//------------------------------//
// Chrysalis (part2) 
// Story: Winning, and the pitfalls therein. 
// by RandomNPC 
//------------------------------//

Twilight stood in front of the door to her brother's quarters, simply staring at the slab of wood as though it might contain all of the answers to the universe.  She was trying to give an outward appearance of being calm and collected, but her thoughts and emotions were anything but.

Over the past two weeks, she had been wracked by paranoia regarding one of her oldest friends, had her suspicions apparently confirmed, had to hide a bubbling hatred while putting together a sabotaged wedding, and finally had the target of all of her emotions revealed to have been some sort of shape-shifting-bug-monster-pony thing.  She had accidentally stopped an invasion of the country while trying to ruin the life of a pony she had once loved like a sister, and then found out that that same pony had actually been being held in captivity in potentially terrible conditions for nearly a month.

Looking at things rationally, there was no reason for her earlier suspicions of Cadence to be discounted just because something terrible had happened to Cadence.  On the other hoof, just thinking that made Twilight feel like a cad, given the circumstances.

She could just try her original plan – observing Cadence and trying to determine what type of pony she was in reality – except that Cadence's current mental state might not be entirely representative of her normal self.  Multiple weeks of malnutrition, fear, and imprisonment could easily leave long term scars on Cadence's psyche, not to mention short term damage.  If Twilight based her opinion of Cadence off of observations made while Cadence was suffering from mental trauma, it would be unlikely to be the most reliable set of data she had ever collected.

Should I just confront her about things instead then?  Twilight tossed that idea out with only the briefest consideration.  Cadence would be in a fragile state right now, and Twilight wouldn't ever be able to forgive herself if she hurt her old foalsitter over some paranoia.  Yet, just leaving things alone felt wrong too.  What if the wedding was pushed forward immediately now that the true bride was present?  What if Cadence really wasn't the sort of mare Twilight would want to see her brother marrying?

What if her trauma made her a different pony?  Could it have been an eye opening experience for Cadence the love magic abusing snake? Or even a scarring experience for the wonderful and innocent Cadence?  Did anything that might have happened in the past still matter if she wasn't the same pony after this?

Twilight sighed in frustration.  Isn't there any way I can figure things out without the risk of hurting Cadence's potentially fragile emotions?  Twilight's mind started pulling up lists of all the spells she knew, looking over them and discarding them as she thought of them.  A mind reading spell?  Illegal as Tartarus, and not perfectly reliable in any case against somepony whose special talent was manipulating thought and emotion.  Heck, it wouldn't even be safe.  The monologue spell?  Cadence would probably just start talking about her imprisonment for hours on end, dredging up every last unhappy experience and memory she could before collapsing in tears.  There just wasn't a single perfect spell to fix things.

Twilight didn't know if she was ready to talk to Cadence right now -- didn't know if she trusted Cadence either.  All she knew, was that the decision to not go to comfort her old foalsitter and brother after the worst ordeal they had ever experienced would be the worst choice in a set of terrible options.  And so she did the only other thing she could, and opened the door.

Shining Armor's quarters were fairly large, given that they were intended for the Captain of the Royal Guard, but the room somehow always managed to feel cluttered.  He would leave papers, training weapons, and suits of armor on the floor for days on end.  He had a filing cabinet off to the side of the room which was never organized, and which sometimes overflowed onto the floor.  Adding a princess onto his bed with him only made the room feel smaller.

Shining Armor sat on his bed, with Cadence held tightly in his forelegs, even as she wrapped her wings around him in a similar embrace.  Twilight could hear some sort of murmurings from them, but she found her eyes riveted to Cadence the second she saw her.

Captivity had not been kind to Cadence: her ribs were quite visible at her sides in a way that was undoubtedly far from healthy; her mane and coat had grown too long in some spots, while others were scratched to the skin beneath; the bags under her eyes were dark enough that somepony might think that she had been beaten.

On the bright side, she was clean, and from the empty food tray and dirty bowls lying on the floor nearby, she was eating enough that her ribs wouldn't be showing for too much longer.  Twilight idly wondered how many of those bowls had been properly nutritious foods to help Cadence recover, and how many had been 'comfort foods'.

Twilight shook her head clear of her disjointed thoughts, and worked up her courage before clearing her throat to draw attention to herself.  “Hey, Cadence.  How are you doing?” she asked nervously, lifting a hoof in greeting and slapping a fragile smile onto her face.

Even with the malnutrition and sleep deprivation, Cadence had somehow done an excellent job of maintaining her limb strength – 'crushing' was the only word fitting for the amount of force she put into the hug that Twilight found herself suddenly wrapped in as the Alicorn sprung from the bed and tackled her.

Cadence nuzzled Twilight as she crushed her.  “Oh, Twilight!  Thank you.  Shining told me how you saw through that fraud's disguise in an instant, and how you did everything in your power to get me back.”

Twilight tried to breathe enough that she could talk, and failed.  Twilight teleported herself out from Cadence's death grip rather than risk suffocation while waiting to be released.  She gasped in large breaths of air as she landed on one of the room's many stacks of papers, and Cadence had the good sense to look repentant and slightly embarrassed over her enthusiasm.

Shining Armor finally got off of his bed and onto the floor to join his fiance again.  He wrapped his foreleg around Cadence, smiling joviality.  “Hey Twilie, thanks for stopping by to see us.  I just got done filling Cadence in on how you saved us by revealing that imposter.”  He nuzzled Cadence against her neck.  “She's been wanting to thank you, and ask what the Princesses are planning to do with the changeling queen.  I've been rather curious myself – they haven't told the guards much of anything yet aside from giving us orders to keep things under wraps.”

Twilight carefully moved off of the stacks of paper, trying not to disturb them too much, and wondered just how her brother and Cadence would react to the punishment Chrysalis was getting.  Might as well test the waters first, and see how they react.

“Well, she did kidnap royalty and attempt a coup of the kingdom, so...”  Twilight let her sentence hang for a moment as she looked at their faces.

Shining Armor's eyes had hardened slightly, and he was nodding with a grim, but satisfied looking expression.  He was looking for punishment, and lots of it.  His special somepony had been kidnapped, he had been mind-controlled, and Cadence obviously hadn't been treated perfectly during her captivity.  Twilight might have a bit of trouble selling him on the idea of what kind of amounted to giving Chrysalis everything she had wanted, just not on her terms.

Glancing over to Cadence on the other hoof...  Cadence's eyes had gone wide; her lower lip quivering.  “Aunt Luna isn't going to hurt her, is she?” she asked with a wavering voice.

Shining Armor just stared at his fiance for a long moment, stunned, before both he and Twilight looked at each other, and started chuckling.  “Now that, is the Cadence we all know and love,” he said.

Twilight felt more than a small amount of tension drain from herself.  That sort of response was just so much like the Cadence who Twilight had looked up to in her foalhood, that easily half of her worries about Cadence were instantly dispelled.  Mirth still in her voice, Twilight shook her head.  “No, Cadence, don't worry.  Neither of the princesses are planning to hurt her... at least not physically.  Celestia and Luna both know how to take an opportunity when they see it.”

Shining Armor's face fell in an instant.  “Wait,” he said, “they're not planning to make her ruler for the month or something like what happened with Discord, are they?”

Twilight avoided making eye contact.  “Well, not precisely like with Discord...”  She trailed off, and risked another look at her brother's face.  Apparently, uncontrolled muscle spasms under the eye during times of stress ran in her family.  Good to know.

“Oh for the love of-- no.  Just no!” Shining shouted.  “What the hay are they thinking?  Or better yet, are they even thinking anything at all?!”  His breathing was starting to grow heavier, and the facial muscle spasms were starting to get worse.  Twilight couldn't help but wonder if she looked anything like that when she got upset by somepony doing something she felt was particularly idiotic.  If so, it explained why Discord enjoyed teasing her so much.

A small pinkish heart floated over behind Shining Armor's head, and popped.  With the miniscule sound, he seemed to deflate some, the anger leaking out of him to be replaced with weary acceptance and mild annoyance.  “I guess it's their choice, and the princesses usually know what they're doing.”  He sighed and gave a weak smile.  “I'm guessing our jobs are going to be keeping her in check?  I'd just like to know the master plan behind crazy ideas like this before everything's over and done with for once.”

