Chapter 1
Thorax stood, looking around at his fellow changelings. "We did it." His smile curled from cheek to cheek. "We really did it!" Flicking his wings, Thorax did a little spin, kicking a multicolored hoof up into the air.
Another rainbow-patterned 'ling buzzed over to the celebrating Thorax. "They are gone, they used their magic to leave!" A familiar sound, deeper than most changeling wings but just as buzzy, got closer and closer.
"My Queen!" Thorax spun, spotting Chrysalis returning. As the mother of the hive settled her hooves down on the ruined throne room, she reached a hoof forward to rub the strangely colored, stag-like bug's head. "My Queen…" Thorax's voice held every hint of devotion for the mare that not only raised him, but gave him his greatest mission.
"It is done?" Chrysalis's snout was already curling into a smile, she knew what was coming, she had seen the ponies leave herself. When Thorax nodded against her hoof, she rubbed his ear. "Then return to your forms, my children."
Thorax was first, swirling blue magic wrapped around his form, banishing the disguise that had so effectively deceived the few ponies who had come. Around the cavern, all the drones shed their colorful guises, relishing in returning to their natural forms.
"My Queen, you promised…" Thorax looked up at his smiling mother, her hoof not stopping in rubbing his head gently.
"Of course. You get to feed first, Thorax." Chrysalis summoned her magic, ripping a circle of green magic into the floor around herself and Thorax. The two stepped from the burning circle. The room thrummed with energy, pure power that only a changeling could harvest. Ponies—in storage pods—circled the wall, but Thorax stepped toward a different shape.
"Spike." At the words, and Thorax's hoof laid on his pod, the dragon woke, blinking out. "I know you can hear me in there, I really must thank you so much, Spike. I only appeared to you because I knew you were the most simple to manipulate. Your friends, they wouldn't have believed any other." Thorax opened his snout and started to drink, guzzling down the love that the pod forced the dragon to feel.
"You deserve this, Thorax, truly the greatest of my children." Chrysalis herself homed in on the pink, slightly twitching form of an alicorn. "Mine, now."
She drank.
"They are an imposter!" Celestia raised a hoof and pointed it at the two "alicorns" sitting on and by the royal throne. "Guards, seize them!" She strode forward, eyes blazing, watching the green fire wrap around the two changelings.
"You!" Luna strode up beside her sister. "Tell us, are any other ponies replaced by changelings?" She glared down at the two drones, each trembling; they were completely surrounded.
"Sister," Celestia looked over to Luna, "calm your fire. We will take care of interrogating them." She strode up to the pair and pointed ahead of her, to the royal chambers at the back of the throne room.
Looking defeated and so tiny, the two drones scampered ahead. Their hearts racing, they ducked inside the room they had been calling "home" for days.
Striding through the doors, Celestia glared at the two drones and lifted a hoof up. Each of the drones lifted their own and gave the alicorn's limb a little clop with their own hooves. "Perfect." Luna closed the doors behind her. "Now, we move on to plan B."
Twilight stretched, relaxing at her castle. "First order of business," she had a list out, of course, "we need a meeting in the map room to discuss what happened." She gave a happy nod, crossing off "announce meeting" from her list.
The other mares followed her, Starlight and Trixie following along, once they realized they weren't going to be kept out.
Starlight froze once she was in the room, her eyes adjusting to the dim light. Laying on the map, two changeling pods sat, shepherded by two changeling drones. "Starlight?" Twilight stepped up beside the unicorn. "Why don't you just hop in now, we have control of everything, you yourself told all the ponies it was safe, their princesses were free." Green fire claimed the disguise the changeling wore.
Her eyes widening, Starlight tried to draw on magic, to put up a shield, to teleport, or anything. A crackle and a fizz was all she got from her horn.
"You honestly expected us to not plan for this?" The drone pointed to the pod. "In, now."
"The… the great and p-p-powerful T-Trix-" Trixie didn't get a chance to even finish what she was trying to say, green magic wrapped around her, picking her up and dropping her in one pod. Looking to the side, she watched as a similar fate befell Starlight. Her hooves lashed out, trying to bash her way free, but the pod just flexed and bent, and worse, she was getting sleepy.
"Perfect." The drone retook their disguise of Twilight Sparkle, while the other two undisguised changelings became Trixie and Starlight. "Plan B time?"
The "ponies" cheered.
Cadance set the little filly carefully back in her cot. "Shiny?" She looked to the side, seeing her stallion. "Will the ponies ever discover, do you think?"
