“H-hello, Twilight,” said Celestia, involuntarily stepping back a pace. “I didn't… what are you doing here?”
“Why, do I need a reason to visit my favorite teacher?” Twilight walked into the room, accidentally brushing up against Celestia and making the larger mare flush.
“N-no, it's just that I'm surprised to see you.”
“Well,” said Twilight, settling down on her haunches near the center of the room, “I just wanted to stop by and catch up with you after you left so suddenly last night. That's okay, isn't it? If we just talk for a bit?”
“Of course.”
Celestia took a deep breath as she moved towards her student. This is it, don't chicken out now. You have to tell her…
“Twilight? Can I… tell you something? Something important and personal?”
“Of course! You can tell me anything. We're such close friends, after all.”
“Yes, and I hope we still will be afterward.” Celestia pawed at the marble floor nervously. “You see, the thing is… we are close friends, and I've known you for so long, and you mean so much to me, and… and… Twilight, I love you.”
A look of surprise took over the purple alicorn's face, and was replaced by a large smile. “Well, I know that, of course. And I love you too. After all, we've been student and teacher for so long that—MMPH?!”
Celestia hadn't heard a word past the apparent reciprocation of her love, and, moving forward, planted her lips firmly on Twilight's. One hoof moved around to the smaller pony's back, holding her in place, which was good as otherwise Twilight would have pulled away immediately.
Breaking contact, Celestia stood up again, using one wing to turn Twilight around and then draping it over her to lead her across the room.
“C-Celestia, what was… w-what are you…” Dazed by the kiss, Twilight only realized she'd been half-carried to the bed when wings suddenly scooped her up, depositing her on her back on the mattress.
Before she could move, Celestia slid on top of her, planting kisses along her neck and nibbling at her ears, moves that left the small alicorn distracted and helpless.
“W-wait Celestia—“ Twilight tried to protest, only to be cut off as Celestia's lips once again locked against her own.
Twilight squirmed uncomfortably under the larger pony, trying in vain to get out from underneath her. Celestia, for her part, took her student's desperation to be wiggles of delight, despite the fact that her mouth was shut firmly, denying the Solar Monarch's tongue entrance no matter how much she tried.
Panting and gasping, the two finally broke apart.
“Celestia—” Twilight tried protesting again, which was a mistake. Taking advantage of Twilight’s attempts to talk, Celestia darted forward, her tongue finally invading her student's mouth.
Twilight’s eyes went wide, and she began to struggle more frantically, but it was pointless. The sheer size difference that kept her pinned firmly to the bed meant Celestia's tongue was stuck in her mouth like a cork in a bottle, and her muffled protests were taken to be matches for Celestia's moans of pleasure. There was nothing she could do but lay there and make feeble attempts to get her point across, as an enthusiastic Celestia used her tongue to thoroughly explore her student's mouth.
The tipping point came when Celestia's hooves moved down, sliding across Twilight's body and starting to go places she was definitely not comfortable with. She began to struggle with redoubled effort when one hoof slid around her flank, finally getting Celestia's attention enough that her eyes opened and she was able to see the look on her student’s face. She broke off the kiss immediately, pulling back enough that Twilight was able to get some leverage.
“Twilight?” asked Celestia, concerned by her soon-to-be-lover's expression, “What's wrong—”
“I said, get OFF me,” snarled Twilight, getting a hoof up and shoving sharply at the Solar Monarch's chest. Confused, Celestia slid off to the side, allowing Twilight to get up and quickly scamper off the bed and across the room.
“Twilight—”
“Ugh, what is wrong with you?!” cried Twilight, scraping at her tongue with a hoof. “I mean, I can understand you being upset when you found out, but to do that to me? You are seriously messed up in the head, you know that, Celestia?”
“I-I don't understand, Twilight. I thought you—”
“Oh, come off it already. There's no point in pretending. You're not getting me back in that bed for anything.” She sighed heavily. “Well, no point wasting all the energy I just got keeping this up.”
Twilight’s eyes suddenly blazed with green light, and emerald fire crackled along her body. She shot up in height, feathers spraying from her wings and disappearing as they were consumed by the flames, holes eating away at her legs as her horn grew long and twisted.
“I'd understand if you don't wish to tell me, but really, how did you know I wasn't her?” buzzed Queen Chrysalis inquiringly. “Was it something in my voice? Is there some stupid dance you two do, like with Cadance?”
“I-I… I… what…”
The doors suddenly burst open and Cadance charged in, skidding to a halt as she spotted Chrysalis “I knew that was changeling magic I felt!” she shouted.
