We walked to one of my favorite restaurants "Blue Wings", they had a ton of very rustic stews, soups, and spicy vegetables, and there was only one item on the menu containing hay.
"I remember being here before.", Chrysalis said while she looked around. "I was on a 'mission' a few month ago."
"Who was the lucky stallion?", I asked while we took our seats at one of the tables which had some distance to the next, for privacy.
"A mare.", she corrected me. "Lavender Dust, a beautiful mare who worked in a flower shop two streets from here."
"So you had been disguised as a stallion?"
"No dummy, I was a mare too, black coat, dark blue mane named 'Night Star'. You should have noticed by now that there are a lot more mares than stallions among ponies. I think it is about one stallion to three mares, aside from some cities, some stallions try to 'make it big in the city'. Therefore it is normal to have a lot of mare to mare relationships or to have herds with one stallion and two or more mares."
I was to curious, I had to ask: "But you could be a stallion?"
"I...", she stopped because the waiter arrived to take our order.
We both ordered a spicy 'Potato-Leek Soup'.
Once the waiter was out of earshot again, she continued: "Of course, maybe you remember I even have been you for a few hours, but I prefer not to. It feels strange to have these additional parts, so I only do it for short times or if there is no other way."
"Can you change into anything? A rock, a chair?", I asked still curious.
"And then I pull a rabbit out of a hat...", she laughed. "Instead of answering your specific questions, I will explain our ability to you.
The first thing to know: Our weight doesn't change when we change our body. This means I could change my body to be five times as big, but since the same mass is spread across this bigger body, it gets very brittle. If I try the opposite, there is also a limit on how small I can be, around the size of a little filly I can't compress my mass any further.
The second rule:
I have to put my intestines somewhere in my new body because it is no fun to be dead. Something like a chair doesn't have enough space in it.
And at last: I need air to breath, somewhere in the new form has to be an opening to my lungs.
So yes, I could be a rock... a breathing rock with an air hole somewhere, I doubt that would convince anyone."
"Thanks for telling me all that, it helps me a lot to estimate what you can and can't do.", I said with a warm smile.
"I don't think it will matter much in the future. I am pretty sure one of Celestia's conditions will be 'no shapeshifting'.", she said with a sigh.
"Would you miss it if you never could do it again?", I asked.
"Well... it is a part of me... it's not as I would only shift to do 'evil' things, I use it to be funny or to adapt to a situation. Like the Celestia thing I did for Luna."
"Speaking of Luna...", I started. "Do you think she will forgive me soon?"
She seemed to be unsure how to reply to this, after a moment she said in a soft voice: "Sure, you have a pretty new relationship, it is normal to get angry over not so big things but cool off quickly. I can read her feelings for you before your next meeting to give you a little head start."
I smiled at her and felt more relieved. "Thank you Chryssi."
"When did you think of nicknames for me?", she asked smiling.
I realized what I just had done.
"Oh, sorry. I don't know where this came from."
"Don't be, I like it, it is far less formal. I had much worse nicknames in my life."
"Care to tell me?", I asked with a smirk.
"Let's just stick to Chryssi, ok."
The waiter showed up again to bring our soup, it smelled delicious. I started to dig right in, I sure was hungry.
"It tastes great.", Chrysalis said after a while. "To bad I can't get any energy from it."
"What happened with Lavender Dust?", I asked her.
Her expression went gloom.
"I tried to play by the rules but left her after five days instead of three. It's a shame, I really liked her, and we had a great time together. I even left her a note explaining 'I had to leave in a hurry because of a family emergency and how I loved our time together'. After two weeks I sent her another letter, in which I told her I found somepony else, I was sorry and hoped she would find someone better than me... I really meant that last part."
"It must be hard to do all this just to keep your hive alive."
"It's not my hive anymore...", she replied with tears in her eyes.
I scooted my chair next to her and wanted to hug her, but remembered just in time it would break her disguise.
"I'm sorry, I would hug you right now if I could. How about going back to my room and I feed you with a friendship hug."
She just nodded, so I called the waiter and paid for our meal. As we stood up to leave, she addressed me: "Can we take a little detour? I would like to see how Lavender is doing."
"Sure, lead the way.", I said.
...
The flower shop was next to a small dim alley, we stood there and looked through the display window.
"She looks happy...", Chryssi said after a while.
"Why don't we go in, she won't recognize you in this disguise.", I suggested.
"No... that is exactly what I could not stand after all we had, she would look into my eyes and wouldn't even recognize me.", she was breathing hard and could barely keep her composure.
It took her a few seconds before she could speak again.
"Let's just wait a few minutes. She will close her shop soon, just to see her up close again..."
"Sure, let's wait a bit."
...
After some minutes we could see how Lavender started to arrange her shop for closing. Another mare walked in after a while, we saw how they chatted... then they hugged and kissed. I looked at Chryssi's face and saw several emotions fight to get the upper hand, again I just wanted to comfort her, but couldn't. The two mares walked out of the shop. Lavender locked it up, and they walked away chatting and giggling.
"... she looks happy...", Chrysalis repeated, but her voice was cracking.
"I should be happy for her...", she tried to say, but it was hard to hear because of her uncontrolled sobbing.
I looked around. The dim alley ended in a dead end after a few feet, I saw no one in it. I took her hoof, which broke her disguise, and pulled her deeper into the alley. I wrapped my arms around her, and her head laid on my shoulder, I could feel my shirt getting soaked by her tears. I just rubbed her back while she cried for minutes, she often tried to say something but she couldn't stop crying long enough to get the words out.
Finally she so stopped crying, and we stood in silence while we embraced each other.
"Everybody has the right to be loved.", she said with a voice raspy from all the crying. "I should be happy she found somepony, I never could have been that for her."
She took a few steps back and changed back into her disguise.
"Please, let's go.", she said. "I'm not sure how long I can keep this form, I have problems to concentrate."
So we hurried back to the palace and entered my room. I closed all the curtains and Chrysalis dropped her disguise the moment every window was blocked. She sat on my bed and leaned against the wall behind it.
"I'm so stupid.", she started in an angry tone. "That is exactly the reason why you don't visit somepony again who you fed on."
She banged her head against the wall.
"Stupid. Stupid. Stupid!"
"Please stop doing that.", I begged her and sat next to her.
She ruffled her mane with her hooves and groaned.
"This all has drained so much energy from me. I am so tired."
I opened my arms.
"Come on, get your friendship hug to fill you up again."
Eagerly she moved into my embrace and closed her eyes.
"... this... this isn't just friendship.", she said after a moment. "... it can't be, no one could feel that way for me..."
I had to look inside me to find what I was hiding from myself. I was a bit surprised by the warmth of it.
"Everybody has the right to be loved.", I repeated her words from earlier that evening.
Her face came close, I felt her hot breath on me, her eyes were full of need.
"But I can't.", I said. "Luna is..."
"I will not let you go.", she interrupted. "I feel your love and your rising lust, I want you, I need you."
I felt her hot body against mine and my body reacted to it, our mouths separated only by an inch. I opened my mouth and inhaled her breath, then my tongue reached out to her while her tongue did the same. The moment our tips met, we closed the gap and shared a wild and foreign kiss. My hands grabbed her butt and she hummed a surprised sound into my mouth while she ripped off my shirt.