"That we are in control? Of course not. Their first mistake was thinking they had beaten us at the wedding. Scouting is not always done with stealth." Shining reached his hoof in, brushing the cheek of the foal.
"And now?" Cadance inhaled deeply, still barely getting used to the amount of love a princess received from their ponies, let alone their foal.
"Now? Everything is perfect. We move to plan B." Shining's eyes flashed with green avarice for just a moment.
The plan was perfect, not just double-crossing, but triple-crossing the ponies. Chrysalis sat atop her throne, bathing in the love generated by the most powerful ponies in Equestria. "This day has been just… perfect."
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Nice Story, but you forgot one creature, DISCORD, he will sense something is wrong with Fluttershy in seconds and will be VERY PISSED off at those Changelings when he finds out what they did, they better watch out then.
rip
7624011 That will take a little while, and these changelings aren't hamming up their act to divert "heroes" to rescue the princesses.
After watching changelings turn into those colorful atrocities I needed this.
7624015 This is DISCORD, you know the Master of Chaos, if he was able to sense Terik back then he sure as Buck can sense those Changelings even if they are faking acting like the ponies, no one can act that good, the one that has to act as Fluttershy will be ready to crack since Discord seems to pop in to Flutters place at any given moment.
7624025 I honestly expected Rarity to have a fainting fit as soon as she saw them.
Now, where were those jokes about it...
7624043 To the typewriter! Come on, flag me as a prequel and continue this, with Discord finding out, and being given Fluttershy as a "good will" gesture by Chrysalis.
7624043 Err that Klutzy Draconequus!
So, Plan B centered on having Thorax makes friends with Spike in order to infiltrate the Crystal Empire. He is then sent to infiltrate Starlight's group of heroes, despite the changelings not knowing who she is at that point (else they pretended not to for no reason but to make their disguises terrible) and having no way to know Starlight will wisen up to what they have done. They then allow the group to find their way into Chrysalis' throne room (including Thorax getting lost along the way and then tipping the group off to a trap he could have easily tricked them into falling for) and "defeat" her, only for all the ponies they freed to be changelings disguised as their friends. These changelings then go back to their normal lives but now also replace Starlight and Trixie. Chrysalis also has yet two more changelings expose their fake breathen as Celestia and Luna while pretending to be them themselves. All to get Chrysalis to exactly where she was before.
You know, some folks say certain villains don't think their plans through. In this case, Chrysalis has overthought it. Her Plan B relied on her primary plan being thwarted so this one can be enacted. And it's not a Plan B, a Plan B is the back-up plan when the main plan fails, but Thorax's infiltration means that this was the primary plan all along. Chrysalis planned out her infiltration of Equestria, then made plans to sabotage that plan as part of a bigger plan to re-infiltrate Equestria. And to what purpose? None, she has the same thing she had before, all the most powerful ponies replaced with changelings. The original plan was fine, then Chrysalis decided to deliberately foil her own plan as part of a second plan that had the same result. Actually it's a worse result, apparently the knowledge of her return is public, and that is gonna make things more difficult.
And of course this all ignores Discord, as others have commented. Surely, if he doesn't sense the magical stuff going on with the changelings
You've both overthought and underthought this premise.
7624150 Plan B as in "well, our attempt at scouting/easy victory failed". I never said she deliberately thwarted her own invasion, just that she setup for it to fail. Plans within plans.
Clearly she was watched the ponies enough to realize that if she started to take over, no matter how covertly, it would be discovered and a plucky group of heroes would be sent forth. She setup Thorax to be ready for that, since most such groups come from Ponyville.
As I said, random thought after watching the show.
7624156 I think it would have worked better if only the prisoners were in on it. Like the imprisoned ponies were more changelings, but Thorax and the rest of the hive are legit. Chrysalis, with her secret cabal of her most loyal drones impersonating the heroes still, is ousted from her own hive but is still in control of Equestria and ready to plot her vengeance.
Heck, that'd be an epic scene. Thorax shows up to meet with the Two Sisters and the Mane Six, only for Chrysalis to reveal her gambit and mock how foolish he was for thinking he could usurp his Queen.
7624163 Heh, and then get blasted by Thorax-powered friendship rainbows! I like it.
I guess part of this came from a story I am working on, centered around "Dorkalis" (nerdy and smart Chrysalis) watching as Equestria gets saved time and again by apparent "dumb luck" by a few young mares, and decided to do something about it. Too much "smart villain" bled over maybe?