...And here come the other half of my concerns.  Twilight carefully kept her face a stoic mask of calm.  She had plenty of practice not letting her emotions slip when it wouldn't suit her – sometimes, it was easier than other times to keep her thoughts from showing on her face.  Her current situation was not one of the easier times.

As Cadence leaned up against Shining Armor, a magenta glow formed around him and quickly yanked him over to the door.  Twilight's horn dimmed as she set her brother down.  “That's actually a great idea, BBBFF!” she shouted, perhaps a tad too enthusiastically.  “Why don't you go talk to Princess Celestia real quick?  You're Captain of her royal guard, after all, so she shouldn't mind cluing you in on everything.  I need to talk to Cadence for a moment in private anyway, so have fun.”

Without waiting for protests, Twilight teleported her brother to the other side of the door, before turning around to glare at Cadence, whose face was scrunched up with confusion.

“What do you need to talk to me in private about, Twilight?” Cadence asked with an innocent expression of concern on her face.  Twilight's eye twitched, and she opened her mouth, not quite sure what she was planning to say, other than that it probably was not going to be very diplomatic.  She didn't get the chance as Cadence's entire face lit up, disturbingly similar to Pinkie Pie whenever the word party came up.  “Oh, I've got it!  You've finally decided to ask Rainbow Dash out!”

Twilight sputtered.  “What?” she shouted.  “That doesn't even – I don't even – No!  I'm not dating Rainbow Dash.  Where did that even come from?”

Cadence frowned for a moment, before brightening again.  “Oh, so it's Aunt Luna after all.  I know that there are going to be some problems, but I'm sure the power of your love will pull through in the end.  It's so wonderfu–”

Twilight held up her hoof to cut in before she lost her sanity.  “I'm not dating Luna either.  Where the hay are you even getting these ideas from?  What even makes you think I'm interested in mares?”  Twilight snapped her mouth shut in horror as she saw her old foalsitter's eyes light up again.

“That's it!  Even though anypony else would see only a monster when they looked at him, Discord changed himself out of his love for you.  It all makes sense!”  Cadence sniffed and wiped a tear from her eye.  “So beautiful...”

Twilight simply stood, staring with her mouth agape.  “Sweet Celestia and Luna no!” she cried out.  “I don't even – he's not even a pony for pony's sake!  Why would you – how could you even think that – Aaaaarrrrgh!” she cried out, collapsing to the ground with her hooves holding her head and her eyes clinched tight against that particular mental image.

Cadence stroked her chin with a hoof, her eyes turned upwards to the ceiling.  After a pause, she looked back at Twilight, who was still gagging and dry heaving on the ground.  “Hmm...” she murmured.  “Alright then, I'm stumped.  So who is the lucky pony you need help with?”

Twilight fought her way to her hooves, forcing her newest mental trauma into a deep, dark corner of her mind to be dealt with later.  “Nopony.  I wasn't wanting to talk to you about my love life, Cadence,” she said.

Cadence tilted her head to one side, confusion scrunching up her face.  “But then, why did you need to talk to me in private, Twilight?  You and Shining have always had such a good relationship, I figured the only reason you wouldn't want him to hear something was if it was something private or embarrassing.”  Cadence lowered herself to the floor gingerly, and smiled kindly.  “Oh well,” she said, “just tell me what you wanted to talk about, Twilight.”

Twilight looked at her old foalsitter, and briefly entertained the possibility that Cadence honestly didn't realize that Twilight might have taken exception to her using magic to pacify Shining Armor.  With an incredulous expression, Twilight determined that she should probably rectify that.  “Cadence, you just used love magic on my brother.”

Cadence blinked.  “...And?” she asked.

“And that's terrible!” Twilight shouted.  “He was just mind-controlled by a giant bug-pony who was posing as you, and the first thing you do after being reunited is to use mind-magic to pacify him?!  What the hay were you thinking?”

“Oh.”  Cadence's eyes widened, and she looked down at the floor, apparently finding something interesting in the scattered documents.  “I hadn't really thought about that.”

Twilight wasn't having any of it.  “How can you not think about using magic to alter a pony's thoughts and emotions?”

“Well,” Cadence said, “he was getting stressed, and he gets horrible headaches when he's too stressed.  Besides, Shining's position requires him to make decisions with a level head, and all that spell does is calm a pony's emotions to help prevent unnecessary conflict.  I use it to help him.”

“That's not the point!” Twilight shouted.  She was finding that she was doing that more often than normal today.  “You just nonchalantly used mind-altering magic on somepony without getting their consent first.  Did you use magic to make him fall in love with you in the first place too?”

Cadence gasped.  “You don't honestly think I'd do something like that do you, Twilight?  Love is a sacred thing, not something created by magic.”

What.  Did she just say... “Isn't your special talent love magic though?  Meaning you found your cutie mark by using love magic?”  It might have come out a bit more like an accusation than Twilight had intended, but then again, it kind-of was.

Cadence's smile returned with such swiftness that it nearly gave Twilight whiplash.  “Of course it is, silly.  My special talent is mending love, and restoring or strengthening a pony's love.  I got my cutie mark by helping a couple who were fighting get back together.  They were happy together normally, but some misunderstandings had ruined things, and they wouldn't talk to each other.  I used my magic to remind them of their powerful love for each other, and got them to talk things out.”

Twilight could already feel a familiar headache forming, similar to whenever she tried to get Pinkie to explain something she did or thought.  “Then have you ever strengthened my brother's love for you, Cadence?  Perhaps back before you two were dating, and he was treating you like a friend?”

With a softer expression, Cadence shook her head.  “Twilight, I know you're concerned for your brother after everything, but I can assure you I would never abuse my magic like that.  I'll admit I sometimes use some minor little spells to help ponies calm down so that they can think things through without their emotions running wild... and that diplomatic talks are much easier when everypony in a room have a warm, fuzzy feeling in their chest.  But I love Shining Armor far too much to try to force his love.”

“Let me see if I've got this.”  Twilight rubbed the bridge of her nose with a hoof.  “You would never abuse your magic, right?” she asked.

“Of course not,” Cadence replied, not even hesitating for a moment.

Twilight's logic-headache was starting to feel like she had discord tap-dancing on her head.  “Yet, using it during diplomatic talks to ensure that ponies agree with you is fine, as is using it on couples who are having a fight, or on ponies who are upset for good reasons, and probably a few other situations you haven't mentioned.  Without checking to see if you have permission from the ponies first, I might add.”

Cadence nodded, quite happy that such a potentially damaging misunderstanding had been cleared up before it could fester.  Those things could be dangerous to a healthy friendship.  “Yep!  Nopony likes fighting, and being angry or upset leads to fighting,” she explained, taking on the voice she always used when explaining something to a foal she was watching.  

“When ponies are fighting, they're not happy, so obviously they won't mind me helping them calm down or avoid a fight.  It's like implied consent for medical treatment on a pony who's unconscious: when a pony is upset, they won't be able to ask me to fix things for them, but it's obviously what they would want when they're thinking straight!”

Had Cadence always had such disregard for sanity?  It was an assault to all of the logical parts of Twilight's mind to listen to her without shouting just how utterly wrong it was to compare necessary medical attention to love magic.  How she could say things like that with a straight face was beyond Twilight, but every sense she had developed from dealing with lying politicians told her that Cadence was being completely earnest.  It was almost like crossing Pinkie Pie's logic with Rarity's overly generous attempts to 'save' ponies from their own fashion sense and Fluttershy's desire to avoid conflict, and then mixing in an Alicorn's magic power.  That thought snapped Twilight out of her momentary daze.

Twilight made a mental note to request a therapist for Cadence, claiming PTSD causing an unhealthy obsession with conflict avoidance.  She then began casting a pain relief spell on herself for her headache.

Right then.  Cadence isn't so much evil as completely unaware of basic magical ethics and law... despite being raised by Princess Celestia... who would have certainly tried to drill morals and ethics into a pony who's special talent was love magic.  Twilight grimaced at how little things were wanting to match up for her.  How the hay did this happen?  Did Celestia delegate that particular task to a criminally lax teacher?  Did Cadence sleep through the lessons?  Actually, it wouldn't surprise me too much if she used her magic to convince her teachers to skip any lessons that she thought were too boring.

