"Your Highness." All eyes turned to the one drone daring to speak at such a tense time. "Your pardons, Highness, but... Maybe we could just take the love we want?"

Chrysalis scowled at him, her rage scarcely hidden. "And how do you plan to do that, before or after they kill you?"

"If we do not break their rules, they will not hurt us." The drone lowered their head to the ground. "Many are desperate for something to love. Is that not why you came here?"

"Don't presume to know my motivations." She took an angry step forward, but didn't close the distance. Some of her anger ebbed, her face turning thoughtful. "Mmm... Perhaps you are right, on the other hoof. It is long past time... we recharged. We need a hive, a proper hive. New drones, a new generation..."

Another drone raised a hoof quickly. "I know several forms humans find appealing." Other hooves went up. Just about every'ling there had learned what shapes and acts drew lonely humans of any gender and orientation, even if they varied between them.

The room became lit for a moment as they showed them off, a great parade of suave men, shapely females, nerdy members of either biological sex and even inhuman forms to draw some eyes. Even their clothing was tailored to enhance their ability to draw eyes and attention, each specifically done for a particular type of human, for there were so many of those with different keys needed to unlock their hearts and draw out their love.

Chrysalis smiled softly, but it soon grew into a grin. "Yes... My loyal minions, you haven't been wasting time. Come, let's get to making a new hive." Her old plan, abandoned, simply tossed aside. Let the world deal with the mess she had made. "The humans will help us instead of getting in the way constantly. A refreshing change of pace..."

"Let us past," grunted a seapony with a box tethered around his midsection. "You're making me late!"

"No. You are blockaded." The fish crossed their fin-like arms, glaring at the seapony. "Go home."

Their guards came with spears ready, but the fish had spears too. They clashed, but neither race was a bloodthirsty one. They swung and poked, driving one another back before pressing back in, but neither side was giving up, and neither made blows that could actually hurt the other side.

There were more fish than there were sea ponies, and the battle was decided by that fact alone, the sea ponies pushed back into their part of the ocean. They were being blockaded by a race they had known as neighbors.

Novo emerged, done up in her best, body sparkling with the makeups and jewelry that hung from her in a display of her power. "What is this?! Why are you stopping my people from their duties?"

A fish saluted the foreign royalty. "Good day, Queen Novo. We mean you no harm, but the humans must be stopped, we can't fight them directly, but you can't be allowed to trade with them."

Novo raised one finely-arranged brow. "Need I remind you that I can still contact them?"

Several fish glanced at one another before the one speaking swam a little closer. "You can't leave."

"I didn't argue that. The humans will learn of this, then they will become angry... I don't think either of our people want them being angry. Come now, dear neighbors, surely you don't want that." She spread her hoof-fins. "It would end so poorly, and I don't think either of us wishes to swim down this current."

The fish were becoming nervous, their formation losing some of its cohesion. "That is why you can't leave," implored the fishy guard. "No one comes or goes."

"They speak in squeaks," explained Novo with a delicate smile. "Like a dolphin, but even higher, sharper, able to penetrate the very waves. You cannot stop the sounds, and they will, if they haven't already, hear about this. Come, put aside those things." She closed the distance with a flap of her powerful tail, gently pushing his sharp spear aside. "We are friends, let us not forget that. I will tell them it was all just a mis--"

Her eyes went wide as she drifted back and away, a spear jutting from her side where one of the fish had driven it into her. It had been a moment of panic, imagining what the humans could do, that they were already on the way. It had been fear and terror, but the deed had been done.

She coughed, blood swirling from her mouth in a way that could only happen in the water.

Her guards advanced with a unified roar. The renewed clash was dramatically different then the first. Instead of wood striking wood, with jabs being deftly avoided, with either side seeming satisfied with showing their will, her guards were incensed with her injury. Blood could only be paid in blood, and the water began to darken as the second frey began.

Princess Skystar swam up amidst the chaos, wrapping her arms around her mother and swimming away, carrying her as swiftly as she could. Sure, she had been told to stay away, but just as the guards had rushed against her orders, she could not simply watch, not then.

She was not ignored. The fish tried to stop her with sharpened spears. She bobbed and weaved, holding her mother tight, tears in her eyes as she bared the thin cuts of tips that had come far too close to her form, but she wasn't impaled, not like her mother from whom a spear still jutted.

The guards closed around Skystar, trying to shield her from further interference. The sea was becoming cloudy with the spilled essence of those involved. Never had they stained the sea with violence. Blood in the water, it seemed both sides had lost all restraint.

The fish still had the advantage of numbers, and sea pony guards were being lanced and defeated one by one even as they fought with all they had. Their queen needed them, and they were not giving up their lives easily, claiming several fish before each was overcome, but they were being overcome.