Hmm, I like this. Certainly makes more sense than the horribly rushed and nonsensical finale.
I mean, the wedding spell made sense at least, it was a spell only posted by love, but in the finale? I guess they're simply incapable of writing a changeling invasion without a massive ass pull to make the heroes win.
7624166 But then it turns out it was a quadruple cross all along and Thorax was really Revolver Occelot all along, who proceeds to bring the patr-I mean changeling Empire crumbling down.
So you made a story that is utterly nosnensical, makes no god damn sense, and relies on an impossible xanatos gambit that relies on a defeat that chrysalis absolutely had no idea could happen?
And would STILL not explain the fact that all of these changelings would have no fucking clue what they are doing and would be exposed, which was the primary doom of the plan to begin with, cause they have no idea what they are doing. they cannot rule...... nor protect anypony when trouble coes again.......
Congrats, you made a typical fanfic.
7624177
Well, this finale was kind of an asspull too, tbh.
7624643 Made sense to me, maybe English isn't your first language.
This fic was an fun little read.
I enjoy it fully, I say!
The way the true queen misled
everypony, was very risque!
7624643 She would know if she used mind control to plant the idea into starlight's head.
7624643 Um... If the idea was subtly planted in her mind, since Thorax claimed that he noticed a few changes from both receiving love freely given, and giving love in turn, then it would make perfect sense; it can be inferred that information gathered about Starlight proved her to be extraordinarily bright, if a bit stupid for social situations, so the plan to have her start a faux reformation of her race, so that they could travel about "undisguised" is, albeit problematic, reasonable enough. Considering the individuals replaced, smart decisions all around. Twilight Sparkle and Spike, so obvious threats were neutralized (Spike's IM service to Celestia is obviously a problem to take out swiftly, and Twilight, because one less Alicorn to deal with), and the remaining Mane Five can be fed upon without scruple. Luna, since Celestia's love would be an obvious power source, and manipulating her, with the "sister she banished" no less, is an obvious way to get things you want done, with thought going into how it is presented. Since they had years to plan "take important ponies into coma-inducing&/paralyzing sacs, while they sleep", I think they could account for a few new factors... Like suddenly having a growing Alicorn to raise like family, which would produce a lot of love, and the crystal ponies would be an obvious choice, along with the Crystal Heart. Let's not even get started on how much they love Spike the Brave and Glorious! Getting rid of Starlight is an obvious choice, and Trixie... You might have had a point there, assuming you don't account for the phrase "target of opportunity". The implications of having the Changelings as an accepted friendly race of their prey for transporting agents shouldn't even need bear mentioning.
tl;dr: It was a series of brilliant machinations, that obviously took years of planning, and it's reasons for each step had plainly clever reasons for strategic and tactical purposes for easier lives all around for the changelings, since they no longer have to hide, making them more flexible in operations of covert and overt natures. In short, this was a smart story, but I can't blame you for missing all the moving parts of this gambit she pulled; it was a good fanfic, and it even left it open of the possibility of a cool sequel. I'm not going to judge you (out loud) for your opinion on the matter, but I can provide a counter for your points. I hope for a fun a stimulating intellectual debate over the topic; I haven't had fun like this a almost a month!
7624643
I would also like to counter your point: there was no defeat she didn't see coming, it was blatantly implied that it went perfectly to contingency. They accounted for all factors involved, and even a few that were only potentially involved. The use of an alicorns child, raised to be loyal to you and the Changelings, cannot be overestimated. The only thing they might have to deal with in the future, is Sunset Shimmers return (for either book replacement, intell on the Memory Stone, or suspicions about the prolonged lack of contact with Twilight and her pupil) and the Storm Kong's Invasion (which would just trap four random drones and give improper time for a proper retaliatory strike. One that, if successful, would grant them control of most of the world, and alliances to subvert into protectorate with the rest).
Seriously, just a generation or two down the line, and they can start influencing the rest of the races to become like cattle of Earth: protected from outside forces, and preyed upon freely as something normalized. Of course, the only possible opponent is Sunburst (maybe; we don't know what happened to him) and his (maybe) sister, with the possible exception being the goofy Storm King and his Commander, Fizzlepop. As long as they play there cards like they have so far (close to the chest, with misleads abound), then there is little to fear.
No Stygian or Pillars to interfere, as Twilight isn't there to release them from Limbo. No EEA to get involved with anything, as there is no Friendship School, and Neighsay would've probably been replaced by then. Not a whole lot to deal with, really.