“You know what?  Fine.  I am completely fine with everything you just said,” Twilight lied through her teeth, once more glad she didn't have to try to bear the element of Honesty.  “Cadence, I am wonderfully, amazingly glad to see you safe, and that's all I really care about right now.  However, I do have a teensy-tiny thing that I need your help with just as soon as you feel up to it.”

Cadence nodded attentively.  “Of course,” she cooed soothingly.  “I would do anything to help out ponies, but especially my favorite little unicorn.”

“...Right,” Twilight sighed.  “Here's what I'll need, if you can manage it...”

- - -Princess Celestia's Study- - -

Queen Chrysalis of the Changeling Empire, currently the temporary ruler of Equestria in the absence of its reigning diarchs, sat fuming behind a desk, gold shod hooves crossed in annoyance.  The desk was a marvel to behold, made primarily of polished white wood with gold trim, but that was to be expected in Celestia's personal study.  All sorts of displays of wealth adorned the room, along with framed pictures of ponies whom Chrysalis was sure had died years ago.

She wondered just how she could be so annoyed at her adversaries, when they had effectively rolled over backwards to make her life easier.  Ever since they had learned that Chrysalis was trying to take over the country, they had done everything they could think of to make it easier for her to succeed.  As she fumed, she sat at Celestia's desk, wearing Celestia's form and sitting in her chair, looking over a stack of papers that contained nearly every piece of information she would need to properly replace both princesses without attracting attention.

The main obstacles which should have been standing in her way – Princesses Celestia and Luna – had covered up the attack at the wedding as best they could, sworn ponies involved to secrecy, and then left her in charge.  They were currently not even in the city to the best of her knowledge, having left on vacation to the beach or something.

It shouldn't have annoyed her that her victims were doing their best to help her.  It really shouldn't.  If anything, Chrysalis should have found herself thinking of how much simpler it would be to pose as ponies if they always were so thoughtful as to leave detailed instructions on how to avoid detection.  It shouldn't annoy her if her enemies chose to act foolish.

And yet... she was used to being treated with fear and respect!  She was Chrysalis, Queen of the Changelings, devourer of hope and love, scourge of... several places she was sure.  She hadn't actually kept track of all the places her hive had infiltrated and stolen love from, and most of those places never even realized that her changelings had existed in the first place... but those few who had discovered her and her minions had known true fear and hatred.  Elaborate schemes had brought them low, as they went mad finding all those they had thought they could trust to be her agents in disguise.

Here?  Here she was laughed at, and then simply hoofed the crown on a silver platter!  The rulers did not fear that she could take control from them, and trusted that she could be kept in line by a single unicorn.  Not a circle of archmages holding bindings on her mind, but a single unicorn who wasn't even trying to keep her in sight at all times!  She wasn't even nearby as far as Chrysalis knew.

That was the problem, she decided.  She was used to being treated seriously by her opponents in those cases where she was discovered, and still win.  Yet here, not only had she found her carefully laid plans destroyed in an instant, her emergency backup plan blocked, and her own power thoroughly outmatched... but she had been so soundly thrashed and defeated by a bunch of fools who didn't see her as a threat.  They were so confident in themselves, they were willing to put their enemy in charge while they went on vacation!  She couldn't stress that part enough!

She forced herself to calm down, and set aside her indignation.  Her foes had underestimated her, and that would be their undoing.  She would take Equestria from the incompetent hooves that held it for now, and then her changelings would never want for food again!  All she needed was a cunning plan.  Let them think me a harmless fool and dimwit!  It shall only make my victory over them all the more sweet.

- - -

Chrysalis set the last of the pages of instructions to one side of the desk.  It had taken hours, but she had memorized the schedules she would need to keep to to pose as the Princesses, along with the general personalities she was to use both in public, and in private with specific nobles and officials who knew a 'different side' to their rulers.  Nothing was stated regarding how the princesses acted around Twilight Sparkle in private, of course, but she didn't need to worry about keeping up her act in front of somepony who already knew who and what she was.

She would need to hold night court as Luna starting at midnight, meet with some officials to go over some public appearance that Luna needed to make soon, and then tell some tax officials that their new laws were trash.  Until then, however, she had an hour of daylight left, followed by four or five hours of darkness before her first royal duty.  Presumably, she was meant to use those six hours to sleep, as she would have very little time between the end of Luna's night, and the start of Celestia's long and busy day.

Sleep can come after I've taken over the country.

Six hours was both nowhere near as much time as she would have preferred, and far more time than she had dared hope she would have.  She mentally went over a list of what she would need for her conquest.  First and foremost, she needed to know what she was up against in full.

Her spies had watched Equestria for twenty years before she had chosen to commit, and in all that time, nothing had truly happened.  She stopped paying attention for a while, building up her forces and moving them into position for contingencies.  She had assumed that a country that had had little of note happen in its recorded history for over four hundred years would be stable enough to hold to that trend.  

She had revised that idea when Nightmare Moon returned and plunged the world into night eternal for two or three days.  Yet, the appearance of a second ruler hadn't done much to change her plans; she only needed to ensure that she was not discovered early on, and take the two of them down separately.  As one was nocturnal and the other diurnal, that wouldn't be a problem.  If anything, a pair of Alicorns who hadn't known each other well for a thousand years could only work to her advantage should she manage to replace one of them.  Their love for each other would have fed her wonderfully, and once she had defeated them, she could work her magic on them, and control the very creatures who moved the sun and moon!

How the Spirit of Chaos's return had managed to pass by less noticed than Nightmare Moon's, Chrysalis still didn't know.  She'd have to find out which changelings had been supposed to be monitoring things in Equestria for important developments.

Along with those 'Elements of Harming me' or whatever Twilight had mentioned having, Discord was one of the largest problems to tackle.  He obviously cared about the blasted unicorn some, and seemed on good enough terms with the rulers of the country... but he had also been a statue for who knew how long over a thousand years.  Chrysalis couldn't imagine that he would have dropped his grudge on that front so simply, but would need to have some of her minions gather more information before she could move to keep Discord from interfering.

That left Twilight's collection of magic artifacts as the primary unknown.  She had used one item to strip Chrysalis of her disguise, while removing her control over Shining Armor, and that hadn't even been her trump card.  It would be the height of humiliation if she defeated two goddesses and brokered a deal with the master of chaos, only to be vanquished by a normal unicorn with some gaudy jewelry.  The first order of business was thus to find out all she could about what items Twilight could bring to bear on her own.  If only she had full, unrestricted access to every single text and document in the castle.

Oh, wait...

Chuckling to herself, Chrysalis trotted out of her room, and turned towards the royal library, thankful that she had memorized much of the castle's layout while she posed as Cadence.  It would have seemed odd for Princess Celestia to have to ask where her own library was.

- - -

Perhaps the single most infuriating part of posing as Celestia, was that she was never allowed to drop her calm and serene expression.  All expressions on Celestia's face were some variation of the same calm baseline, giving away little of her thoughts.  At the moment, she was able to make a barely perceivable frown to show her displeasure.  She wanted to scream her head off and tear the head off of the overly formal mare who was managing the restricted archives.

“My memory isn't always as perfect as I'd like it to be, but when did we start doing this again?”  Chrysalis kept her face as still as she could while she placed all of the weight she could manage into a simple look.  It was much harder than Celestia made it look.

The Archivist glanced nervously around, and looked to the two royal guards who had seen fit to accompany 'Celestia' to the archives.  One of them gave a near in-perceivable shrug, and the mare looked back to her ruler.  “About two months after Discord's month of rule ended, your highness.  The rule was passed by your sister and the notice delivered by Lady Sparkle.  After Discord made off with a number of books without any record of him checking them out... Lady Sparkle was searching the Castle for the missing tomes for nearly three months before she found them all.  She hates to find things unorganized, so she decided to set things up like this to, as she put it, 'preempt disasters from any more of the Princess's old friends taking up residence'.”

Chrysalis held back a violent twitch of her eyes.  Celestia did not lose control.  Once she felt confident that her voice wouldn't be above the soft, calming tones she was supposed to use, she smiled to the archivist.  “Well then, I suppose you should get me the paperwork.  I intended to do some reading before I slept tonight, and I'd rather not be losing too much of my free time.”

