Princess Luna’s booming Royal Canterlot, even flying high in the air, sends balloons and lighter changelings tumbling through the air. Many of the others cower behind tables, walls, or the nearest available pony. With hundreds of changelings and a good deal fewer hiding spots this results in more than a few instances where a guard finds himself the ‘leader’ of a chain of changelings, peeking out from behind at the Princess of the Night.
Many civilians are also present, mingling primarily among each other, though a few more adventurous ponies stray from the pony dominated games to venture to a single changeling. They find themselves staring up at their Princess, many taking a knee and bowing their heads.
“Joyous news!” Princess Luna shouts again. “Your Queen has conceded defeat, and you are all to be banished!” She motions with her hoof behind her; high above, staring through the window, stands Queen Chrysalis. Far from the imperious glare she normally spots, the changeling Queen looks quite dour, even with her new husband standing next to her.
Murmurs ripple through the changeling army, many wings buzzing angrily. Some form impromptu shock teams, ready to lead a charge to rescue their imprisoned Queen. Others wail at the thought of banishment; they know the stakes, and mournful cries soon echo throughout the city. But the majority merely hang their heads in defeat, kicking at the ground and wondering what could have gone wrong, that their Supreme Leader’s plan fell through so terribly.
“Hmm, that may have come out wrong,” Princess Luna mumbles to herself. Her deafening, “But!” gets the changelings to pause, chitinous heads and teal, pupilless eyes staring up at her. “As she is with foal, she is staying in this fecund land as our Friend!”
The crowd ripples as heads turn, low and fast conversations springing up like wildfire in a parched field. While many worriedly glance up at Queen Chrysalis the others are sizing up the guards, though they seem to be less focused on their combat capabilities.
Princess Luna nods at the change in demeanor, smiling broadly. “And the same offer is available to each of you!”
Nearly every guardstallion, and a good number of guardsmares, find themselves suddenly under the amorous assault of the nearest changeling. Or, in the case of a few unattached and strapping examples, several changelings simultaneously.
“But that is not the only way!” Luna shouts, to no avail. Too many of the changelings are succeeding in their efforts, very few of the guards resisting, and their passionate sounds drown out even the alicorn’s Royal Canterlot. “Wait! Stop!” she calls, her voice losing its harsh boom. She can barely hear her own voice call out, “You may also renounce the leadership of your Queen, and join us in Friendship!”
“Sister,” Celestia asks Luna as she flies next to the alarmed alicorn with a smirk halfway between condemnation and exhilaration. The corners of her mouth keep pulling her smile wider as she tries to keep her voice even. “What have you done?”
“But, I,” Luna stammers, pointing her hoof vaguely downwards. Her eyes widen as she spots some of the commencing activities. “Foals!” she booms out, “Avert your eyes!”
High up in their tower, Chrysalis watches the events unfold with a stony expression. She should be enjoying this, the love flowing freely from everypony and into her changeling’s awaiting jaws and gullets, but the sight of her entire army reduced to all-too-willing broodmares is enough to make her stomach turn.
Even if that was her plan all along.
Silence! Chrysalis commands that voice in the back of her head, fuming. She turns to glare at her captors, only to see neither Shining Armor nor Twilight Sparkle gleefully watching her and her suffering. Instead, Twilight is rubbing her brother’s foreleg, tears in her eyes.
“Isn’t it beautiful?” the lavender alicorn asks nopony in particular, a few of her herdmates lining up at adjacent windows to witness the unfolding festivities. She continues, her voice emotional and wavering, “I never thought that I would find myself fulfilling my duties as Princess of Friendship so quickly.”
“Yeah!” Rainbow Dash exclaims, unable to tear her eyes away from the scene below. “Even I have to admit, that’s pretty awesome! How often do you get to meet a whole new people, and make friends with them?” She makes a lewd gesture with her forelegs, winking at Twilight.
“Ah can barely believe it, and Ah’m watchin’ it with mah own eyes.”
“You’d think they would have chosen a place with a little more, hmm, privacy.” Rarity tut-tuts disapprovingly. “Not that I mind the outcome, but this seems a little excessive.”
