> Queen Takes Dragon
>  by dracone
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> New Meeting after so long
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Queen Chrysalis paced back and forth with a gait that showed she had very little energy and was merely doing it out of a need to do something to calm her nerves within the small space of the lines she dared not cross or step upon, her long light brown robe with no marks on it barely reaching the floor and slightly fluttering about, in hear echoing type voice she said, “Are you sure of this? Combining the rituals will not have any adverse affect? Do the rituals really do what you claim?”
“Of course my queen,” said the changeling, in worn mage robes drawing the mysterious arcane symbols into massive circle around the changeling queen in it's buzzing voice with a minor echo of its own, “One to send you to the new caverns selected as the home for the hive and one to transfer the energy of everything that is not of changeling nature to you to revitalize you. Although since you are at the center your essence will be the template on which all non-absorbed energy is decided, there is a chance you might absorb some of our energies as well.” It had been almost twelve years since the failed Canterlot invasion, the other hives had seen fit to make an example of her hive in all the worst ways possible, they had just barely made it back to the Equestrian wasteland with thrice their current number.
“Not so much I end your lives, I hope,” huffed Chrysalis as she sat down with her legs in position between folded under her and cross-legged at the dead center of the massive ritual circle.” 
“Of course not my queen,” said the changeling with an evenness that sent a pang through the queen for a moment, even though she couldn't touch upon the minds of these changelings like other queens she could still get the feeling that they were holding things from her with a powerful accuracy. However the hive had dwindled to just a few hundred now, and her subjects were getting weaker by the minute. She herself had resorted to feeding them the power she had been storing her entire life in order to keep them going the past three months, but that act of selflessness was nearing the end of its viability.
“I am sorry to say this my queen, but because of the complexity of the ritual we require the entirety of the rest of the hive, I wish some of the hive could be present to meet you there. Fear not, we have developed a backup, a consort will be summoned to you, one of great physical prowess to help you rebuild the hive.”
Chrysalis's ear's perked up, she had been the only queen to not have a go at motherhood for her hive, all her subjects were those that chose to willingly follow her instead of her own children, like the other hives.”
“Where is the new hive to be? Whom have you selected as my consort?”
“Beneath the forest called Everfree by the ponies,” said the changeling as he finished his last symbol and went over to large scroll on a rather large pedestal, “the one the Apple family call 'Big Macintosh' if I understand their expressions right.”
“That is the brother of one of the friends of the mare lead to our failings in the invasion,” screeched Chrysalis, “I would tell you to change the target male if we weren't pressed for time and energy,” her her now almost milky green eyes narrowed, “I would advise you to better garner information in the future, Spell Cocoon, but since that is a nonviable option I will do what I must. When will you all be able to meet up with me, assuming this spell pulls some of your energy into me.” The holes in her arms and legs pulsed larger and smaller, almost as if they were breathing on their own and feared for their symbiosis with Chrysalis. Her jagged horn had her green magic pulsing at its tip in the way that was her tell at being irritated or exceedingly angry.
“I am sorry, my queen,” said Spell Cocoon, “we were pressed for time, and believed that choosing a consort with a mate would be best, he is with the pony that teaches at the school, from what the scouts heard before their reassignment the two are in the early time of expecting a child.”
“Then you are greater fools than I thought,” said Chrysalis, “you should have chosen consort who is in the early days of his days with a mate, once they are expecting offspring then the ploy ceases its illusion of credence. I care not how long the adjustment takes, fix it! While the oppourtunity of having physically powerful consort from a lineage of workers is regrettable, another of considerable strength is needed.”
“I know not any others that meet the need for our criteria my queen,” said Spell Cocoon.
“Then make the spell instructions not seek a specific target, instead merely set the conditions of the desired physical attributes,” said Chrysalis, “hopefully the target of the spell will have its disappearance not noticed for some time.”
“Of course my queen,” said Spell Cocoon as he moved to adjust the symbols as his queen commanded, “this will add another five hours, please be patient.”