The mare rushed to retrieve a sheet of paper, and hoofed the form to Chrysalis.  “Here you go, your highness.  Again, I apologize for the inconvenience.  Fill that form out, and I can unlock the Archive for you.  After you find your selections, I can give you the request forms...” seeing something in Chrysalis's look, the mare stammered.  “...Or, or I could fill out the request forms for you after you show me what you're taking.  It's part of my job to keep the records anyway, so I should be able to fill them out for you easy enough.”

“Thank you, my little pony.”  Chrysalis felt slightly ill just from saying that last corny line, but the notes on Celestia had been emphatic about the Sun Princess's love for the term.  It obviously put the mare behind the counter at ease, and Chrysalis looked at the initial request form.  It asked for an ID number, and had space for twenty digits.  “Perhaps, you could fill out this form as well?  I have had a trying day, and the important thing is simply that it is filled out, isn't it?”

- - - On the streets of Canterlot - - -

Drone 3534 peered out of the ally way he had changed in, looking to see if any of the ponies on the streets had noticed the flash of green light.  Nopony was panicking, so he was fairly certain that he had managed to escape notice.  As it was, he was still surprised he wasn't seeing posters with a changeling's face plastered over them covering the city, but he wasn't going to complain – not when things were working in his favor at least.

He stepped out into the light, an average earth pony covered in a mixture of uninteresting browns and grays, and with one of the most uninteresting flank-marks he could imagine: a rock.  He looked slightly elderly, all the better to gain sympathy from ponies if he needed food, but nopony would ever remember him for more than a passing few minutes with a form like his.  It was perfect.

The sewers of Canterlot had turned out to be a perfect safe haven for the majority of the hive, allowing changelings to slowly work their way out into the streets as random ponies without drawing excess attention to themselves with numbers.  Soon, the entire invasion force would be milling through the city as random citizens, looking for ponies they could make use of to find supplies, better housing, and most importantly, love.

Once they had gained a foothold on survival, they could work on finding ways to aid their queen.  Her only orders so far had been simply to hide and survive, but changelings weren't the type to rest on their flanks when their queen was in danger.  First though, came that pesky survival bit.  Finding ponies who could be easily replaced, and who would be able to net them a large amount of love was a rather tall order; it wasn't as though a huge amount of love would just fall into his hooves–

What?  3534 suddenly felt an enormous aura of near unconditional love, simply wafting down to him from one of the buildings nearby.  It was almost intoxicating, such was the strength of the love behind it.  He found himself walking up to the door of the building almost in a daze, and was amazed to find it unlocked.

Well why wouldn't it be unlocked? he reasoned.  Somepony capable of such unconditional love wouldn't ever even think of other ponies as potentially being dangerous.

Confident in his disguise's ability to hold up, he followed the trail of love in the air, passing through some oddly empty rooms.  Whoever lived here must live alone, he reasoned to himself.  Down a set of stairs, he reached a warm and inviting room, the door standing open for him.  He happily walked in, and was treated to the view of a pair of mares, one purple and one pink – a pair of unicorns... although one of them had wings too...

The door slammed shut behind him, and the aura of love dimmed down to a small trickle, allowing 3534 to recover from his stupor.  He didn't even have time to shout before bindings of magenta magic wrapped around him, forcing him onto the ground before the two, surrounded by three guards.  A blast of magic stripped him of his disguise, and he whimpered in fear.

The smaller purple mare stepped forward and, crouching low in front of the changeling, whispered into his ear.  “Hello.  I'm Twilight Sparkle, and I'm here to help you.  All you have to do, is answer some questions for me.”

- - - Canterlot Castle - - -

Once Chrysalis had gotten into the archives, she had relentlessly hunted down all of Twilight's reports and research papers that were stored inside, along with any books that mentioned the Elements.  Apparently, they were the Elements of Harmony rather than Harming me, yet after reading the description of what they were supposed to be capable of, she preferred her own naming convention.

Twilight Sparkle apparently had access to a set of artifacts capable of banishing immortal alicorns to the celestial bodies they controlled, turning the lord of chaos to unchanging stone, and other similar things.  It was not a particularly pleasant thought.

Luckily the elements could only be wielded by chosen bearers who were exemplars of some virtue.  After spending so much time with politicians, there was simply no way that Twilight could wield Honesty herself – now while being successful at least.  So the other mares who had been with her at the wedding must have been the bearers for the virtues, while Twilight just had the sixth piece that let her control how the Elements were used.

It should be child's play for Chrysalis to have some of her minions find out when the other bearers would be leaving, or for her to have some 'emergency' be reported from their homes, and then she'd only have to worry about all of Twilight's other toys.  Toys like magic disrupting field generators, weapon crystals that could be charged with powerful offensive magic, and all sorts of other disgustingly useful looking things.

She tossed the reports to one side, allowing them to come to rest on the floor next to Luna's bed.  She'd already had her Celestia identity retire to her bed for the night, and had moved herself to Luna's room, switching forms after she was inside.  It was nearing midnight already, and she had studied up on Twilight's assets enough for now – she had her plan.

First, she would need to get some of her changelings into the castle, assuming none of them had taken the initiative to infiltrate already.  Once she had minions she could trust again, she would have the freedom to move around some more to set things up, and she could ensure that she had up-to-date intelligence on her enemies' movements.  She would ensure that Twilight's vicious little friends had left the city, and then she would see about the part of her plan least likely to go right for her:  Speaking with Discord.

Surely there would be someway she could find a compromise with him, if only to provide him some sick amusement.  Even if she couldn't kill or maim Twilight Sparkle, perhaps if her family was held hostage?  If Twilight's mental wards could be brought down and kept down, Chrysalis could simply... tweak the unicorn's loyalties in her own favor, such that she would actually have a competent adviser to help rule the country.  Assuming that she actually was competent, that was.

However she might wind up dealing with that, the last part was to find a way to properly deal with Celestia and Nightmare Moon.  Given time to use Celestia and Luna's forms to gather love from the population, Chrysalis could probably ensure that she was a match for either of them.  Fighting both at once could be difficult, but if enough of her changelings posed as one of them, so as to ensure that the other could not keep track of the first, Chrysalis could turn it into a one on one fight.  And given the egos of the Princesses, she might even convince the remaining princess that the victor (who would be herself, of course) was her real sister.

The plan wasn't quite perfect, and it had no less than three places it could go horribly wrong if she underestimated her foes again, or if luck was simply against her, but as long as her enemies underestimated her, she would have a chance.  And for the sake of her subjects, she would have the country ready for feeding off of within the week.

With her course of action decided, Chrysalis sent out a new mental command to her changelings, ordering for a group of her elites to infiltrate the castle and find a way to meet up with her.  That done, all there was left to do for a while would be to wait.  She wouldn't be able to find out what was happening with her subjects until some of them could reach her to relay messages, and she needed the love she could gain from posing as the princesses regardless.  For the moment, that meant holding court, and fulfilling her royal duties as expected, even if it meant putting up with Twilight Sparkle.

Giving a last shudder at the prospect, she began making her way towards the throne room.

- - -

Twilight Sparkle was never late.  It was one of those simple facts of life that everypony among the  Canterlot elite had accepted, and which nopony questioned.  In fact, she was nearly always the first pony to arrive for anything with a deadline, showing up ten minutes early at the latest.  The only way for Twilight Sparkle to be late would probably be for some horrible end of the world level disaster to hold her up, and even then, she might just teleport past it to be on time.

Thus it was that, when Luna's Night Court began with Twilight Sparkle breathing heavily as she barely managed to get seated seconds before the clock struck midnight, more than a few ponies were fidgeting nervously.  Twilight immediately levitated a small stack of papers up to Princess Luna, and appeared to begin calming down, so whatever had held her up had probably not been too horrible.  Then, Princess Luna pulled out her own completed stack of paperwork, and started going over some points with Twilight.

Many ponies in the room suddenly started to worry for the possible upcoming end of the world, for a second natural law of Canterlot Government had been violated.  Princess Luna and Twilight Sparkle had both done the same paperwork.  Princess Luna never did paperwork which she could avoid, stooping to personally filling out documents only when it pertained to something of critical personal importance to herself.  She would read over other ponies' work and make sure nothing unwanted was slipped by her, but she did not actually do extra work, and she and Twilight Sparkle were very good at keeping track of who was doing what.