Chrysalis rolled her eyes. “Well, speak of the devil…”
“Are you calling me a devil, you monster?!” Cadance snarled, marching across the room towards the changeling Queen. “Well, you didn't ambush me this time, and I've been waiting for this for years! I won't let you hurt anypony I care about again!”
She reared up, horn crackling with energy, and a brilliant beam of cyan light struck Chrysalis square in the chest, causing her to close her eyes and sigh happily.
“Mmm, that's nice,” she muttered.
“B-but how?!” cried Cadance, ceasing her attack. “That was all my power!”
“And how, exactly, is shooting love at someone that eats love supposed to do anything but make them stronger?” asked Chrysalis, cocking an eyebrow.
“The wedding… we used our love to defeat you…”
“No, you used your love to power up a shield spell and then hit me in the face with it,” snarled Chrysalis. “I haven't forgotten, by the way, my little Princess of Food.”
“So, you're here for revenge, then?” Cadance asked, eyes narrowing warily.
“Oh, no, I was just passing through and figured I'd stop by for a quick snack before heading back to the hive. I mean, there's still months to go before my plan is ready.” Chrysalis let out a wicked, buzzing chuckle.
“What plan?!”
“Ah-ah, no spoilers.” The Changeling Queen began moving towards the balcony. “Well, if we're done here I need to get moving. I can command the drones through the hivemind, but they tend to start slacking off if I'm not around to… emphasize my orders physically.”
“I don't think so!” Cadance dashed over to block off the Queen's escape. “What did you do to Celestia?!” She pointed a hoof at the bed, where her aunt was lying slumped down and whimpering.
“What did I do to her?!” screeched Chrysalis indignantly. “I just came in here disguised as that purple pony, trying to feed off some more student-teacher love. It worked fine with her last night, but then Celestia—”
“You fed off Twilight?!” The pillows on the bed began to smolder.
“Whoa, whoa, nothing happened!” Chrysalis held up her hoof placatingly. “I just stopped in for a snack! No mind control, no cocoons, no implanting my eggs—”
“No what?!” cried Cadance.
“I just took Celestia's form and spent some time with her. Ask her about it and she'll tell you she spent a pleasant night with the Princess.”
Slowly, the smoke rising from the bed began to taper off, and Chrysalis let out a surreptitious sigh of relief and continued. “So anyway, I go through the same routine in reverse here, and before I can even start trying to feed Princess Sunbutt drags me onto her bed and starts molesting me! Which is just sick. That is a messed up thing to do as retribution for someone trying to take over your kingdom. I thought you ponies had rules about punishments like that.”
“She… she did that to you?” Cadance asked, eyes wide.
“Trust me, it's not something you can make a mistake about.” Chrysalis grimaced. “I am never going to be able to get the taste of giant pony tongue out of my mouth.”
Cadance turned to the bed, eyes shining. “Celestia, is that true?”
The Princess's response was to sink down in her bed, whimpering, until only her horn was visible above the pillows and blankets.
“OHMYGOSH, you and Twilight! This is so exciting!” She stopped bouncing, ears suddenly drooping. “Oh, Auntie, I'm sorry for laughing when I suggested it earlier. You two really are perfect for each other, honestly. I just said what I thought you were thinking!”
The horn moved further back in the bed, sinking down like a submarine's periscope.
“Oh no, you don't.” Cyan magic ripped all the pillows and blankets from the bed, aside from the one pillow Celestia had her hooves wrapped firmly around and was currently hiding behind.
“Do you really love Twilight?” Cadance asked softly. Celestia's head peeked out briefly from behind the pillow, nodded once, then disappeared again.
“So cute,” whispered Cadance.
Suddenly, she whipped around towards Chrysalis, exploding with fury. “You MONSTER! How could you do this to her?! She finally gets the courage to confess her love, and you just plotblock her? How COULD you?!”
“What—that's… what?!” Chrysalis cried, backing up. “Are you saying that I should have… should have…”
“You should have just laid there and taken it, yes.”
“How dare you?! Do you think I just go around jumping into bed with random ponies?!”
“How is that not exactly what you do, you… you bucking succubus?!”
“I'll have you know I've never… I've never…” Chrysalis trailed off, something that looked suspiciously like a blush on her face.
“You've never what?” asked Cadance curiously, tilting her head to the side.
“I-it's none of your business.”
“Oh, no,” Cadance whispered in a hushed voice, hooves going to her mouth. “Are you telling me you've never been… intimate with anyone? Physically intimate?”
“And what if I haven't?” snarled Chrysalis.
“But… it's the purest way of expressing love for another… to become, for just a moment in time, one with another pony, to share everything you are with them…”
“Bah! I have no need for that! Besides, I am a QUEEN. No pony could ever be worthy of me.”