________________________________________________________

At that, the same time as the changelings making their ritual circle Spike was enjoying a stroll through the streets of Ponyville, his casual blue shirt, and green pants showed that he wasn't doing anything too business related. The young drake had experienced a massive growth spurt in the past few years, he now had so much size that he stood a good head and shoulders above Princess Celestia. What had surprised everypony was that he had never actually sprouted wings, believing that would be the case after his greed induced maturation all those years ago. After finding a long forgotten book on dragons in a supposedly forgotten part of the Canterlot Archives Princess Twilight Sparkle discovered that Spike was, in fact, an earth dragon, and some were known to develop wings in maturation cycles that were not connected to maturation through aging. In addition, he had quite the physical build to him, turns out part of it was earth dragons have a natural inclination to grow muscles during age maturation.
Spike was just getting back from helping at Sweet Apple Acres, both Applejack and Cheerilee were at the stage of their pregnancies where they were advised to not take part in any potentially strenuous physical labor, something AJ was not very happy about.
Spike felt it was time to move out of Twilight's and get his own place, he was still her assistant, he just wanted his own private place to do with as he wished. He had informed Twilight almost two months prior, repeatedly. As a result, Twi and AJ were working to develop the floor plans for Spike's new place and part of that was knowing where he wanted his pad.

Spike had decided to set up near the Everfree forest, the land was hardly touched, and to be honest he was now just as potentially dangerous as anything that lived there. The doors to his place had been on par with those of a castle, so they just decided to reconstruct the Castle of the Two Sisters into his new place, that way he could have plenty of space and take up his new role as Guardian of the Tree of Harmony. It was decided with his new properties that would be best, his time as Twilight's assistant was coming to an end. The good news was that all the work was going faster than anticipated and if things stayed on track the castle would be ready for him to move into by the end of the day. This was his last chance to just have a leisurely stroll through the town as a resident.
“Spike, Spike,” Sweetie Belle was came running up to the dragon. The pretty little pink and purple maned white unicorn mare was in yet another one of Rarity's originals, this time an Amber Blouse and green skirt, both with gems arranged in the form of music notes, “I just heard from the team, it's already. It's nice that you'll still be close, but pretty bad you won't be near us like you used to.”
“That's okay Sweetie,” said Spike in his new baritone, and somewhat attractive, voice, with a hint of crystal to it, “I'm thankful for the date your sister gave me years ago, it's a shame it didn't work out for us. Same goes for the ones I had with you and each of your friends.”
“It's okay,” said Sweetie Belle, “sometimes we only think we see the spark.”
“Since when did you get to be such an expert on romance?”
“Since I married my own prince,” said Sweetie With a smile, “catch ya later, I gotta head for the station in twenty minutes,” with that the young mare ran off with one last wave of her hand.
A few minutes later Spike was approaching the castle, Twilight was standing in the door with a crestfallen face and his bags in her magic while she clutched a book of some kind to her chest with her arms. She was wearing a sea blue dress that had her mark emblazoned on the chest, which was a little ironic considering her ample bosom that had developed shortly after her ascension to alicorn, and upper back.
“I can't believe this is happening,” said Twilight, “my little brother is finally moving out, I'm not sure I should be happy or sad about this.”
“It's okay to be both,” said Spike as he took the bags from her magic, “besides I've been training your new assistant for the past month, she's a good foal and really adores you.”
“Yes, well Dinky Doo is a capable mare,” said Twilight, “and her talents are definitely what I need around here, I'm just going to miss the nuances of our living together.”
“I know,” said Spike with a hug to the purple alicorn mare, “I'll make sure to visit twice a month for the first few years, and you can't get rid of me when Hearth's Warming season rolls around. I know this is a summer of mixed feelings for you, but you still have your new role as wife to attend. I'm sure Flash will be a great dad when you finally learn you're pregnant.”
Twilight blushed before saying, “Thanks, Spike, we'll miss you. After Owlwicious left us I just feared the worst when I thought of you leaving my side.”
“Hey, I liked that crazy bird too,” said Spike, “even though he got on my nerves in the early days, like I said, I'll check up with you a few times a month. At least I was with you for this past Summer Sun celebration.”
Twilight Smiled and nodded before shooing him off. As Spike made his way to the forest path that would eventually lead to the castle a yellowish-orange pegasus stallion with a blue mane came up next to Twilight in a purple adorned platinum suit of guard armor with Twilight's crest emblazoned on the chest plate and said, “It's always hardest when the ones we raise leave the nest, you should have seen my parents when I told them I was moving into my own place.”
“Thanks, Flash,” said Twilight with a kiss on his lips, “you always seem to know just what to say so I feel better, it's hard to believe we've only been married a year now.”
“Took you both long enough,” came an intelligent voice as a purple-gray mare made herself known in a very serious indigo business suit holding a clipboard in her hand with several pens were suspended by her magic, “you two spent almost six years planning out your wedding, instead of having cold hooves like most couples you had to have yours on fire so much you couldn't settle down. Princess, you have a dignitary meeting tomorrow at noon, and miss Cheese-Pie will be popping up sometime today to discuss something with you, it can't be Spike's 'Leaving the Nest' party since we had that last night.”
“Thank you Dinky, why doesn't Pinkie have a set time for her audience?”
“Because that mare doesn't adhere to any schedules I set up,” huffed Dinky, “I have only seen her come within the usually acceptable margin of error once over the forty times she scheduled time with you before now, so I just keep her times open to prevent headaches.”
“That's probably best when it comes to Pinkie,” said Twilight with a smirk, “if that's all miss Doo you can spend the next hour or so as you see fit.”
“As you wish, Princess,” said Dinky with a curt nod and bow before leaving the mare and stallion alone in the castle doors.