The nobles and bureaucrats gave one-another looks of worry and fear, silently pressing each other to find a way to set their worries to rest.  Bleeding Turnip, a white coated earth-pony whose family had sacrificed much to put him through law school, met the eyes of Red Tape.  He silently reminded the lower level bureaucrat that the ERS still had evidence of matters the Pegasus would rather not have brought up.  Red Tape then flicked his wing subtly to get the attention of Prince Blueblood, who owed Red Tape a favor for rushing some of his requests through the system with much haste.  Prince Blueblood acknowledged the calling in of the favor, and promptly glared at Big Roller, owner of a casino which Blueblood was the primary investor in.

A guard stepped forward from the dais on which the thrones sat, and loudly announced, “Night Court is now in session.  All hail Princess Luna, ruler of the night.  May the first order of business be brought forward.”  The guard stood aside at the base of the dais, and Big Roller stepped forward.  None of the other ponies moved forward, leaving him to stand alone before the throne.

Chrysalis, formerly confident in her perfect portrayal of Princess Luna leaned over to speak quietly to Twilight Sparkle as the other unicorn approached.  “Sparkle, everypony in the room is terrified for some reason, and I caught more than a few rapid emotional fluctuations while we were looking over your notes.  What's going on?  I haven't even said anything to them yet and something's wrong!”

Twilight whispered in response, “High Roller is one of the least important ponies here, so the others sent him up to ask something they don't want to.  They're probably worried because we both just broke long standing habits within seconds of each other.  Come up with something off the agenda that was unusually wordy that you 'wanted a second opinion on'.  I'll handle the other part.”

The diarch and her close adviser resumed their ordinary postures as High Roller stood from his low bow.  “Your majesty,” he began, hesitating slightly, “is there anything of which we should be made aware?  I would hardly question your majesty in any way, but you appeared abnormally worried, and it is our duty to offer our aid if anything is weighing heavily on your mind.”

Such a wordy and roundabout way to ask 'should we be worried about something'.  Chrysalis flipped through her stack of papers to pull out a single request which took up nearly a tenth of the stack size on its own.  She waved the request in front of her.  “When I was going through these requests to prepare for tonight's business, this particular request stood out to me as unnecessary dense in its wording.  I requested my adviser to look over it as well to ensure that I had not missed any important details before I decided my stance on it.”

Twilight nodded along with Chrysalis.  “Unfortunately, the Princess's request didn't reach me until just recently, so my schedule was thrown off slightly.  This is what she gets for asking Discord to pass a message on for her.”

The moment Discord's name came up, all of the assembled ponies breathed a sigh of relief.  Nothing wrong with the world, just an obnoxious prank.  Within seconds, the bureaucrats and nobles were back to preparing their cases for various claims, requests and complaints for the night.  Requests and complaints that took hours to go through.

By the time the last of the 'important' ponies were through with their business, the night court was nearly over, and Chrysalis hadn't gotten even a taste of edible love out of the ordeal.  She slouched slightly in her throne as the Blueblood finally left the room, and reflected that Luna's description of the bureaucrats and nobles had been disturbingly spot on.  Finally though, she could get to some of the common ponies who would love and adore their princesses.  Finally, she could bask in the attention of...

…More than a few disturbed individuals.  Apparently Luna's main dealings with the common ponies were with the ones who kept unusual hours to fit unusual lifestyles.  There were the artists who wanted to request permission to make a royal portrait that was far more risque than those of Celestia, and poets who were overflowing with lust enough to completely knock out their higher brain functions.  There was a DJ wanting the laws on noise pollution either repealed or given loopholes, and entirely too many teenagers wanting her blessings to help them find love (or at least a one night stand).

Compared to the dryness of the earlier 'business' part of her court, it was a buffet.  Some of the requests were simply silly, but the fact that their princess didn't laugh at them or dismiss them out of hoof caused love to just roll off of the petitioners.  Chrysalis had trouble not laughing out loud as she agreed to try to get approval for some of the most outlandish requests she had ever heard, knowing that they would never get through, but that they would cause the nobles to sputter and gasp in revulsion.

Entirely too soon, the guards declared that Night Court was over, and sent the line of petitioners back home to try again later.  Two guards escorted Twilight and Chrysalis back to a private room where a meal was waiting for them, and then promptly left the two of them alone.

Chrysalis maintained her dignified and regal demeanor until the guards closed the doors.  Then the dam burst, and she collapsed into her chair in laughter, slipping out of her disguise in her mirth.  “Oh my,” she gasped out, “do all the ponies who come at night time have such... interesting concerns?”

Twilight levitated a cup of tea to her lips and took a sip, rubbing her chin in apparent thought.  “Maybe not all of them” she offered, “but most of the ponies with serious disputes and legal concerns come during the day, simply because it's when they're awake.  Also, Luna has managed to cultivate an image of being the more wild sister.  Princess Celestia might be a perfect and unapproachable marble statue to most ponies, but Luna goes out with Discord and a group of ponies to pull pranks on Nightmare Night.  So, she gets the ponies who don't feel comfortable asking Celestia about their problems.”

Chrysalis marshaled her control and forced her chuckles to subside as she stood.  “And they love her for listening to them,” she nearly purred.  It wasn't enough to compare to the love she had gotten from Shining Armor along with all of Cadenza's admirers, but then she hadn't had more than an hour to meet the ponies she could feed on as Luna.  It had still been enough to make her almost tipsy.  And Celestia and Luna had parades that she could use to feed from thousands at once!  Just the thought sent a shiver through her.

Twilight refilled her cup of tea, ignoring the rest of the meal for the moment in favor of more caffeine.  “We'll both have a good bit of work tomorrow too,” she noted.  “Celestia's duties start around six in the morning, and I can't handle all of her and Luna's paperwork for the day.”  She paused to nibble at a salad, and to refill her tea cup again.  “I'm just glad that you apparently already know your way around legalese and organization.  Taking care of the country with Discord was an utter nightmare half the time.”

Chrysalis waved a hoof lazily as she levitated a small chocolate pastry up to her face.  “Please,” she scoffed, “I'm a queen in more than simply title you know.  There is, admittedly, far less paperwork involved in ruling my changelings, if only because we prefer not to leave a paper trail... but that necessitates more rigid and careful organization.”  She paused to wipe the remains of chocolate from her chin, and looked back to Twilight.  “It also helps that changelings would never try to get away with passing something beneath their queen's nose to improve their position.  I'd have assigned half of the nobles to working on farms for a week as punishment for their blatant disrespect to my rule today, were I not trying to maintain my disguise.”

Twilight upended the teapot over her empty cup.  Naught but a drop was left.  Seeing that she wasn't getting any more caffeine in liquid form, she glanced over to the plate of chocolates she had seen earlier.  There wasn't even a crumb left of the chocolates.  A quick look at Chrysalis's mouth confirmed the fate of all of the different varieties of chocolate confections.  With a suppressed sigh, Twilight stood up from the table.  “I'll send you a checklist of your duties as Celestia in an hour or two.  In the mean time, 'Luna' needs to go meet with the dedications committee, and then go bug the ERS about one of their laws that they keep delaying the rescinding of.  The bureaucracy was so much easier to handle while they were all afraid Nightmare Moon was going to eat them if they didn't jump to do her bidding.  I'll see you at noon in Day Court.”

With that, Twilight marched out of the room, shutting the door behind her, and leaving Chrysalis apparently alone.  She shifted back into Luna's form to leave as well, slowly meandering to 'her' bed chambers.

As she shut the doors behind her, she nodded to the two night guards who were waiting inside.  Both of them vanished into a burst of green fire, revealing a pair of her elite changeling infiltrators.  Chrysalis grinned more fully than she had since the moment before her plans had all collapsed around her head.  It was time to start round two.

--- The Streets of Canterlot ---

Crowds of ponies waited outside of the concert hall, shoving one-another to ensure that they could be the closest to the doors for when Sapphire Shores stepped out.  Her concert had been sold out, but the hordes of ponies weren't leaving until they had their chance to see their idol, to make sure she could see their signs proclaiming desire to marry her, and to make her realize that they were the one fan who wasn't just another pony in the crowd.  Never-mind their current location as a single pony in a large crowd of ponies holding similar signs and shouting similar phrases.

