//------------------------------// // Desperate Devising // Story: Devious Dining // by ImpossibleReflection //------------------------------// Desperate Devising A familiar dark equine form lurked in the shadows of the Everfree. Dark black slits surrounded by green panned over the area, behind them lie the fear of the many carnivorous creatures that lurk in the forest, the last week here had taught her that. She barely managed to survive the landing on such a brutal ejection from the capitol city of Equestria, Canterlot. Her minion army nowhere to be seen or heard. One instinct filled the changeling queen's mind, to feed, even though she had attained enough love to last for years off of Shining Armor, she needed to find more to heal properly. even more so because she lost much of that on impact just surviving. her other changelings would be even worse off than that. She needed to start a new, and for that Chrysalis needed love. She had not the faintest clue where to start, the last siege had taken much planning, with changelings gathering information for lengths of time. Now she was on her own, and had to fend for herself. After pondering on it for a a while she realized that she only had one thing she could do, enter the town under a disguise and try to find a way to attain the required sustenance. She was old, and she had attained a measurable sum of knowledge on espionage and fitting in. She knew the elements lived here, it was common knowledge and easy to attain. It is easy to fit in with a form that is familiar, with only slight modifications that similarity is present they are more likely to want to acquaint themselves with them, new pony or not. she knew just who to choose, the pony that supposedly got along with everypony else. The pink mare, she had the image in her mind, now all she had to do was alter it. she decided on a pegasus. she decided for a coat color that is less vibrant and chose a very light cream color, for the hair pink would not match the know lighter body color. so she cycled though lighter colors in her head, yellow, she thought not, blue, no. white, no. orange, no. she ended up picking yellow for all the other options did not quite seem right. For eyes she chose another familiar color, purple, and made it slightly more grey. giving the same cutie mark as the pink one, she flew off into the town to gather the required information. She had not accounted for the pony she designed her disguise off of to meet her so soon. In fact she had been surprised as she could not tell where she even came from, "Hi you're new here!" "Yes I just came to town," Chrysalis was formal as her normal self would be with a touch of kindness so the ponies would have better opinions of her. Her voice besides the etiquette was identical to the pink mare. "My name's Pinkie Pie, what's yours?" She thought about it, quickly, these ponies have really weird names and anything would do, and this pony appearing had been quite a, "Surprise." "Well, Surprise, you know what this calls for?" "No, I do not," she grew worried that her ruse might not have been successful. "A proper Pinkie Pie Welcome!" At that she began singing a wonderful melody to welcome Chrysalis to town. "Well thank you," Chrysalis had the same tone as Pinkie, but she had the formality and intonation of her normal self. "I need to go," said Pinkie before running off at ludicrous speed. The queen pondered back, trying to locate a memory of the pink mare's actual disposition, and to whether it was as She had just experienced. The results only hinted at it, but she decided not to change her demeanor, and to continue on observing the residents to see who she could replace. There was a cream colored mare, with pink and blue mane, three pieces of candy for a cutiemark, having cake with a teal unicorn. Both are smiling and irradiating love. They clearly love each other, but she needs strong love, much stronger than what they have. It will be very difficult to find something to fit her needs, but the queen is persistent. She knew of a place where many things could be overlooked at a time, the newspaper and magazine publishing houses have many documents of the residents. All she needed was an excuse to see them, and one that fit her needs soon arose. She would say she was writing a paper about romance, and would like to use a picture from their stocks to add as a cover, she knew most ponies where very kind to the point where they where easy to exploit. She soon came across one. Of course they agreed, and she chuckled internally at the ease of which it was attained. She was let roam free a large room filled with filing cabinets filled with pictures, and so she set off to finding a couple that could have enough love kindled between them to regenerate, and to signal the remaining changelings. There where many photographs, a small percentage of them having some romantic undertones, some just loving spirits. One was a grey pegasus mare, she could tell by her face that she loved everything. but what was peculiar was that she was flying while holding a broom between her legs and had a messenger bad with letters falling out, she was wearing a big red bow on her head. She found one of a large red stallion, and a pink mare, looking into each others eyes with enchanted symptoms . She let out a giggle, she knew of the love potion, it provided sweet tasting love, but not very nutritious. There was another image that confused her, it was a very tall scrawny pony in a suit, she noted that the picture must have been out of focus because it had no