“Yes, and-” Fluttershy looks around, momentarily confused. “Hey, where’s Pinkie Pie?”
Everypony looks around until they spot her outside, pronking from one hiding changeling to another and dragging them from their reclusive spots. Soon she has a conga line of changelings following her, gathering more and more every second. Then she turns up at the castle window, waving at the ponies staring at her.
“Celestia’s perky posterior,” Rainbow says, rubbing her forehead with a hoof.
“That better not be for me,” Doug says through gritted teeth.
“Doug, there’s no way that-” Applejack cuts herself off, her own hoof now massaging her head. “Okay, we best be putting a stop to that right now. Come on, y’all.” Applejack flicks her mane, getting Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Doug to follow her.
Meanwhile, Chrysalis watches as Cadance pulls Shining Armor off to the side, dragging him by his ear. She stops, barely in earshot; Chrysalis can’t help but think that is intentional.
“Excuse me,” she says in a harsh whisper, Shining Armor’s ears folding against his head, “I don’t suppose you want to explain to me why you are ruining my wedding night!? Not that I’m unhappy with you soiling our bed with an abomination like that!”
“Cady,” Shining Armor starts, almost immediately cut off by his lead mare.
“Don’t you Cady me! She eats love! As in, she literally devours the very emotion that I’m supposed to represent! Do you see this?” Cadance points at her flank, indicating the crystal heart.
Shining Armor’s gaze turns to Cadance’s flank, only for her hoof to slap him in the face. “No, you don’t get to look there! That’s for ponies who don’t turn their kingdom over to their mortal enemies!”
“Yes, dear,” Shining Armor says, cowed.
“How could you even think I would be okay with this? If you don’t remember, because it happened more than five seconds ago, let me remind you! She imprisoned me for a week! Did you even think to come and rescue me? No! You were happy to be off gallivanting with your buddies!”
“That’s not true at all! I-”
“I bet you couldn’t wait for Chrysalis to raise her tail for you! I’m sorry that I wanted our first time to be special, but no! You just had to go and ruin it!”
“Look, I know your heat must be bothering you, and it’s getting near the end, but-”
“Oh, no no no!” Cadance gets right in Shining Armor’s face, nearly shouting. “You do not get to pin your bad actions on what I’m going through! You-”
Any further shouting is soundly and thoroughly quashed by Shining Armor meeting her lips with his own. Chrysalis wryly notes the same technique he used on her to twist Cadance around, the pink alicorn’s wings poofing out as he dips her low. Anger radiates from her, eyes narrowing, but she meets Shining Armor’s gaze as she pulls away.
“Celestia’s room, five minutes. At least try to be ready.” She looks at Twilight, the lavender alicorn pointedly looking out the window and trying to appear as if she didn’t hear anything. Next to her, Chrysalis is making absolutely no attempt to hide her being privy to their not-so-private conversation. “Twilight?”
“Y-yes?” Twilight hesitantly says, glancing at her old foalsitter.
“Twenty minutes, Celestia’s room. Don’t be late.”
“O-of course,” Twilight replies, turning back to look out the window as Princess Cadance leaves the room, followed shortly by Shining Armor, leaving her alone with Chrysalis. So many new foals for next year. Do we even have the facilities for it? The hospitals are going to be overwhelmed. Then the schools, in a few years. I suppose we have some time to get ready, but a few dozen schoolteacher cutie marks per city wouldn’t be a bad thing.
“Hey, Twilight?” a sleepy sounding mare calls from the doorway, quickly followed by three exuberant young mares bounding into the room. She bites into an apple, chewing for a few seconds before asking, “Got a minute?”
“Sure,” Twilight says, smiling at Starlight Glimmer. Her eyes scan the mare almost automatically, to see how her pregnancy is progressing. “Wait wait wait.” Her eyes narrow. “Quadruplets?! That’s unheard of!”
Starlight Glimmer gravely nods, taking another bite from the apple in her hoof. “Y-yep.”
Twilight nervously looks around. “I, um, I guess I should apologize for that.”