The last few times Sapphire Shores had finished a concert, she had been kept from her adoring fans by her greedy manager and body guards, but this time, the fans were prepared!  All exits were watched by equally large groups – even the rooftop exit.  All of the fancy carriages which might be reserved for Sapphire Shores were watched intently as well, and guarded to insure that she could not be whisked away without being allowed to sign autographs aplenty (which could sell for several hundred bits to certain ponies).

Yes, they were ready for any trick that the security ponies could pull this night, but even so, they expected a hard fought battle to free their brilliant star from her guards.  What they didn't expect, was for Sapphire Shores to walk out the front door, still wearing her bejeweled dress from the last number of the show, flanked by two security ponies and a unicorn levitating a small table filled with papers and pens, and with a sign that read “Autographs” on it.  The sheer unexpectedness of it slowed their reactions just enough for the unicorn guards to place a barrier spell up to prevent the singer from being swarmed by her fans.

Within moments, word had spread to each of the other exits, and the crowds all converged at the front of the building, eager to get their turn to speak with Sapphire Shores herself, and to have her sign whatever they might desire (within limits enforced by common decency laws).

As the crowds vanished from the back of the building, a plain dressed older mare walked out from the back door, a towering hat over her head.  Nopony paid attention to her as she was helped to a small carriage by her burly looking son.

As the carriage rolled away, Sapphire Shores took off her hat and started washing off her make up.  The bodyguard closed the blinds over the windows, and nodded in the general direction of the mob.  “Still can't believe that they finally found you a double that good,” he muttered.

The mare shrugged as she sprayed some perfume on herself.  “I'm more amazed that she was willing to subject herself to such a crowd.  Imagine how they'd tear her apart if they found out she wasn't me, after all.”

Both of the ponies shuddered, and agreed 'better her than them'.

--- One hour and one magical teleport-evac later ---

3534 sprawled over onto the couch cushion next to 1386,  3717 and 7231.  Even with four changelings to divide the love between, he was barely able to keep himself awake after such a gorging.  1386 was the most skilled at impersonating mares, and had taken the brunt of the wave of emotions, channeling the power between the other three changelings to avoid any one of them being overwhelmed.  Even so, the others were already collapsed in contented fullness, only moments after the unicorn had taken them from the crowd.

3534 himself could feel the emotion fueled high making him giddy, but he marshaled his will power against the desires to laugh, sing, and sleep the sleep of the utterly content.  Instead he looked over at the purple unicorn who had become their simultaneous benefactor, employer and captor.

This was the fourth time he had been in her presence, though the first two times, she had also been with the pink alicorn whom the Queen had formerly replaced.  When he had first been caught, he had been expecting torture of some sort, forcing him to divulge the hiding places of his fellow changelings.  Instead, he was promised more love than he would know what to do with if he simply explained basic things about his species.

What types of emotions can you feed on?  Elaborate.  What are the side effects to ponies?  Elaborate.  Can changelings share their food with each other?  Elaborate.  What determines how much power and nourishment you get from love?  How often do you need to feed?  Elaborate.  How does your shape-shifting actually work?  Elaborate, elaborate, E-bucking-laborate.

He had quickly become tired of that one oft-repeated word, but what else could he do but obey?  The Pink alicorn's magic allowed her to command him almost as though she were the queen, and they had caught him and stripped him of his disguise already.  More magic on his lips had prevented him from lying, and the information they wanted most was information he couldn't see any way it could be used against them.  That had been what had frightened him the most.

They had captured other changelings as well, asking the same basic questions to confirm accuracy apparently, and then had brought them out of their heavily warded cells.  3534 had assumed it was either dissection time, or that they would be offered their lives in exchange for turning traitor.  Instead, the ponies had made good on their promise.  He and the other three in his group were given forms to assume, and identities to use, and small crystals shoved into their carapaces to prevent them from escaping or contacting other changelings with any sort of telepathic magic they might have.

Then they had been transported to their first job as 'professional body doubles and distractions for the fabulously famous.'  They had even been paid by the pony they were replacing to sit there and soak up more love than they had ever imagined getting at once.  And now he was in front of the mare again, still clueless as to her actual motives.  But not for long.

Just like in the previous three instances he had been before her, her emotions were encased in a tight shell of unfriendly looking magic.  Unlike before though, she looked even more exhausted, with bloodshot eyes and a slightly frazzled mane – and most telling of all, minute cracks in her emotional armor.  He couldn't slip any kind of mind magic into her through those cracks, even with the enormous amount of power he had gained from the love he had fed on, but he could feel her emotions.

So he had requested that he be allowed to talk to her, and that he get to have a question or two answered after his cooperation.  The unicorn had agreed.

3534 took a deep breath to calm himself, before asking the only question he could think of to start with.  “Why?” he asked.

Twilight blinked at him in brief confusion as she sipped on her coffee.  “Why what?  Elaborate.”

3534 nearly flinched at the dreaded word, before he practically lost all of his control and started shouting.  “Why are you being so weird?  Why foalnap us, and then interrogate us with kindness, and then be nice to us?  Why did you want to know things about us that had nothing to do with how you could fight us?  Why did you keep your promise and help us if you aren't on our side, and why would you keep us out of contact with our brethren and Queen if you are?!”

By the end of his outburst, the changeling found himself feeling a peculiar mix of anticipation and trepidation.  Twilight simply sipped her coffee and nodded.  “That's a lot of questions,” she observed.

3534 glared at her, and Twilight giggled.  “Fine,” she said, “I'll try to answer the best I can, though I need to be somewhere in about six hours, and I have at least three hours worth of work to do between now and then, and I still need to get some sleep.  I'll have to keep this brief.”

She drained her cup of coffee to the dregs, and set her cup to one side with her magic.  “So,” she started “I guess the big question behind all the little ones is what I want with you.  Fair enough; I can answer that best with a history lesson that segues into the answer quite nicely.

“You see, before Equestria was founded, the idea of pegasi and unicorns and earth-ponies all living together and working in harmony?  It was considered silly at best, and proof that you weren't loyal to your own tribe at worst.  Pegasi in particular had a rather military culture due to their preference of living above ground, where it's rather hard to grow anything.  The tribes fought over territory, food, simple disagreements, misunderstandings, and other things that modern Equestria would call terrible reasons to kill another pony.

“Equestria was founded on the idea of Harmony, after a group of ponies from all three tribes were forced to work together, and found that they weren't so different where it mattered, and that the differences they did have could be used to their advantages.  We have since accepted Cows, Minotaurs, Zebras, and even Griffons as legal citizens of Equestria.  Each of them have contributed new and interesting talents, services and ideas.”

Twilight leveled her gaze on the changeling.  “You can probably guess where I'm going with this.  I have personally undone the damage of a misunderstanding which led to one of our rulers going temporarily insane and being banished to the moon for a thousand years.  I then found a way to help Equestria's oldest boogeyman, the spirit of chaos himself, to become a respected and contributing member of society.  I don't believe that there are many intelligent creatures out there who couldn't find a mutual benefit from being integrated into society, and you changelings are almost too perfect an example.  You feed off of other creatures' affection and approval of you, for Luna's sake!  If I can't find a way to assimilate all of you into Equestria, I've lost my touch.”
3534 looked unblinking at the unicorn as she finished her tirade.  He rolled the emotions she had been leaking over his metaphorical tongue, and couldn't find a hint of disgust, dishonesty, hatred, or malice in it.  “Oh,” he finally said.  Feeling that he should probably say something else, he asked “...So, what's next then?”

Twilight smiled wide enough that 3534 almost thought he would be blinded, and she radiated a sudden eager happiness and approval that was close enough to affection for the changeling to feed off of it, if only a bit.  “Alright,” she chirped, “here's the plan...”

--- Celestia's chambers ---

Queen Chrysalis paced back and forth in the room, a small groove starting to wear itself into the floor of the chambers.  She had found herself nearly incapable of actually leaving the castle for any length of time in the last three days, due to her expansive list of tasks she had to keep up with to hold both of her disguises at once.  As such, she had been forced to entrust more than a few of her more sensitive tasks to her most skilled minions – and while she was confident in their abilities in many things, she wasn't simply asking them to replace a pony or two.

She had sent one of them to try to negotiate with Discord.

