The Great Pretender

by Diamond Sparkle


Chapter Two-Show Me Love

Over the next two days Queen Chrysalis longed to visit the central love well and almost drain it dry to temporarily heal herself, but she restrained herself from doing so and only increased the amount of love she was taking in by a small amount. She needed a really good Royal Banquet after all, partly because it was good manners when a fellow royal changeling came to visit, and partly because it was Queen Miasma who was coming to see her. Miasma! Why the buck did it have to be Miasma out of all the known royal Changelings in Equestria? If she finds out or even seriously suspects what has happened to me, she will take great pleasure in making me look weak and telling the nobles of my own Hive what has happened, so that they will mutiny and overthrow me. She and I have never had much of a liking for each other to say the least.

Just an hour before Queen Miasma showed up, all manner of fine love soups were prepared, along with dishes of crystalized love. There was plenty of the changeling staple diet of pony love of course, but there was also the love of griffins, minotaurs, zebra and reindeer. The different forms of love not only had different tastes but different textures as well. Most love tasted sweet, but there was also bittersweet love, tough love (that was very chewy and could easily damage fangs if the changeling was not careful) patriotic love (that made the changeling that ate it feel very nationalistic and that when made into a soup was the colour of the flag of the country in which it was ) and several other kinds of love, many of which were only eaten at a time like this. Unlike the Changeling equivalent of Hearthswarming at which all lings could feast until all three of their stomachs were full, the most rare forms of love were only for the higher ranking changelings from both Hives, although there was enough pony love for everyling . Armoured guards with halberds kept the other Changelings away from the love before Queen Miasma arrived, with ten of her own guards and a few of her government ministers.

Queen Miasma wore no finery except a golden circlet studded with pearls and worn over her chitin crown, but her chitin exoskeleton gleamed and was so clean that Queen Chrysalis could see herself reflected in it. Her violet eyes seemed to shine with health. "Queen Chrysalis, thank you so much for allowing this royal visit. You look wonderful-but a little bit overdressed? One wonders why you don't show off your chitin?"

"I am at a formal occasion, and at a formal occasion dignity and nobility are important. You and I just have different ways of looking good, that's all. I choose to do it with the royal regalia. Let's eat and get down to business, shall we?" After a lot of feasting and come talk about boundaries and other such things, Queen Miasma got up and said loudly "Queen Chrysalis, can you do this?"

There was a burst of purple fire and an alicorn stood there, and then another burst revealed a great griffin, before Queen Miasma took on her normal shape again.

"Well....not whilst I'm wearing my royal regalia I can't. It'll set it alight, and a silk robe lined with black and white ermine costs a lot of love tokens. And this one is centuries old. I'm a queen and I should look like one." Queen Chrysalis stuck her nose up in the air.

"I'm a Queen too and I'm almost naked. There is no shame in Equestria in being naked and most lings, ponies and other races are naked all the time. Take your royal robes off in front of us and show us how mighty you are."

Not only Queen Miasma's changelings but also many of her own brood started calling for her to strip and show Miasma that she was every bit as healthy and magical as she was. Bastard! If I refuse I will look weak in front of my own Hive and whispers will start about me. But if I do what she says and uncover myself, the whole Hive will see how horrible and withered I look and might well dethrone me right now.