The Great Pretender

by Diamond Sparkle

Chapter One-Pretending that I'm Doing Fine

Winter was coming.

The nights in the Badlands were always rather chilly not matter what the season was, since apart from a few mosses, lichen and fungi nothing grew there to hold in the heat at night. But now the days were slowly becoming cool as well. Deep within the black castle that housed the Chrysalis Hive, Queen Chrysalis had summoned her trusted Doctor, Ninshubar. "What appears to be the problem, your Majesty? As your royal doctor, I need you to drop any concealment spells so I can see what is wrong with you."

"It started a couple of weeks ago with an itch. I scratched it with a hoof and it didn't go away, so I cast a spell designed to scratch an itch whenever it needs to be scratched and for a while that was the end of the problem. And then I felt pretty sore and looked at the sore area and not only was there a small crack in my carapace, but there was a white stripe growing over the crack. I covered it up with a quick change, as it would not do for me to look weak, and went about as normal, but as time went on I felt tired and breathless and my horn started to ache, and when I dropped the concealment spell in the privacy of my royal quarters I was horrified enough to call you in."

With a flash of bright green fire the Queen dropped her concealment spell, and the doctor stepped back in horror. When not looking after the Queen he worked in general practise and had seen cracked carapaces from accident or malice, ripped wings, malnutrition from a severe love shortage and various other things, but this was serious. Deadly serious. The horn, head and upper neck of the Queen was fine, but her carapace was covered in cracks and white fungus and looked like something from an old tomb.

"You have cordyceps, the worst and most deadly disease that can effect a changeling. And at the moment at least, there is no cure for it. Within a short time, most magic including the ability to change will be stripped from you and you will be in constant pain. Within a few days, it will start to affect your brain and you will lose control of your emotions and your ability to feed, which is when it will grow from your head and release so many spores that the whole Hive will be in danger of catching the infection, and your life will be over very quickly. Noling will be able to get near your body without the danger of being infected, unless they wear protective clothing."

"But this can't happen to me! I'm a Queen of one of the largest Hives in the world. How did I get this disease anyway? And how do you cure me? I demand that you cure me now." Many changelings would have burst into tears by now, but not Queen Chrysalis.

"There are two ways that a ling can come down with cordyceps. First is if they are stabbed by an infected weapon that has been exposed to it, or through an infected needle or blood transfusion from an infected ling. I know you have not needed any blood transfusions or injected any drugs, and your guards protect you well. So you must have got it through...I hesitate to say this, but I must-unsafe sex with another changeling. The thing about cordyceps is that it normally lies dormant in the body for up to ten years, and a very few lings are never infected as their immune system prevents it. Only then is the ling infected. A test was developed a few years ago for it, but as there is no cure yet, very few changelings want to take such a test."

"Surely there must be some way to cure it or at least to slow it's spread?"

"Love can slow it down, but you would need truly vast quantities of love to in effect cure it. It's like a hole in a bath-you would have to keep the water running constantly to keep the bath full, and it's the same thing with the love. Even if you were to absorb almost the entire Hive's love reserves, it would only keep you healed for less then a year. I advise you to make your will , tell those close to you, and before the fungus sprouts from your head, to leave the Hive and fly as far away as you can. "

"You are dismissed, doctor. And if a word of this leaks out, it will count as High Treason for trying to undermine the monarchy and predicting the death of the Queen."

When he had gone Queen Chrysalis tried to recast her disguise, but only a few sparks of green fire flew, and she still looked the same horror that she did before.

*****
That evening the Queen summoned her changelings and stepped out in front of them, wearing the fine clothes that she had last worn at her coronation decades ago. She wore a robe of the finest scarlet silk lined with black and white ermine fur, with slits for her wings and tail, multiple bangles of fur-lined gold on her legs, fine shoes on her feet, a jewel encrusted band of silver around her chitin crown, and even a silver chamfrain upon her face, and carried in her royal magic the traditional heavy changeling wa-sceptre of ebony topped with gold and sard that a Changeling Queen carried at her coronation.

"Attention, everyling. I have decided that as your Queen I should display my royal dignity, and therefore I will be dressing like this for the foreseeable future. Royalty should not go around naked like the common ling." The large smile, almost a rictus grin, that was on her face trembled a little. The bright green magic that held the wa-sceptre seemed to falter a little, and the Queen quickly handed the wa-sceptre to her nearest aide. "I'm making you the Keeper of the Wa-Sceptre. It's not that I couldn't carry it around all day if I wanted to, it's just that I have other things to do-and servants to carry things for me. For now, I will be carried around on a shield the way I was at my coronation to emphasize my royal status. And for the next two days until the royal visit of Queen Miasma everyling will be on half rations."

An audible groan went up from the crowd.

"That is so that the royal feast to celebrate the Royal Visit of Queen Miasma will be even bigger and better," Queen Chrysalis told them, and they managed a cheer.

When in the privacy of her royal quarters the Queen took off her royal jewellery and peeled off the silk, her body was bleeding and covered with fungus. The spell that kept the itch at bay had worked, but had deeply scratched her carapace in doing so, yet she felt very little pain, just relief from the itch. If Queen Miasma or my subjects were to find out what is wrong, it would be a political disaster and I could easily be overthrown. But what is a changeling Queen but a Great Pretender? Surely I, Queen Chrysalis, Ruler of the largest known Hive, can find a way out of this rather then becoming fungus food?

Comments

[Jlargent]

Obligatory musical reference GO!

[nioniosbbbb]

By the symptoms I can see you just said Chrysalis contracted changeling aids.

[Airy Words]

7755622

And the only cure for it is.....more sex!!!!

[nioniosbbbb]

7756466 The thing is that even it is inconsistent with what the author says. He says it can only be contracted by needles, transfusions, and unprotected sex. Yet he says it will spread with spores later.