Other preparations had been seen to quickly, and with few problems:  Twilight Sparkle had not been keeping the closest of eyes on the queen, always rushing around and obviously sleep deprived, likely trying to take care of duties that couldn't be trusted to an unrepentant would-be usurper.  That same diligence in keeping her from sensitive information and dangerous decision was working perfectly in Chrysalis's favor.

Her changelings had watched as the Element bearers left on the train, rushing back to Ponyville to check on a small disaster her minions had reported.  A number of the frequently on-duty guards had been replaced with her own soldiers, the cocooned ponies stored in the dungeons for safe keeping.  All that was left was to find a way to remove Discord from the equation, and she would stand a chance in her takeover.

So of course, her messenger had apparently vanished without a trace and hadn't checked back in after two days.

It wasn't the only case of one of her changelings going missing in the city either, according to the reports her elites had started bringing in.  At first it had only been a handful who hadn't been reporting in with contributions of stolen love and valuable intelligence, but now over a hundred were unaccounted for.  Either they were falling prey to starvation and ill fortune, or somepony was making them disappear.

Three more elites were sent to meet with Discord, and now she waited for any word from them, but she was honestly worried now.  What if the spirit of chaos had decided to move against her on a whim?  What if the alicorns had hidden themselves in the city to take out her forces while she tried to stage her coup?  Her triumph would fall flat if she lost the very changelings she was trying to save with her plans!

Finally, after what seemed to be an eternity to her, there was a knocking on her door.  Chrysalis re-assumed her disguise as Celestia before opening the door, allowing four guards into her room.  The four all dropped disguises at once, and collapsed in mutual exhaustion upon the floor.  Something had obviously happened, but Chrysalis was simply glad that all of her messengers had indeed made it back.

She waited for the changelings to catch their breaths and stand, despite how taxing any wait was on her nerves at this point.  The first elite she had sent stood from the tiled floor, and held forth a scroll covered in purple jam.  “I have returned successful from my mission.  Discord's terms are on written here.”

Chrysalis didn't wait any longer before snatching the paper in her magic and opening it before her, quickly reading what the spirit of chaos had to say.

--
“Dearest Queen Chrysy,
I am all aflutter with galumph that you would be so considerate as to actually try a diplomatic approach with me before attempting any actions which could end up with a one-way ticket to a frosty fate.  As such, after much deliberation with your messengers (I made sure to send the three late ones back in time so they could be present for the entire thing), I have decided to allow you 'wiggle room' as some might call it.
As you guessed, I am still not immensely endeared to Sun Butt the Mighty, despite having already enjoyed bringing her low in her own game after a sorts.  Lulu can, of course, take care of herself (so I suggest not going after her directly – you should see some of the things her magic can do to you!), and I shall not act in any way either for or against you if you choose to try to renovate the current political structure in ways relating to them.  My primary condition was always with regards to Twilight Sparkle.
I will spell out what I intend for the rules of this little game:
1. You will not cause physical or irreversible mental harm onto my dear Sparks.  This includes indirect attacks and killing her friends and family.  I'll know.
2. You will not simply hit her over the head from behind and drag her off:  You need a good dialogue before any magic is flung around to mind-control and/or temporarily disable her.
3. You actually think before you commit, after listening to Twilight.  You've given her long enough that I'm sure she's found some way to win by logic.  If not, and you do need to 'deal with her'...
4. ...You send her to me once you're done.  She's mine, I saw her first, get your own IPUBFF.

Other than that, you can do whatever you want, unless I decide to changeling my mind.  Ha!  See what I did there?  Changeling my mind, when I'm dealing with changelings!  I also love this automagic writing quill!

p.s.:  You all smell.
p.p.s.:  You have no idea how hard it was to write something serious!
p.p.p.p.s.:  If you do take over, you still have to listen to me if I actually decide to care about something.
p.p.p.p.p.p.p.p.p.p.p.p.s.:  Your messengers are terrible dancers, and don't even know that lime goes great with coconut and singularity flavored fizzy pop.  For shame.
p.P.p.s.:  I love foot notes!  I'm not sure why they're called that in Equestria, as nopony has feet, just hooves and the occasional claw or paw!  But who cares?  Have ALL the foot notes!

With lots of fishes, D.”
--

Chrysalis allowed the letter to slip out of her magical grip, as she tried very hard not to connect her hoof to her face for the foreseeable future.  She was suddenly very glad she hadn't tried to speak with him herself.  Her sanity wouldn't have been likely to have survived direct exposure to him.

Still, he had agreed to stay out of things – maybe – as long as Twilight wasn't hurt in the process.  That... could be difficult if she tried to fight back, armed with magical artifacts along with her own magic.  Chrysalis would certainly be stronger, and would be able to bring numbers to the fight, but she did not like the idea of underestimating her opponents again, especially as she had only gained her current chance from being underestimated.  

Ideally, she could have Twilight distracted elsewhere, or taken in her sleep so she wouldn't interfere.  However, Discord had outright disallowed that.  She had to have another villain-hero confrontation, complete with monologues and banter apparently, and give Twilight a chance to convince her to give up.  As if that would ever happen.

There was no more reason to put things off.  She sent one of her guards to call Twilight in for a meeting, and had the others hide themselves in the room.  She would listen to the unicorn's undoubtedly convincing argument, promptly tell her why whatever she suggested wouldn't work, have her changelings ambush her and help put her to sleep, and deliver her to Discord's doorstep.  Surprisingly, she found herself more than a bit miffed that she wouldn't get to keep one of the few competent, hard working ponies in the government for herself.  She had almost started to grow attached despite herself.  The unicorn could have made a wonderful changeling.

It was a shame, but what she did, she did for her subjects.  Equestria would be hers, and her children would never starve or fear discovery again.

--- ---

As Twilight walked into Celestia's chambers, she noticed a few things.  First and foremost, was that the meeting was a trap.  She had expected as much, as Chrysalis hadn't actually had her called in to speak with her before about anything.  As long as Chrysalis was setting her plan up, she would want Twilight elsewhere so that she could move without observation and restriction.  By requesting Twilight's presence directly, she had set off red flags for the unicorn.

Now however, it was fully confirmed by the smell of lime and coconut in the room.

Well then, moment of truth time.  Twilight walked in, closed the door, and sat on one of the cushions in the middle of the room, facing the Queen.  If things went pear shaped, she could only hope her contingencies would hold, and that Discord hadn't agreed to too much – or gotten bored.

Twilight was wearing a pair of saddlebags Rarity had made for her, and promptly levitated a stack of papers out from one of them.  “Well,” she said, “I suppose this is the point where you declare yourself ready to overthrow the princesses as the end to some master plan?”

Chrysalis gave a flawless impression of Celestia's all-knowing and ever patient smile.  “It is,” she confirmed.  “I assume this is the point where you try to stop me as the end to some master plan?”

Twilight smiled brightly.  “Nope,” she said, “as I have no reason to try to stop you from taking over.”

“Well I hope you came prepared th–” Chrysalis paused in mid sentence as Twilight's response registered.  “Excuse me?” she asked, blinking in confusion.

“You did finally get around to doing enough research to find out how Discord wound up as the ruler of Equestria for a month, didn't you?” Twilight asked.  “It was rather similar to how Nightmare Moon took over without any fighting or arguments.  I helped them.”

Chrysalis tilted her head with a look of puzzlement.  “Why did you stop me in the first place then?”

Twilight shrugged.  “I actually was kind of surprised when your disguise broke.  I'd been fully convinced that Cadence was simply an evil and manipulative pony who had been abusing love magic for years, and I wanted to keep her away from my brother.  If I had known you were just a shape-shifter who was trying to take over the country to get food for your subjects, I'd have acted a lot differently.”

Twilight gave an embarrassed grin, and Chrysalis sighed, rubbing her forehead with a hoof.  “Of all the- I got caught in a trap intended for the pony I was posing as.  That is simply unfair,” she lamented softly.  Looking back up at Twilight, she asked “What then, if not trying to find a way to stop me from taking over, have you been doing?”

Her face lighting up again, Twilight chirped “Helping!”  Seeing the glare from Chrysalis, she decided that she should probably clarify.  She gestured to the papers levitating next to her.  “These are my latest suggestions to you in my official capacity as your royal adviser regarding the integration of changeling and pony society.  Along with that are my reports on preliminary testing results, and all applicable existing laws which I thought might come in handy."