With a great rushing noise of displaced water, a spear came from nowhere, as if driving itself. The fish scattered away from it, but it was hardly alone.

The humans had arrived. Not Americans, but Seaquestrian mer-humans. Wielding harpoon guns they hadn't needed before then, they proved that their American roots were still quite alive and well.

That isn't to say they were the best marksmen. Many flung harpoons found no marks, but the sudden reinforcements tilted the flow of battle. The fish broke and backed away in surprise, and the clash came to an uneasy end. The immediacy of the clash was broken. The fish and the guards were no longer in melee range. The queen had been taken away. There was no more reason to fight, and it stopped.

He had been Vice President. Then the international spy had casually stripped away the vice part of his title. Sure, he had entertained thoughts of becoming a president, maybe running later? It had all been thoughts for the future, never seriously considered.

There he was, seated behind the desk. The desk in the office. There was a war going on, and everyone expected him to handle it.

He was President Smith. He was an unassuming guy. He had figured that was half the reason the former-president had selected him to run alongside... He didn't have any big goals, and made no sweeping promises. He just wanted to do his job, and he had done reasonably well, he thought, doing what a Vice President should do.

He reached for the folders in front of himself and began sorting through them, catching up on the wealth of intelligence offered to him. He hadn't even had the briefing that most presidents got from the last president....

He pushed that thought aside. The war raged on, but it was in a holding pattern. With their coastal defenses shattered, American ships were pummeling the minotaur lands with barely any resistance being offered. Had they given up without bothering to mention it? That would be a rude way to keep America wasting its resources on missiles...

His phone rang and he jumped before reaching for it. "Hello?"

"Is President Crane there?" asked a young female voice. "I need to speak to him."

"This is President Smith. How can I help? Who is this?"

"Oh, again? Um, alright... This is Princess Skystar. My mother, Queen Novo, she's... hurt."

With a scowl, he grabbed a pen. "What happened?" He knew who Queen Novo was, most people at least knew of her.

"The fish, the Pisces! They were our neighbors and, you know, we got along just fine, until... this." She drew a wavering voice over the line. "She's hurt really bad."

While regrettable... "What did you want me to do?"

"Save her!" Skystar suddenly blurted. "Save us! They're only mad because of you! Stop it. Stop all of it!"

The phone went dead, leaving Smith holding an unresponsive headset. He set it down with a sigh, a hand moving to pinch the bridge of his nose. It wasn't an easy time to be a president.

Roland looked up from where he was reading a newspaper. Someone was knocking on his door. Clopping would be a better description, as that was clearly no hand that was rapping. He hadn't expected a visitor, to say nothing of an equine variety.

He set the paper aside and moved for the door. "Who is it?" He wasn't worried. As a former president, he had secret servicemen watching his house. If they were dangerous, they would have already acted. He opened the door to reveal the striped face of a zebra.

"(I greet you,)" spoke the zebra mare, dipping her head. "(In a lost tongue, and to congratulate you.)"

He blinked softly, backing up a little. "Come in?"

"Thank you. (Few are the species that hold to their language. I feel honored to meet one.)" She stepped inside, ears erect and dancing as she looked around. "(Though you no longer lead your people directly, you took charge of such an important thing. They are blessed to have such dedication.)"

He raised a finger. "(One thing. I thought you preferred to rhyme?)"

"(That would be rude.)" She turned to him with a genuine smile. "(I am speaking your language, not the forced one of this world. If only we could have done as you have, to keep our tongue. I learned, you taught me.)"

Wait, he had? "(I don't remember doing that.)"

"(Because you did not seek wealth. You left the key laying where any could find it, and I found it and took it up. Now I speak your tongue, amazing at its many properties.)" She raised a hoof to her chin. "(I should imagine others did the same, and you may never know them, but you have changed them.)"

"(I'm happy to hear that.)" He moved to claim a spot on his couch and gestured at a chair across from it. "(You know me, Roland Crane. Who do I have the pleasure of speaking with?)"

The Zebra stepped up onto the chair before settling down facing him. "(Human chairs are curiously built, but this one is nicely cushioned. I am) Haraka (which we believe was once a word for swiftness. Your name has prophetic meaning, I have learned. Bird of the famed lands; is it not fitting?)"

"Are you practicing that language again?" Roland's wife casually strolled in, pausing at the sight of Haraka. "Oh, hello there. I wasn't expecting company."

"A pleasure to meet you, wife of Crane. Your husband is wise, this much is plain. I apologize if I am intruding. Our meeting can be swiftly concluding."

"No, no," she assured, waving both hands, flat towards Haraka. "Enjoy yourself. I'll get some snacks." She wandered off towards the kitchen.

Author's Notes:

Chrysalis pivots her plans. Novo isn't treated in a queenly fashion. Skystar melts down in worry. Roland entertains a new guest.

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