//------------------------------// // Act 2 - Chapter 1: With and without disguises // Story: Friends like these // by Istaran //------------------------------// Queen Chrysalis climbed onto the couch and sat down, exhausted. All of the curtains were drawn, which would have to be good enough, because she didn't have the energy or will to maintain her disguise right now. Especially not with how disorienting it was trying to be a biped. She could feel the woman beside her smirking mentally, even if she was careful enough to keep it from her physical features. "I hope you're not expecting too much of a break," Eliza said. She was bound in place on the couch by her wrists and ankles, held fast by some weird green goo the changeling had secreted. But Eliza had gotten over the grossness of it all after about the first day. Being stuck in place most of the day other than brief bathroom breaks, under strict watch that left no privacy was something she didn't think she would actually get used to. She could already feel the atrophy beginning to affect her, and took more frequent bathroom breaks as the only acceptable excuse for moving around. Sleeping in the weird cocoon thing Chrysalis shoved her in every evening before her husband got home was.. actually vaguely pleasant, surprisingly, but it was always soured by the knowledge that the changeling queen was sleeping with her husband. But Eliza did have one, small pleasure left to her in life. "Oh! There he goes! He's pooping," she sang out, not even bothering to hide her amusement. "Ugh, how do you humans even get through a day without servants to help with all this... excrement?!" Chrysalis lifted little Georgie, Frank and Eliza's toddler, into the air with the glow of her horn and carried him back to the changing table. "Don't forget to sing to him!" Eliza reminded. "I know, I know," Chrysalis snapped, making Georgie cry before she started singing in a fairly beautiful, almost hypnotic voice. "Don't forget to wipe his butt!" Eliza reminded, interrupting the song. "I know~" Chrysalis sang, working it into her song melodiously, if not logically. "Make sure the snaps are good and tight!" Eliza reminded, interrupting again. "I know!" Chrysalis snapped, breaking the song and eliciting fresh cries. "You don't want him to leak through again!" Eliza reminded. Chrysalis didn't even respond this time, too busy trying to rock and sing and get Georgie settled down again. Somehow he managed to squirm out of her telekinetic grasp and start to fall, but she caught him just in time and set him down on his feet, tiredly following as he toddled down the hall with alarming speed. "You really should be practicing doing this with your hands, not your horn. You won't be able to use your horn when you're in disguise. My husband would notice," she said. "I'll do it just fine without my horn, when I have to," Chrysalis countered. "You didn't last time," Eliza reminded in a taunting sing-song. Chrysalis snorted, deploying a few more toys to distract the toddler as she sat back on the couch. Eliza admitted to being a little impressed at how far Chrysalis had been willing to go for her charade. She would have expected the alien bug-horse thing to have made Eliza do all of the work, at least while her husband was away during the day. Especially after she used some kind of mind control to do just that for the first two days. But she had insisted on taking on all of Eliza's responsibilities, letting Eliza boss her around enough to get everything done. And Eliza had abused the privilege as much as she could get away with, making the changeling clean twice as often as she would have, added extra steps to things to make them more difficult, and gotten her to take over the chores that Eliza herself had previously made her husband do. Chrysalis scooched over on the couch and lay her head in Eliza's lap, looking defeated as she stared blankly at the energetic toddler, now making a huge mess in the living room with his toys. Eliza savored a vague sense of victory for a moment. Defeated by the rigors of being a housewife? Hah! Take that you alien bug! "I don't get it... the thing that sent me here said I could go home as soon as he couldn't stand to lose me. I cook, I clean, I wipe his baby's butt. We have so much fun together, in and out of the bedroom. I can taste his love for me..." Eliza didn't like being reminded of that. Chrysalis had gone from protruding ribs to a bit on the plump side since arriving, though she still had those weird swiss-cheese style holes everywhere. "His devotion to his loved ones is legendary. I even know he tried to murder someone just to get back home to you two. So why?! Why am I still here?" she sobbed into Eliza's lap. Eliza really wanted to smugly gloat, but she couldn't help but feel sympathetic for the moment. If her wrists were free, she'd probably be petting her right now, trying to comfort her. And she definitely was all in favor of the bug queen going home forever and ever. "Did you ever think maybe it's because it isn't you he thinks he can't live without?" Chrysalis didn't have an answer. It was the biggest, boldest, bravest invasion plan ever conceived by changeling-kind. And it. Was. Brilliant. There was a million individual moving parts that would have to be sorted out individually, improvised as needed, but the gist of it was simple. 1) Take on a unique, new identity each. All of them stallions. Equestria had a distinct gender imbalance, and lately monogamy had been in vogue, so stallions were far more sought after. 