discernible face. Then her eyes sparkled with anticipation, she found the perfect pair of ponies. She found two mares that where familiar. One very blue, the other purple in a old wizard costume. Chrysalis noted the looks in the eyes of the lunar princess, she was very happy simply being in the company of the purple mare. While Twilight herself was also enjoying the conversation whatever it may be. She could tell they where rather reserved on love, and therefore had much to give. With the strength the two of them possess, if she where to feed off of both of them, there will be no stopping her. The looks in their eyes, had chrysalis growing hungry, even in this photograph the love was almost coming of the picture, and cameras don't even capture that. She had her targets now she just needed a plan to put through to feed off of both of them. She took the photo graph and left. Though before she could gather her thoughts and lay out a plan she needed a place to stay and plan this out. Somewhere where she could stay and not have to work to pay it off. Or the work would be simple and easy. she thought it over, her possibilities where rather small in number for where she could stay to collect her thoughts. Though gathering thoughts was about to be more difficult as a flamboyant pink mare appears next to her. "Hiya! follow me!" the pink mare trotted off in a hurry. Chrysalis stood in wonder as to what had just occurred. Then Pinkie Pie trotted backwards, her legs moving in ways that looked wrong, as if no pony should be physically able to do that. "I said follow me!" upon which she wrapped a hoof around Chrysalis. Her only thoughts where that she had been discovered and any attempts to escape would end up worse off than simply going along with it. She did however try to struggle, but to no avail, Pinkie had plans, and chrysalis had no way of stopping her without alerting the entire. Upon being led across town she noticed the angles of the shadow. She figured she must have been looking through photographs for hours.UP ahead of her, she noticed a bakery, to which the pink mare was leading her. She had terrible images in her mind of being strapped down in a dark basement and painfully interrogated with a plethora of sharp instruments, and probably never leaving with her soul intact. She instead was once again surprised by what she had met, a party, a large banner with her name on it, a gaggle of ponies jumping out and yelling "Surprise" giggling, and some outright laughing, after saying it. "Surprise," was a delayed shout, "Ponyfeathers, missed it again," muttered the pink mare. Chrysalis had definitely not expected this, and once having her empty heart achieved normal rates and her breathing calmed down, she looked around. This was not a trial, nor an interrogation. It was a happy get together, apparently to welcome her to Ponyville, if she was to believe the banner hanging on the far wall. She smiled when she saw a particular lavender mare near the punch bowl, talking to another element, that she could care less about, she was suddenly feeling thirsty. As she walked over to the punch bowl, Pinkie Pie followed, intending to introduce her to two of her best friends, she preferred to introduce new ponies to her closest friends because they where easiest to introduce. Chrysalis nonchalantly greeted them. One of them squeaked and backed away a few steps. Chrysalis took a cup of punch, and took a small sip. She opened her mouth to speak, but was quickly interrupted. "Hi Twilight, hi Fluttershy, this is my new friend Surprise. And look, her cutie mark is like mine, which means she's a party pony like me!" Pinkie wrapped a hoof around Chrysalis' neck, "I just know we're going to throw some great parties!" "Yes, we must have one soon, it will be a lovely time," by accident she put emphasis on 'love' sending a worry down her spine, it soon settled as apparently nopony had noticed. "yeah, but you still have to have lots of fun at this one, here let me introduce you to the rest of the ponies, then we can dance." Chrysalis couldn't dance, but she was excellent at evading such problems, "I am actually not that fond of being the center of attention, I do not much like parties to tell the truth. However, I am good at planning parties," Raiding parties, she specified mentally. Now all she had to do was to last through the party, which only lasted a few hours, she was there till only Pinkie, and the rest of the elements where there. This made her nervous for they could easily defeat her given the opportunity. Though she had an idea, "Um Pinkie Pie, I do not have anywhere to stay, is there some place I would be able to stay the night, or where you could direct me to? I am also very short on funds so I cannot really afford anything." She was going to be exploiting the caring ponies again, it always worked. The purple mare perked up at this, "Ooh you could stay at my house, I just bought a new book on sleepovers, and I'm dying to try it out." She went over her options in her head, no others where making themselves apparent. She would be staying at the place of her intended target, giving much time and opportunity to gain information on Twilight. Though sleepovers tended to involve anything but sleep. It was a quick decision. "Yes, thank you very much Miss Sparkle, I will take you up on your generous offer," she cooed in a flattering to twilight, to see how easy it was to bring out a reaction. It had little effect, she knew that with someone reserved as this, the love would be built up, ripe and ready for harvesting.