//------------------------------//
// Chapter 3 
// Story: This Story Did Not Explode 
// by PseudoBob Delightus 
//------------------------------//

Queen Chrysalis sat at her throne, gazed into her orb, and cackled like a cartoon villain. "Muahahaha!"

"Your Maj-"

"MUAHAHAHAHA!" she continued.

"Your Majesty," a smooth-carapaced advisor interjected, "is this truly a laughing matter?"

The Queen almost continued laughing, but then settled down and cleared her throat. "Ahem. Yes, it is. The land of Equestria is in ruins. Her ponies have lost all hope. Victory will soon be ours!"

The advisor crinkled his wings, but tempted fate by continuing her line of questioning. "But, my Queen, is there not also a risk to our lands as well?"

The Queen scoffed. "Hah. Pessimism. They don't suspect a thing. Our best interceptors and impersonators have been at work for years, insinuating themselves into the highest levels of government. The fool Celestia and her little spawn-mate know naught but hatched lies. And even now, the buzzing! Do you hear it?"

There was a deafening silence all around them.

"The great armada swarms over their borders, conquering land by land while they sleep! I need only wait, and the blood of victory will spill into my very proboscis."

The advisor shrank back. She didn't quite have the hemocoel to tell Her Majesty that the armada was not, in fact, swarming over the borders; that they'd lost contact with most of the impersonators; or that the whole operation had been discovered by Luna's operatives and published in the New Moon Gazette months ago.

She also didn't quite know how to tell Her Majesty that there was a title hanging over her head, counting down the minutes until the story was supposed to explode...




... Which probably explained the chaos in Equestria more than anything they were doing.

Instead, she just smiled and laughed along with her Queen, hoping she wouldn't notice before it was too late.