2) Scatter throughout Equestria. With their Queen gone, there wasn't much reason to hang out around the caves in the badlands. Besides, they needed to have small numbers in every town for the next step. 3) Woo the ladies like nostallion else. Most of the stallions that knew how to treat a lady right were already married, and with herding mostly being a thing of the past, it meant the changelings would only have to compete with the schlubs and the lesbians. And honestly, most mares wanted a stallion. There would be enough to go around, he was sure. Dopple just had one little problem with this plan. Convincing his generals it could be done. And to do prove that, he had been challenged to woo at least one of the Elements of Harmony. If he could do that, they said, they'd believe the rest of the plan could work, and would get right on it. And so Dopple had put on his best unicorn form, a shiny white coat, with navy mane and a black tie cutie mark, complete with a spiffy suit top to really class it up, and strolled into Ponyville. The first thing that struck him, as he entered the small town, was a mare. And one of the Elements no less! Off to a great start! "Hi I'm Pinkie Pie and you're new here I know because I know everypony in town and I'm going to throw you the bestest of best welcome to Ponyville parties and there will be cake and balloons and cake and party favors and cake and then I'm going to get you out of that disguise of yours and dance the night away and it will be so much fun!" the overly energetic pink earth mare rambled. "Wait, what? Disguise?" he said nervously. "Oh, wait, you're not Doomie! Wrong fanfic. Sorry! Just be there at eight o'clock sharp for your party, silly, Billy, gilly!" Pinkie said. "Black Tie," Dopple offered his pseudonym. "Oh! Fancy~ You got it! Gotta go see Rarity!" she bounced off happily, disappearing behind one building only to emerge from behind a distant building crossing the street. Dopple licked his lips, enjoying the odd, sugary taste of affection he had gotten from the mare from even such a brief interaction, and seriously wondering whether his sanity could handle pursuing that particular pink pony. He spent the afternoon making arrangements for himself around town; a temporary place to stay, a temporary job, etc. Enough to begin to establish himself until hopefully his new marefriend would make some of the more permanent arrangements unnecessary. Meanwhile, he subtly inquired about town, confirming some of his people's intelligence on the Elements and their neighbors and dispelling a bit of misinformation. When the time was approaching, Dopple spotted the flow of ponies and quickly identified the location of the event. The nicest restaurant in town had been rented out as a venue for the gathering, the tables laden with delicious looking treats, while a clearing had been made in the center for a dance floor. A DJ was playing some nice, smooth, slow dance songs. By the look of her, they weren't her favorite style, but she was a professional and would play what needed to be played. Everyone was wearing their best formal wear, making Doppel feel a bit underdressed. The giant banner saying "Welcome to Ponyville, Dopple!" was a bit terrifying, as he had never given the pink pony his real name, but since nobody seemed poised to ambush him with anything other than confetti and balloons, he trotted on in, bracing mentally for the party cannon's blast. "Hi Dopple! I hope you like this black tie welcome party! I've never thrown such a formal welcome before, but I've done black tie parties and I've done welcome parties, and if anypony can mash them together and stick them to each other with a sweet layer of frosting it's me, so I said Pinkie, let's do this! And then Pinkie said 'okie dokie Loki', and then we worked together and put this party together before I even remembered there's only one of me!" she managed to get out before the last piece of confetti finished drifting to the ground around Dopple. "How did you, umm.. know what to write on the banner?" he asked as discreetly as he could. "Oh! Well I always write Welcome to Ponyville for a Welcome to Ponyville party, silly. But I couldn't remember your name, which is weird because I never forget a name, so I had to go back and look it up in the script. Which is good because I remembered I didn't know how to spell your name right otherwise," she confusingly explained. Nope. Dopple would be lucky to retain his sanity dating one of her friends, actually courting the pink one was out of the question. "Oh! You must be Dopple! Who does your wardrobe?" Rarity asked as she approached, looking him over with a critical eye. "I, umm.. I made it myself," he admitted, nervously. "Oh! Well, that's not bad for the work of an amateur, then," she offered, trying to smile. "When you have some spare bits you should stop by my boutique for something with a bit finer craftsmareship." Dopple nodded to Rarity, and told Pinkie "nice party, thanks for getting it together," before pulling away. He grabbed a couple of glasses of punch and strolled over to the wall off to the side. With a sigh, he slumped down a bit, setting the glasses down and nudging one of them over to the nervous wallflower next to him. "Oh! You didn't have to..." Fluttershy began objecting, before slaking her thirst. "I know. But I saw the cutest mare in the room was looking thirsty, and nervous, and lonely. And I was getting a bit lonely out there, surrounded by too many ponies," he took a sip of his own drink. "You know what I mean, don't you?" "Yeah..." she confirmed quietly, blushing as they sat together, watching the party goers carry on. "I'm going to go get some air, if that's alright with you..." she said very quietly after several minutes. It was almost impossible to hear over the din of the party, easily ignored by anyone who wasn't actively focusing on the timid pegasus. "I'll go with you," Dopple immediately offered. "And I'll bring a few slices of cake for us to enjoy while we're at it. They're very tasty, and it'd be an insult to the party planner to not at least try a bit, wouldn't it?" Fluttershy smiled, pleasantly surprised to have been heard the first time. They strolled out of the party together, a couple of cake-filled plates hovering through the air behind them. Only one other pony noticed them leave. A rainbow color streak took to the sky to observe them from a distance.