Allowing her curiosity to get the best of her, Chrysalis used her magic to grasp the stack of papers and started to read through a few of them.  It wasn't as though she would be in any danger even if it was a distraction, not with her elites watching.  So she looked at the pages in front of her.  She looked back at the unicorn who was grinning happily in front of her.  She looked back, flipping through the papers with an ever growing look of confusion crossed with incredulity and something that couldn't decide if it was horror or awe.

She looked back at Twilight Sparkle, and if the unicorn had suddenly grown a third head, she'd not have looked at her any odder.  She opened her mouth, several questions fighting for the right of proclaiming themselves first in her mind.  In the end though, “What?” won out by a landslide.

Twilight gazed at her oh-so-innocently.  “Yes?” she asked.  “What seems to be the problem, your Majesty?”

The damn broke.  “You want us to openly immigrate as legal citizens?!  Are you out of your mind?  When you said integrate, I thought you meant secretly infiltrate in ways that wouldn't cause too much trouble!  No sane pony would ever willingly accept us as part of society openly!  I tried that once, and it did not work!”

Twilight affected a look of hurt.  “What about me?  I'm perfectly willing to accept you into society.”

Chrysalis gave her a look which didn't need a single word to convey a sense of 'I did say sane' and 'My point stands'.

Twilight sighed, and conceded the point.  “Even so,” she waved a hoof to encompass the nearby windows, “this is Equestria.  The country where, in case you've forgotten over the last minute, the chimeric Spirit of Chaos and Disharmony is a legal citizen.  A well liked one, even.  We obviously aren't all completely sane here.”

A grimace passed over the queen's face at the mention of Discord.  She'd only had to deal with him twice now, and she already knew that he would always try to be headache inducing.  Still... “You might have a point there,” she conceded.  She hadn't tried having her changelings reveal themselves peacefully to a government since the disaster six hundred years ago in Sorrelem, Maressechusetts.

Chrysalis chuckled to herself after a thought.  “When I started suspecting you were somehow involved in my disappearing subjects though, I hadn't expected them to be being used to test how effectively they could feed the hive in different 'changeling friendly' professions.  You've released them now, I assume?”

Twilight wondered if she could pull a muscle by smiling too hard.  If so, she was probably going to have a sore face later.  “I haven't been holding them against their will since day two.  I just convinced them I was working on their side, and told them this was a surprise for you.  I already have one hundred and forty three changelings set up in positions where they can earn enough love combined to sustain most of the current population on their own.  That frees up the majority to start looking into lower profile and slower return options of permanent careers.”

Chrysalis shook her head in disbelief.  If she's being honest on all of this, if those changelings are actually getting that much love... “Why are you going to this much work to help us though?” she wondered out loud.  “You could have just dealt with me when my invasion failed, and had Discord help you round up my army.  We didn't come flying a flag of truce and love, so why go to this much work for us?”

“Who knows,” Twilight said.  “Maybe I'm just a good pony, or something.  Or maybe, I actually see a way that changelings can benefit Equestria if they join us.  Think of it as a symbiotic relationship, or a trade;  Ponies can provide love to give changelings food and power, while changelings can use their abilities as shape-shifters in a number of positions in pony society.”

Chrysalis looked like she wanted to interrupt for a moment, and Twilight held up a hoof to forestall her comment before continuing.  “You can cover for somepony who needs to miss an appointment, and act as body doubles for important politicians and famous singers or actors.  Your natural ability for acting would also lend itself incredibly well to theater and movies.  Modeling agencies would always have exactly the body type and coloration they needed to make their clothing look its most appealing, and for changelings who could learn to sing, they could use their impressive ability to alter their voice along with their form to become some of the most popular entertainers in Equestria.  And all of that isn't even touching on the idea of guards and special agents who can infiltrate any crime ring, or pose as victims for sting operations perfectly.

“Now, given that we are supplying all of that lovely love, what do you think you would want to do to anything that threatened Equestria?  I don't believe in such a thing as too much backup, you see.  Celestia and Luna can't be everywhere, and neither can I.  Discord... probably can't either, and the guard always has trouble responding to everything fast enough.  But if random citizens in the area were frequently super-powered warriors with magic and flight capability?  Because that's how I'd describe changelings when they're fed well enough.  They could leap into action when there are emergencies, save ponies' lives, and get even more love out of it.”

Chrysalis seemed to consider for a moment, before nodding.  “And do you have a specific way to help the general population accept us?” she asked.

“Cheesy romance novels,” Twilight replied.

Chrysalis looked askance at her for a moment, and then chose to simply not ask for a change.  Instead, she thought for another moment, and asked “Why are you willing to trust us?”

Twilight rolled her eyes.  “You feed on love: Public opinion will control you better than we ever could.  If you started trying anything evil, and anypony ever found out, it would damage your ability to acquire free love.  Meanwhile, if you willingly accept dealing with royal duties that the princesses don't want to handle, you'll be getting Alicorn love.  It's the same reason I could trust you not to mess anything up when performing Celestia and Luna's duties the last several days –  Good rulers just get more love than bad ones.”

The idea Twilight had presented was more than a little tempting, as if it worked, there would be far fewer worries about being caught as a changeling in public.  However, if ponies didn't accept them, their cover would be blown, and it would be far more difficult to replace one, or both, of the princesses.  Her own plan, however, would prevent Twilight's from working later if she failed.  Regardless, she had no guarantees that there would be a trap involved...

“I'll follow your plan, Twilight, but only if you are willing to prove your sincerity to me.”  Chrysalis leaned down, placing herself nearly nose to nose with the unicorn.  “Drop your shields, and let me see your honesty.”

With a shrug, Twilight's horn was surrounded by a glow of magic, and Chrysalis watched as the mental wards that had kept the unicorn's emotions hidden for so long simply opened.  Love poured out.  Chrysalis could taste respect, friendship, pity, compassion, and... was that tightly concealed lust?  The wards sprang back up, and Twilight Sparkle looked her in the eye.  “Proof enough that we can accept you?”

Chrysalis nodded, speechless, with her mouth hanging slightly open.  She hardly noticed as Twilight took her leave, and her elite changelings came out of hiding, glazed looks on their faces from the strength of love they had just felt.  Love aimed at a changeling in her natural form.

Twilight trotted down the hallway, away from her meeting, and looked down into her saddlebag.  She took out the antidote for the love potion she had custom ordered from Zecora, and drank it down.  She'd have to complain about the strength of the potion next time she visited; she had wanted the potion to provide the feelings of love of a close friend, had even given her relationship with Rainbow Dash as an example to the zebra.  Obviously, Cadence wasn't the only pony out there who was reading tabloids to determine how she felt about ponies.  Even so, it was worth it for the look on Queen Chrysalis's face.

The princesses would be happy to know that things had gone well, and that their presence in the city hadn't been needed after all.  For now, Twilight needed some sleep worse than she had ever thought possible, and then she'd need to start drawing up speeches, decrees and a few outlines for trashy romance novels.

--- Five months later in Ponyville ---

On stage, two star crossed lovers lay dead, both killed by their own hooves in tragic misunderstanding.  Their feuding families stood over them, finally realizing their errors only once it was too late to recover that which they had lost, and many a pony in the audience found their eyes moist over the tear-jerking scene.

Only within the last month that traveling troupes had started visiting smaller towns like Ponyville, but they found the trip well worth it when they realized how little competition they had in the rural locations.  Few ponies would willing miss out on the shows, with them still being so new a thing to ponies who had never been able to see anything more professional than school plays, and so admission fees didn't need to be high to make fair sized profits.

The idea of setting up in Ponyville seemed rather attractive to the actors, as they heard the stomping of applause while the curtains closed.  Then however, the stomping seemed to turn to a rumbling of the very earth!

Somepony looked towards the Everfree, and saw a huge creature smashing its way towards the town, and the ponies panicked.  Twilight was in Canterlot, unlike the last time something so huge had lumbered in, and what other pony could possibly drive such a beast off?  'Oh, the horror!' one of them shouted.

One other shout was raised however, coming from the stage.  “It's morphing time!”
Suddenly, there was a green flash from the stage, and a group of chromatically-color-coded-costumed-protectors-of-justice jumped into action!  Yes, the troupe would definitely need to stay for a time.