//------------------------------//
// Chapter 10: Moving on 
// Story: In Place Of A Princess, You Shall Have A Queen! 
// by Seahorn 
//------------------------------//

24th of the tenth moon, 1550 A.E. (After Equestria) 06:00 p.m. - Quarantine Area of the changeling hive

"How is she doing?" asked Chrysalis. She and her brothers were waiting outside the Queen's quarantine room. "Not good," replied the sentinel medic. "The queen has hidden the symptoms and blocked transmission through her magic, yet the hoof pox has continued to spread within her body. I am afraid she has got just a few hours at best."
Chrysalis sighed. "Okay, just tell us when she regains consciousness, and use whatever means necessary to not get infected yourself. All needed magic will be provided." The medic gave a slight nod, then went back into the chamber.
After the crowd had calmed down, many were in shock to see the queen lying limp on the stage, clearly suffering from the hoof pox. Some were angry that the queen denied them the surface world while she herself was afflicted. Others were sympathetic towards her, as they knew she led the war effort even in great pain. 
Before the situation could escalate any further however, Pharynx managed to organize the sentinels in the crowd to form some sort of authority. With that authority, Chrysalis dispersed the crowd with the promise of an impending migration to the surface, and brought the queen to quarantine.
It had been a few hours since their arrival, but the queen was showing no sign of consciousness. Chrysalis was debating whether or not she should just give up when the medic came rushing out of the room. "Her majesty has awoken from her coma, yet she's still very ill. When I asked her for any needs, she urgently asked for you three."
Chrysalis gulped. This was the moment she was dreading. "Ready your shields, boys." The queen at this stage would be incredibly weak, but the disease would be VERY contagious. The magic shield would act both as a defense from the queen's last-ditch attack and as an air pocket to keep out the vile disease.
As they entered the dimly lit room, they could see their monarch sitting on what would presumably be her deathbed. However, her fearsome glare and imposing presense wasn't lost to the disease yet. Even though they had ousted her mere hours ago, they still bowed to her out of instinct. The standoff continued for a few seconds, before the queen relented, and made a beckoning motion with a hoof. They gathered around her with cautious steps, still wary of her lashing out in a last-ditch attempt to regain her crown.
However, the queen did no such thing, and instead put up her hoof to stroke Thorax's shield. She spoke in a raspy, tired voice. "Congratulations on the success of your coup, your majesties," she hissed. "I presume you will try to assimilate into Equestria?"
"Yes," replied Chrysalis. "We will go to the surface where there is nearly infinite love. We'll make sure our hive prospers,  more than you ever managed to."
The queen only snorted, "Oh, please. Miss Cater Pillar, we all know you only want Equestria to fall."
Chrysalis froze. She hadn't heard that name in three decades. The queen laughed, "When I asked you whether or not you wanted to be a changeling, you were but a broken pony, devoid of love, hope, and a purpose in life. At that moment, however, your emotions suddenly changed. Suddenly it was filled with anger, hate, and a burning desire for revenge. Thirty years later, I still can feel it emanating strongly from you. Honestly, isn't it what you are striving for?"
Chrysalis bit her lip. The queen wasn't wrong. Even after all these years, whenever she thought about her time at the surface, she still felt that familiar bubbling in her stomach that wanted to hurt the ponies who had destroyed what she had built up there. It was so great that she almost killed...
"You're right," she concluded. "I still want revenge. I still hate ponykind for what they did to me, and I have never regretted my choice to join the hive. Ever."
"But the in the last few days, after you gave me that execution order, I have realized that I care for more than that now." 
She calmly continued, "I want our pod to live without persecution. I want to contribute to the hive's prosperity, repaying it for their acceptance. For these, my queen, come before my selfish desires."
The queen stared at her for a long time, possibly scanning her emotions. Then she broke a small smile. "My, oh my, our hive's future is going to be... interesting."
"Well, I suppose in the end, this all went well. As you can clearly see, I have been infected with the pox when the infection was hitting our hive. I knew I wasn't going to make it, so I tried to make you my successor today. Needless to say, things didn't go exactly as I had hoped," she chuckled.
Thorax gave her a sorry look. "Then why didn't you approve of my plan to treat the disease? You could have lived longer, healthier, happier..."
He was cut off as the queen suddenly shot up and slammed her hoof into his shield with unexpected vigor. Thankfully for him, the shield still held. "Because the hive is not my own!"
The queen lay back, and took a deep breath. "The queen works for the survival of all changelings. At that time, for us to survive, we needed to win the war. All else was secondary. Let that be my final lesson to all three of you."
She began coughing, and the liquid that spat out of her mouth was bloody green in color. It was the final stage, and time was running out fast. "One... last... thing. Chrysalis... do not... take... Equestria's... throne," she said with blood curdling from her neck. "For it... will.... only... bring you.... ruin..."
As she finished those words, she suddenly burst into golden flames, as the last of the queen's magic came to all three of them with a blinding light, followed by a cool gush of wind. After all of that was over, all they found left of the old queen was her age-old crown with three spikes lying gently on the bed.
After what seemed like an eternity, Chrysalis said her farewell. "May the earth below welcome your tortured soul."





