The Great Pretender

by Diamond Sparkle

Chapter Three-Bluffing

"I will do as you say, but first a visit to the toilet beckons." As soon as she was out of sight of Queen Miasma and her own drones, she carefully peeled off her royal robes. The spell that she had earlier cast to keep the awful itching at bay by automatically scratching her skin was still working well, but at a cost. Her carapace was deeply scratched almost to the point of being broken in several places and was a horrible greyish white. Summoning up her magic, she let a blast of green fire loose, changing her appearance to that of herself. Her old self, with black glossy polished chitin that shone in the dim green light of the changeling goop that lit most of the tunnels. She walked back into the feasting hall to the cheers of her drones, happy to see that everything was well with their beloved Queen. Like Queen Miasma had done, she ignited her changing magic twice more, taking on the shape of an alicorn and then a great royal griffin to prove her strength to her Hive. On the surface everything was as it should be, but inside she felt faint as the cordyceps worked faster on her weakened system, her entrails feeling as if they were twisting painfully. Being at a banquet with all kinds of rare love present, she helped herself to some fiery Griffin love that some drone had laboured for over a great deal of time to bring back to the hive.

Griffin love was notoriously hot and spicy to the point that some changelings didn't like consuming it, but to Queen Chrysalis's weakened palate it tasted fine. She feasted on every bit of love within the reach of her hooves, and gradually felt better and concentrate on Queen Miasma, who was talking about how sensible Hive Territory Boundaries made good neighbours. There was so much love being consumed, that although it could not kill the cordyceps deep within her, it could temporarily reverse it's effects and slow it's growth. If she could feast like this every night, the cordyceps would not be an issue. The problem was, that with an entire Hive to provide for, even a Queen could not banquet as if it were Hearthswarming Day every night. Far more love would be consumed then could be brought in by the infiltrators, even if they started taking prisoners too. Within weeks the Hive would go hungry, and then would become starving, and a starving Hive might even turn on and depose it's Queen.

But what if she could conquer a land that was so full of love that there would be enough for both her to feast and her drones? The lands of the Dragons were out of the question. It would take most of her Hive to defeat and cocoon even one dragon, and whilst normally disunited, they would put an end to her Hive with fire and talon if they thought of it as a threat to them. Then there were the Griffin clans within Gryffindor, but they were highly militaristic and their talons and beaks could pierce changeling chitin with surprising ease. It was said that in emergencies there were no civilian griffins apart from the unfledged chicks and that every griffin would fly to the attack if their towns were in danger. And they would be nearly as vengeful as the dragons when they found out who was responsible. Besides, many changelings could not stomach the sheer spiciness of Griffin love. Yakyakistan was the next country she considered attacking, but it was so far away, and to avoid freezing and dying her drones would have to grow thick fur and burn plenty of love for warmth, leaving them weak by the time they got there. And yaks were also fierce fighters.

Seaponies were out of reach, the buffalo tribes were too few to feast on endlessly, and the zebra were preyed upon by other Hives who were jealous of their monopoly and firmly kept out any large numbers of foreign changelings. The odd infiltrator could escape their notice, but an outright invasion would not go unchallenged. What about Equestria? Most ponies neither owned weapons nor knew combat magic, and apart from a few border regiments who would not be able to react in time, the Royal Guards were little more then police ponies who almost never used their spears in anger. There had been no major wars in centuries between Equestria and other nations, and it's former special forces, the Wonderbolts, were now just a bunch of formation flyers. The mighty alicorns would be a problem, but there were only three of them. The Element Bearers were also a real menace, but not if the elements could be separated

By the time she said goodbye to Queen Miasma and her entourage, her mind was buzzing with top secret invasion plans. Princess Cadence would need to be kidnapped and stashed somewhere since bonds and gags and even the average changeling cocoon could not hold an alicorn for very long. The Elements would need to be at least located, so that a regiment of her drones could seal off access to them. Over the next month, she planned with her generals, sent in her finest infiltrators to Canterlot, ordered her other infiltrators to bring in as much love as possible, and feasted as much she needed to, greatly draining her Hive's central love well in the process, to the point that when they left for the invasion, she and the needs of her drones and grubs between them had drained it dry. If the invasion was the success that she thought it would be, then neither she nor her Hive would ever be short of love ever again; but if it failed there would be no love to come back to, and her disease would claim her quickly, whilst her Hive would starve. This day would surely be a day to remember, one way or the other.

Comments

[Diamond Sparkle]

8036132 Updated.

[Orangeblossom1212]

I LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Diamond Sparkle]

8038670
Thank you.

[MrSoup678]

And Chrysalis died. RIP

[Hoofprintz]

Yeah so I suppose the end was just Chrys dying? Or is it like alt uni?

Interesting concept, but this ending seems like you lost interest.