and spend his energy trying to get his bearings.

He looked around his new location, and was surprised at the its regality. Furniture carved out of stone laid about the room, and quite a few paintings dotted the wall. He knew he was still near changelings though when he saw that the sticky green goop didn’t stop at his temporary prison, and practically served as the wallpaper and carpet for the room.

As he swiveled his head around, he began to hear steps echo outside the door, and he turned toward it to see the thick wooden entrance creak open. The stranger that came in closed the door behind her, and turned toward him.

Looking  him straight in the eyes was a very tall and very lanky changeling female.

Her hair was jet black, and on the peak of her head was a small green crown. Her horn was extremely long, like Chrysalis’, but it bend backward at the very tip. Her eyes were midnight green, and so was the color of her thorax.

“Brood won’t shut up about you.” she said as she walked up to him, her expression a mixture between boredom and fatigue.

Shutter looked at the tall changeling’s crown, and then back at her. “Queen Vertex?”

“No,” she replied and assumed the pose of a prissy schoolgirl, altering her voice to an annoying falsetto. “I’m Princess Celestia! I’ve whisked you away for a pretty pony princess adventure!”

Her imitation finished, she reverted back to her dour disposition.

“But seriously, we need to have a talk.”