“Meh. Doctor says they’re identical, too. Not supposed to happen, but, well?” She blithely shrugs. “Little girls are eating for two appiece. What it feels like, anyway. I don’t suppose you want to cast the spell on these three? Trying to conserve whatever energy I can.” She pulls out three glass containers from her saddlebags, setting them on the bed.
“Sure,” Twilight says, the three Crusaders lining up. “How’d you get in here?”
“There’s, like, no guards, anywhere. Plus, somepony had to watch these three after the wedding.” Starlight shrugs. “I’d like to catch the earliest train out of here, then it’s a bit of a hike. Rather not get caught up in that.” She motions outside.
“Mm,” Twilight says, focusing her mind. It feels like such an atrocity, doing this, but none of the young mares even flinch as she rips their cutie mark off of them, safely storing each inside the bottles.
“Huh,” Scootaloo says, examining her equality cutie mark. “I thought I’d feel different after that.”
“Me too,” says Sweetie Belle, frowning. She inspects their coats. “We did lose a bit of our luster, though.”
“But none of what makes us us!” Apple Bloom grins, raising her hoof in the air. “Time to go help someponies with their cutie mark problems!”
“Cutie Mark Crusaders Forever!”
“Don’t forget to say goodbye to your dams,” Twilight says, rubbing her ears. She gets a nuzzle from each, Starlight loading the bottles into her saddlebags, and waves as they depart. Her attention turns back to outside, watching as her herdmates surround Pinkie Pie and the giant pack of changelings following her. Doug folds his arms, staring down the pink mare. Twenty changelings peel off, Doug shaking his head. The remaining ten then step forward, Doug saying something that gets Pinkie Pie’s mane to deflate. Finally a single changeling steps forward. Doug glances to Applejack; she nods, then he nods. Pinkie Pie pronks off, leaving the single changeling with Doug while she goes and finds other unattached stallions to foist changelings on.
“I suppose you think you are clever,” remarks Chrysalis to Twilight Sparkle.
“Well, I don’t like to brag,” Twilight Sparkle says with perhaps a bit too much cheer, though she quails under Chrysalis’ imperial gaze.
“Using the guise of helping me to subvert our bargain.” She slowly stomps against the floor, her face an impassive sneer. “Well played.”
“Hey!” Twilight objects strenuously. “That wasn’t some sort of play, or ruse! I really do want you to become our friend! Won’t you at least consider it?”
“Well, much as I am loathe to admit, you did best me. I did not expect such a ploy from you.” Chrysalis rubs her stomach. “Once she is born, will you expel me and my kind if we do not bow our heads to you?”
Twilight gapes, staring first at the foal growing in Chrysalis’ womb and then at the changeling’s face. “How can you care so little for your young, that you would abandon her so easily?” She rubs at her own belly and the growing twins. “I would never do such a thing! I would accept any burden for their sake!”
Chrysalis motions a black hoof towards the changelings outside. “How many larva do you think I’ve spawned?” Chrysalis demands, unflinching.
Twilight tries to count every changeling outside. She hesitantly answers, “Um… hundreds? Maybe a thousand?”
“Ten times that number. Those that you see outside, perhaps a quarter again remain alive, spread throughout Equestria.” Chrysalis sighs heavily. “And it seems your plan is working there, to spread my number throughout your land, to diffuse and assimilate them into your own. Do not think we did not see how your guard, culled from every city and town, has been gathered here to take a drone for themselves.”
“That-” wasn’t my intention at all, Twilight wants to say, but stops. Doug had told her of how Chrysalis’ invasion could have turned out, and this was one of the changeling’s demands. To deny it would show weakness, and she barely has her respect as it is. “That certainly worked well, didn’t it?”
"Indeed." Chrysalis stares out across the city, sighing to herself. She glances at Twilight. "Don't you have a new sister to run after?"
"Oh! Right!" Twilight exclaims, bounding out of the room. She pauses at the doorway, turning to Chrysalis. "Oh, and, um, thanks."
Chrysalis merely flicks her head up as the alicorn disappears.