31st of the tenth moon, 1550 A.E. (After Equestria) 08:00 a.m. - Throne room of the changeling hive

Many were noticeably shaken when they entered the large gates that lead to the room. They had visited this room hundreds of times in their service to the hive, yet they hadn't seen anyling other than the queen herself sitting on that particular chair. Within the room, there was a round table with seats encircling it. One of the seats were noticably larger than the others, and Chrysalis was sitting on it, greeting the arrivals with an uneasy expression herself. 
A trusty hoof from both her sides made her smile, however. Wherever she was, she could count on her brothers. In truth, when the former queen passed away, she didn't want to bear the crown alone. Hadn't the queen specified that her last lesson went to the three of them? Yet the other two insisted that the hive needed a single leader, and since she was the unofficial successor of the queen, she was the one who had to sit in that cursed chair.
All the summoned changelings filed in, filling the table one by one. After all the counselors were seated, Chrysalis spoke up. "Greetings, everyling. I welcome you with an open hoof and a heavy heart, as we have to go through one of the most fundamental changes to our hive in its thousands of years of history - all without the guidance and knowledge of our late queen."
Murmurs echoed through the ranks. Many changelings simply weren't used to the idea of regular council meetings. The queen was a dictatorial ruler, and preferred to give commands rather than listen to council. She didn't need to - much like Equestria's princesses, changeling queens were immortal, and her experience usually dealt with most affairs quite effectively. However, now that experience was gone, and the entirety of the hive would need to get used to this new system of governance.
She continued, "After the queen's death, myself, Thorax, and Pharynx have worked day and night to stabilize our love magic reserves and resume collection. I am pleased to say that by this point, we finally reached an equilibrium of income and expenditure. However, the amount of progress made on our true goal of immigration has been minimal. As you have been informed, today's meeting was convened to discuss what issues we have to consider in our plan, and how to avoid them."
There was a long silence before the record-keeper of the forager class, Essex, spoke up. "I think we need to first consider our method of going to the surface. The total population of this hive rounds up to about 700,000 changelings. According to reports from our foragers stationed throughout Equestria, the most conservative estimate of the Equestrian population is over 6 million. Now, I have no experience in sentinel duty, but I think taking down a nation 10 times our size is logistically impossible. Maybe we should take a diplomatic approach."
However, some sentinels didn't agree. They had fought too many foes, and every time, secrecy was their greatest weapon. One of such believers, 1st sentinel corp leader Ezekiel, spoke up. "That may be true, but ponies aren't very trusting of strangers, either. Even if Celestia allows us to simply harvest love without deterrence, which I highly doubt, the general pony population may be hostile towards us. Recently, a zebra who was living in the Everfree moved into Ponyville for the first time. I only was able to check while I was leaving, yet she had been completely shunned by the town's residents. If some stripes had made that much of a difference, what will our frills and holed hooves look like to the ponies?"
"Then how about we extend our current operations?" asked Thorax. "Our foragers currently only collect love from at a distance, and minimize prolonged contact with ponies in fear of discovery. What if we use our pod relationships to connect with pony familial customs, and maintain our disguise constantly? That way, we don't have to battle the royal guard, nor do we have to fear alienation for our species," he suggested. Many counselors nodded their heads, including Ezekiel and Essex.
"That sounds like the best option so far," said Chrysalis. "However, there is a hitch. If the population of Equestria increases by nearly ten percent all of a sudden, it is incredibly likely that the royal guard will be alerted, who will in turn inform Celestia. We need to make sure to bring the head of the royal guard onto our side, in order to keep such information from reaching her."
"Unfortunately, your majesty, that is highly unlikely," said chief intelligence officer Nerys as he shuffled through his files. "The current captain of the royal guard, prince Shining Armor, has a completely spotless record. No accounts of corruption, high scores in both military studies and for good conduct, and according to a recent survey, implicitly trusted by the populace of Equestria."
Chrysalis held the urge to facehoof. She couldn't have been less lucky with the draw. Why did Equestria had to have its finest captain in decades, when she was planning her big move? "Is there any weaknesses that we could find? Within his service record, tests, whatever?" She inquired desperately.
Nerys shuffled once again. "Let's see, military strategy, no... defensive spells, no... leadership, no.... I'm sorry, your majesty, it seems as if this lad is spotle- wait, there is one. Unlike most powerful unicorns, tests confirmed that he can be subject to powerful mind control magic, but only if it is exerted with a force of over 4.5... ponypower?" Nerys was clearly confused with this scale, but Chrysalis knew it from the back of her head.
So they kept using that metric long after the inventor ran away, she mused. "You don't have to worry, Nerys. That amount is within my capability. The only problem is, how can I go mind-control him without getting detected? Does he have any close relatives that I can replace with ease?"
Nerys checked her files. "His close relatives include Night Light, the Canterlot lantern-keeper, Twilight Velvet, a novelist, and Twilight Sparkle who is Celestia's personal student! However, he is a royal guard, and is most likely to remain in his post for long periods of time. I'm afraid any of these personas won't help in interacting with him very much."
Chrysalis was undaunted. "You called him a prince, you don't get to be a prince if you're not married to a princess. Does he have any royal connections?" 
Thorax chuckled, "The foragers who report back all talk about this wedding that's about to happen in three months. It looks as if he is getting married to princess Caden-Ow!"
He glared at Pharynx who had kicked him under the table, but quickly froze as he realized his mistake. He and his brother were the only ones who knew what that name meant to the birth of their queen.
Chrysalis slowly turned to looked at him, fire dancing in her eyes. "What you're saying," she stood up in excitement, "is that if I manage to replace Cadance, I can gain unlimited access to this captain?"
"Y-yes," said Thorax, clearly shaken.
"Well noted," she said as a smile quietly crept up her lips. The late queen was wrong. She could get her revenge and help the hive at the same time. She silently vowed to herself, in the next few months, to let the world know of this fact.