*********************************************

Chrysalis huffed, it had taken almost sixteen hours for the targeting spell for her future companion to be reset, much to the irritation of Spell Cocoon, but he knew his queen was right about this and his estimate was tremendously off because of his own dwindling energy supply. All Chrysalis could do now was make noises in the middle of the circle she had collapsed in, all the rest of her energy reserves had been sent to her changelings for this one last ditch effort.
“We will see you in a few days, it should take that long to regather our strength,” said Spell Cocoon, the pang shot through Chrysalis's head and heart again, but she was too drained to question it. Spell Cocoon shouted for all changelings to take their places for the ritual, once all had confirmed their places were within acceptable margins for the spell Spell Cocoon started chanting in the strange language on the scroll, Chrysalis couldn't focus enough to discern what language it was in, made worse by the fact that Spell Cocoon had deliberately kept the queen in the dark about the origins of the spells he was using. Chrysalis wanted her hive to have a new beginning, one free of such secrets. Her ploy with her hive at the wedding had been more of a means of getting the other hive queens to stop questioning her resolve, instead she had caused them to withhold the false support they had given the black queen, whom they teased as the 'colorless queen', a title that Chrysalis didn't mind, but despised that the other queens would put such an emphasis on the fact that her carapace was just the default color for all changelings, it was also their way of mocking her for choosing to build a hive from all the changeling offspring that were cast aside by the other hives.
A flash of purple and green clashing into each other was all that met Chrysalis's fading eyesight before she found herself in a spacious cavern with the level of energy she had during the early portion of the wedding of Princess Mi Amore Cadenza and Shining armor. Looking herself over she found that the holes in her limbs, which were present among all changelings, almost entirely gone and the ones that remained were the sizes they were in proportion to her body when she was a mere larva of thirteen. She also felt a heat rising up through her body, unlike the other queens she had never possessed the ability to grow new children without a mate, which is why Spell Cocoon had taken the time to add in her having a companion to breed with.
The thought of having to breed partially made her feel sick, she much preferred her black carapace. When a changeling mates once with another creature it causes them to take on physical characteristics of the partner. Continued mating, something she had no interest in, would result in the changeling coming to take on mental properties of their partner as well, this was especially true for queens. This was something all her fellow queens had done.
The blue queen, Queen Nymph, had bred with a highly aggressive aquatic monstrosity to produce her aquatic changelings. The yellow queen, Queen Vespa, had found a way highly aggressive breed of giant wasp and managed to get some of the males to breed with her to produce her hive. Chrysalis had no intention of becoming red, to begin with since that distinction belonged to Queen Culicidae, who had somehow managed to find one of the most despicable blood feeders and manage to mate with it, the creature's crimson colors made the red queen have a deadly appearance that seemed to make everything avoid her if given the chance if they weren't her children. And then was Chrysalis, the black queen, who was also referred to as the colorless queen and failed monarch before her ploy on Canterlot.
They may have all been sisters, but their temperaments were very different. She was seen as failed before she even formed her hive. The other queens were ruthless and reckless, with personality bits and pieces that were compatible with the creatures that helped spawn their hives. She was the one born with caution and calculating personality type traits, granted she did have the one flaw that all queens held. All the queens, their mother and her included, have the distinctive flaw of ignoring viable threats and claiming they were victorious before the final ploys were played, that was how she had lost in Canterlot. Unlike her siblings who seemed to make the same mistakes in spite of the fact their approaches were flawed and failed Chrysalis intended to learn from her mistake. Instead of trying to conquer Equestria to claim the populace as food she would try to be genuinely diplomatic and do thing peacefully, she just hoped her ploy twelve years ago didn't make the rulers of Equestria too jaded towards her and her hive.
After looking about she found a note on a stalagmite that had been carved into a pedestal that was compatible with her height. When she read the note she became outraged then saddened, it told her the energy transference spell had drained every drop of energy from what had been left of her hive and that it had also intensified her need for a mate, in short, her hive was gone and she was now in a state of forced heat. That would not be so bad, if not for the fact that changeling heat cycles happened to last in excess of a year and would usually be triggered by the queen herself when she found what she considered a suitable mate. She was now in an empty cavern complex and chances are the first thing that showed signs of having a pulse she would find herself wanting to jump on and not stop for weeks.