“And the changelings?”
“I know they aren't. Hivemind, remember?”
“B-but… there has to be somepony for you, somewhere!” Cadance looked ready to cry, eyes large and watery.
“Well, I did almost have one once. You took care of that pretty thoroughly.”
“I did, I suppose…” Cadance looked down, sniffling slightly, then suddenly raised her head. “I'll make it up to you then! I'll find somepony for you, somepony that will care for you just as you are!”
“H-hey, wait a minute…” Chrysalis started backing away, fear in her eyes for the first time.
“Please, Chrysalis! Let me find you somepony—someone—who can make you happy, even if it's just for one night!”
“I… why would I even want that?! And from you?!”
“You're telling me you aren't lonely?” asked Cadance softly.
“No! Hivemind! How many times do I have to tell you that?! Just… Urgh!” Chrysalis gritted her fangs, putting a hoof to her head and looking away for a moment, then turned back. “Okay, fine, you want to do this? We will. There just might be one pony, out of the millions in Equestria, who is worthy of me. Find me that one, and… we'll see what happens. But they must be acceptable to me!"
“Yay!” Cadance clapped her hooves. “Get off the bed, Celestia, we've got a lot of work to do!”
“I-I don't know,” said the Solar Monarch, coming up from behind the pillow like her sun rising in the morning. “After what just happened… what if the real Twilight rejects me too? I don't know if I can take that again.”
“That's ridiculous, Celestia! Chrysalis, tell her—hey!”
Chrysalis jerked back at Cadance's shout. Her horn had been glowing, inducing a greenish haze to flow from the Princess to the Queen's open mouth.
“Are you feeding off me?!”
Chrysalis gave a shrug. “It's not like it takes much work, with how much love you just throw around everywhere. It would be wasteful not to!”
“Okay, just… whatever. You visited Twilight disguised as Celestia just last night, right? Tell her how much Twilight loves her.”
“Oh, she doesn't. Not at all.”
“What?!” cried both Princesses.
“I mean, platonic student–teacher love, sure. Tons of that, very tasty. But nothing romantic.”
The trembles first started in Celestia's lips. They spread down to her knees, then her eyes began to tear up. Finally, she burst out in long, heart-wrenching sobs, collapsing onto the bed and burying her face in her hooves.
“Chrysalis! That is not helping! That is the opposite of helping!”
“It's the truth!”
“Well, I don't care. You go make her feel better or I won't help you!”
“I don't even want you to—”
“Fix it!”
Chrysalis let out a long, pained sigh. Awkwardly climbing onto the bed, she put a hoof over Celestia's back. “Look, so she doesn't love you. There are ways around that. I can teach you some mind-control spells that—”
Fresh wails from Celestia drowned her out. Looking up, Chrysalis gave a shrug, only to be hit by a glare of pure death from Cadance. Wincing, the changeling Queen turned back to Celestia.
“Okay, okay, here's the deal. I said there was no romantic love, and there wasn't. But there was… something. I'm trying to think of a way to describe it in non-changeling terms… a spark. Not love, not the kind of love you want, but the possibility of it. Maybe she doesn't even know it's there, or maybe she thought about it but decided it was so unlikely and out of reach that she pushed the feelings down until they almost disappeared. But there's something there, and that's all you need. Trust me, I've worked with less.”
Celestia looked up, sniffling. “Are… are you serious?”
“Of course,” said Chrysalis, gently wiping a tear from Celestia's cheek. “Look at this face. Would this face lie to you?” She grinned widely.
Celestia considered that fang-filled horror of a smile for a moment. “I'll… take your word for it,” she said finally.
“Good!” Chrysalis got back off the bed, discreetly moving behind Cadance and beginning to feed again.
“Are you really okay, Auntie?” Cadance asked carefully as the Sun Princess rose to her hooves once more.
Celestia took her time, spine slowly straightening, neck pulling back and raising her head high, but when she was done it was once again a regal monarch that stood before them.
“Yes, Cadance. I won't let my despair get the better of me again. I know there's a chance now, a real, honest-to-Goddess chance, and that's all I need. That's all I ever wanted.”
“Awesome!” Cadance gave a happy little dance where she stood. “Then let's get to work. We need to come up with ways to turn that spark in Twilight's heart into a flame, and we need to get Chrysalis laid!”
Having a changeling spit a mouthful of love all over you doesn't seem like it would even be possible. It also doesn’t seem like it would be a particularly gross experience, compared to, say, a pony who had been eating a bowl of oats.
It is, in fact, very possible, and it is far, far more disgusting.