______________________________________________________

Spike blinked a few times before his eyes finally adjusted to the light level of the glowing crystal in the unknown cavern he was in, to make matters more uncomfortable he had just finished setting up his room at the castle and was just now noticing the clothes he had on prior were missing, in fact he was buck naked. He didn't mind too much, after his first growth spurt he had posed naked in front of his full body mirror after making sure all his doors and windows were closed, locked and had all proper obscuring utensils in place. His muscles were bulging, but not so much that his dexterity would suffer, his legs and arms were more toned than he had last checked a few months prior, and his penis was its impressive size as always. While some stallion cocks were known to grow to a full foot and be seven inches wide, the biggest to his knowledge being Mac with a full thirteen inches of length and five inches in width was particularly impressive (he often wondered how Cheerilee could keep taking it without screaming in pain). However Spike's member was a solid fifteen inches in length and a good seven and a half inches wide, he truly had a monster cock, and to compound matters, he was still growing in all places. When Spike finally got around to having Twilight study his new anatomy, which was far more embarrassing for him than her, she told him that all his dimension would keep going for another thirty years or so in his growth cycles. To make matters more awkward his cock expanded a good thirty percent when fully erect.
He caught a scent that started making him go erect, it smelled similar to a mare in heat, but the mare's scent seemed familiar somehow. He made his way to following the scent, if anything else he could at least get some answers.
As he made his way through the cavern, lead by his nose, he finally found the source of the scent, a completely naked Queen Chrysalis. The changeling queen still had her back to him, Spike himself had mixed feelings regarding the changeling mare. On one claw he still had resentment for her practically ruining Cadnace's wedding all those years ago, Cadance was just as much his loving aunt as Twilight was his adorkable sister, but on the other claw he wanted to just have her jump his bones after he gave her a good pounding with his “scepter” and call it a day. To be honest, before this whole thing started he'd always thought Chrysalis had an exotic beauty that was wasted when paired with the personality she had revealed herself at the wedding. Twelve years should have been enough for her to have changed.
As he came up closer he heard her softly weeping, he couldn't help himself, he said in a soft voice, “What's wrong?”
“My hive is all dead, they gave up all their energy for me and the hopes of the new hive I would build,” said Chrysalis, “figures that my sorrow would summon a kindhearted delusion, what is your name? It won't matter, chances are my mind will just choose a male's name at random and that'll be it.”
“I'm Spike, Twilight Sparkle's former assistant,” said Spike.
“Figures it would be that interloper's whelp of a...did you say former? My mind would not be able to craft such a thing, it could never devise any scenarios that her whelp would cease being her assistant. You're no phantom of my mind, it seems the spell pulled you here as well, I suppose this is some kind of punishment for my transgressions against Equestria. I no longer desire what you recall from all those years ago, all I desire now is a new hive and more peaceable relations with Equestria.”
Instead of saying anything Spike just gave the dark colored mare a silent hug, finding that she had a sizable bosom. Twilight had an impressive set of E-cups now that she was an alicorn, a major step up from her little C-cups when she had arrived in Ponyville. Rarity had an impressive set of DDs herself, and had once been his definition of physical perfection in spite of the attributes of Twilight's other friends. Fluttershy had all her friends beat with an impressive set of F-cups, something that Rarity would often complain about back in the day. That all said, Chrysalis had all the girls beat with her impressive G-cups. This caused Spike to wonder how the changeling had pulled off having a smaller bust size, seeing as Cadance's F cups were around seven centimeters larger than Fluttershy's pair.
I just have two questions, Chrysalis,” said Spike.
“Shoot,” said Chrysalis.
“Why are we both buck naked? And, why won't turn to face me?”
Chyrsalis took a deep sigh and said, “I suspect our lack of attire has to do with the fact that would expediate our procreation, if you haven't already figured it out I'm heat,” Spike just nodded, “as for why I refuse to face you, I do not wish to partake in breeding with the one the spell stuck me with, which happens to be you, I did not know whom I would be paired with at the time. I just know that the prior selection was too much trouble!”
“Who was the prior selection? I hope it wasn't...”
“The one you call Big Macintosh was my facilitators prior choice, I forced him to change it when I learned your overly large stallion had a mare expecting a child.”
“Nice to see you have some sense of ethics,” mused Spike.
“No,” said Chrysalis, “those with expecting wives would just have made this all too difficult,” said Chrysalis, sorrow was far more evident in her voice.
“Weren't your hive your children? I thought that's how it went,” said Spike.
Chrysalis's head shook violently a bit before she said, “I took in the castoffs of my sisters, I was seen as the weak one because I held compassion for my nieces and nephews. My whole hive was not born of me, I'm the queen born with the inability to make her offspring without a mate. My sisters made a few drones and used them like pawns on a chessboard to find some of the most vile creatures out there to 'improve' themselves and their hives. I'm the defective queen that was not born with that aspect, and now the only way to build a hive is for me to become a mother. But my only option is a gentle dragon, how much of joke is that? Me, the greatest mind of my generation, who ironically lacked the ruthless recklessness of her sisters forced to mate with a kind dragon repeatedly. I won't even be myself when it's over.”
“What do you mean?” Said Spike, “you'll still be you when it's over.”
“Changelings adopt the physical properties of their mates on the first breeding,” said Chrysalis matter-of-factly, “if we were to mate I would take on some your physique and basically all your coloration, with each continued breeding I would take on more and more of your mental traits; your personality would basically rewrite mine to be more similar to it, your problem-solving capabilities would join with my own, in essence I would become a whole new changeling with the same name and memories I have now. My sisters nearly wiped out my hive as we fled to our place of hiding. Two-hundred and six, that's all that was that was left of my hive a few hours ago, but now all that remains of my hive is me.”
“I would love to help you change that,” said Spike, “but I don't think sharing a bed with each other is something we should try before our fifth date.”
Chrysalis chuckled at his obviously bad joke, “Maybe we should get to know each other,” said Chrysalis, “I don't want to be straddling you with what little we know of each other.”
“Okay,” said Spike, “but first let's get a note to Princess Celestia, at the very least she deserves to hear the abbreviated version of why you're here.”
“Very well,” said Chrysalis with an air of authority, “there is a study that is fully stocked with inks and parchment, follow me,” Spike took it as a cue and ended his embrace of the black insectoid mare, it was fortunate for Chrysalis that Spike had yet to see her face due to the fact she had been blushing during his entire embrace. She started making her way to the study, with Spike close behind.
> Messages, Daydreams and Thoughts
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	It had been twenty minutes since Chrysalis and Spike had written their joint messages to Celestia. Twenty minutes of agony for Chrysalis, she had lost her hive and all that had been galloping through her head when she wasn't forcing her focus on her letter was ways Spike would pound her and she would scream in pleasure. To her knowledge no changeling queen had bred with a dragon, they were all too wary of the dragon destroying them before they could produce their first brood. A precaution that was fully understandable, several of her hive's more accepted siblings had met their fate facing dragons in one way or another.
Chrysalis started fondling her breasts as her mind kept wandering to scenarios of Spike sexually teasing her. Her head made them worse as the scenarios galloped around her mind like wild mustangs. Within the bounds of her mind, Chrysalis was losing herself to her unwanted desires.

====================================

Chrysalis's daydream as she awaits news of her fate

_________________________________________

“You're a naughty little queen, aren't you?” Spike growled as he took from behind and squeezed her breasts.
Chrysalis moaned with pleasure as she said, “Of course I am, your invasion is all I care about. Keep pounding my vagina with that massive dragon cock, no other mare can take, no other mare deserves to take it. Your member is only fit to be mine, and mine alone. So pound my pussy, make me pregnant with your progeny, and most all keep pumping me full of your perrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrfect sperm!”
“When this is done your carapace's beauty will put my scales and muscles to shame,” growled Spike, which caused a massive moan to escape from the lips of Chrysalis.

======================================

Chrysalis blinked a few times when she realized she'd moaned and it had been a daydream, Spike was on the other side of the room reading one of the many scrolls that her hive had stashed within the large study. She began to chastise herself for thinking like that, I've lost my hive, my home, and anything resembling a family in just a day, I should not be envisioning what it's like to be taken by a dragon. Curse you Spell Cocoon, I blame you for all of this, although I wouldn't mind if said dragon's penis was as bi...snap out of Chrysalis, that's not you, that's the magically triggered heat talking. I don't care how attractive my mate is...but those muscles are, mmmm mmmmmmh mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmh, just the kind of...no stop it my mind should be on building a new relationship with Equestria, not how many kinky positions I can do with that...big, strong, sexy dragon... stop it, I'm supposed to be a queen, not some kind of horny school-filly or sex-starved beast.

At the same time Spike was only appearing to read his scroll, in truth, he was imagining which ways Chrysalis would enjoy going down with him.

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Spike's imagination regarding Chrysalis
________________________________ 

“Ooh, you are a naughty mare,” growled Spike as he spanked Chrysalis while she straddled his cock, “say it to me one more time, I wanna hear your voice say those words again.”
Chrysalis screamed in ecstasy, “I'm your little mare slut and nopony else's, my pussy belongs only to you, my breasts are yours to play with as you wish, my lips are only to touch you scepter or your own.

His mind then jumped to a scenario where he had two Chrysalises, one sucking his sizable penis while the other tongue wrestled with him.

----------------------------------------------------------

Spike snapped out of it when he heard Chrysalis's hoof slap the floor in some form of defiance, Guess I'm not only one having kinky thoughts, but what a mare to fantasize about. I mean Rares was nice and all, but Chrysalis is in the same kind of Class as Celestia and Luna, how can I not fantasize about that. I wonder if she can take my rod, to be honest, if we did get our freak on she'd be my first. And what a first she'd be...No, Bad Spike! She just lost her hive, her colony, her home. And now she's here with you, being forced to rebuild it, if that does come to pass I'll be the father of a new changeling hive, Twi would definitely not be okay with that...but who cares what Twi wants, to Tartarus with what Twilight wants, what Celestia wants, what Luna wants, what everypony else wants, what about what I want? I know it's the pheromones probably talking, but I never really knew what I wanted, Rarity and I ended up shooting each other down at the same time and I've just been going through the motions ever since, I think it's time I dragon up and show a little greed this time around. Go right for it, literally fuck Chrysalis and not care about the consequences. Since when did I start getting this assertive? I kind of like it, a lot. I'll fuck Chrysalis so hard that she'll think she's a dragon for hours and the kind that wants to be dominated by me. I guess it's true what Twilight found on dragons, the males get assertive when they sense a female is ready for mating, well Chrysalis's body is saying she's ready, but she also said it was artificially induced, what kind of mate would I be if I took advantage of her before she was psychologically ready? The worst kind, that's what, I want...no I need her to be physically and mentally ready for me before I pound away on her sexy plot and play with those divine tits. Oh man, my brain is really getting scrambled, and not in the good way.
The sensation of a dragon fire message snapped Spike out of his thoughts, he quietly read the rather lengthy scroll that he ended up belching, even as Chrysalis approached asking what it had to say. “Dear Spike,” it started saying, “this first part is for your eyes only, do not show this letter Chrysalis, Given the gravity of the situation we will be investigating the region that Chrysalis was using to see if her claims are true, should they prove false on a cursory glance we do not wish to give her a sense of false hope. Also due to her history, we are skeptical of her claims, all of them.
Now onto the part you can share with her,” Spike held up a claw to stop the approaching changeling.
Said claw came in contact with her right breast, “I had no idea you would be so forward, my dear dragon,” she said in a sultry voice that practically oozed sexual excitement, “but we can play later, right now we have more important things to attend.”
Spike gave a blush so bright his entire face went from purple to scarlet, “Oh, um, sorry,” he said as he hastily removed his claw from her, stupid, sexy Chrysalis, “Celestia finally sent a response, she says she's sorry to hear about your hive and will be launching an investigation into your claims shortly.”
“A wise precaution,” said Chrysalis, “Anything else?”
“She is also placing you the custody of an Equestrian citizen she trusts to handle the matter...” Spike's face went from scarlet a blackish night red.
“Whom do I have spend my time in the care of until this matter is settled?”
“Spike Solis Sparkle,” said Spike in a low voice, that Chrysalis still managed to pick up.
“Your name is derived from Celestia and Twilight Sparkle?”
“Um, yeah,” said Spike, not raising his head to meet the changeling queen, “since Celestia technically had ownership of my egg and Twilight was the one who hatched me I'm technically Twilight's brother and Celestia's son. Trust me when I say my future wedding, no matter who I tie the knot with, is going to be a little awkward.
Chrysalis walked back over her corner to try and mull over the news, the very dragon she was stuck with was the one individual in Equestria that Celestia was trusting to look after her. She could sort of appreciate the irony in that, the very being she kept wanting to pound her until she couldn't move was the very creature she had to trust to not try anything funny with.
The sound of another scroll appearing came to her ears before she was beaned by it, “It's for your eyes only,” yelled Spike, even though he really didn't need to.
Unfurling it Chrysalis noticed it had been sent to her from Princess Luna,

 Make sure to treat him right, also from the notes Twilight has gathered on his physiology when he finally 'rides' you then you will be taken by the largest penis any Equestrian male has ever sported.

 Chrysalis's entire head, horn included, turned a vibrant shade of scarlet. She subconsciously looked over at Spike's exposed member and gasped internally, he was even bigger than her imagination had believed

=======================

Chrysalis's new daydream

______________________________________________

Chrysalis was licking Spike's dick with a fervor not usually seen by even the most intimate lovers, his rod was her new reason for living. Of course it didn't hurt having Spike chained to a wall with his legs shackled apart in a way that she got full, unobstructed, access to the dragon's monstrous member. She decided that building a new life, as long as this scepter was there was better than anything else. Spike said nothing, he just petted her head and horn in a way that somehow excited her, she didn't care that one of his arms had broken free since that was part of the excitement.
She stopped licking his member and instead positioned herself to take it in her pussy while facing Spike, once she was down on it she screamed in jubilation at the unrivaled pleasure that surged through her body, she brought her lips to Spike's in an erotic kiss before he could say anything, all that mattered was the sensual feeling coursing through them, words were a waste of energy when they devote it all to making love.
With her magic she produced a restraining outfit that is just his size and forces him into it. Still with no words she begins to humiliate him, his cock hooked up to a milking pump and siphon that will pour his 'cream' into dozens upon dozens of bottles for her to savor at her leisure.
She placed a ball-gag in Spike's mouth and starts spanking massive balls with a crop. His screams were muffled by the gag, she cares not if it's pain or pleasure that causes the screaming, all she wants to do is tease his cock to the point he'll be her obediently loyal companion.


=================================

Chrysalis snapped out of it when she felt another scroll hit her head. Opening it up she found it to be from Twilight Sparkle, it simply said, 

When you break his heart I will personally break your body, starting with your horn and moving on down until you are so busted up that even the best medical spells can only make you into an invalid. If you just string him along, then expect that scenario I gave you to be a best case.

Thanks for understanding, Princess Twilight Sparkle



Chrysalis shivered, she had heard about Twilight's coronation, but the idea of any royal damaging her to that extent brought up several of her own painful memories of her time with her siblings. Chrysalis wins at chess, her sisters beat her up so bad her legs and horn don't work for a week, Chrysalis advances better than her sisters in magic so gets praised by their mother and her sisters beat her up so bad she can't do magic for a month, Chrysalis breaks her own leg while exercising and has her mother and sisters laugh at her weak body. Oh yes, the mere threat of pain brought back many of her memories regarding her youth, the time before she built her hive. At that moment she imagined a changeling queen with Twilight's fur color and gave a small cry of fear, and whispered, “I'll be good, ma'am”
While Chrysalis was having her own breakdown Spike started daydreaming about Chrysalis.

============================================

Spike's daydream

____________________________________

Chrysalis was laying full eagle screaming in ecstasy with every thrust into her pussy Spike made. He could see her colors shifting from black to the same coat of purple as his scales, her ears matching his head fins. Then once her color was finished her body began to tone with muscle, all the while he kept pounding into her. Spraying his entire load into her womb as he growled with victory, “You are mine and mine alone, you might be the queen of the hive, but I am the Master Emperor you serve until the end, all I say and do supersedes your authority no matter what.”
“Yes, my master,” squealed Chrysalis, causing him to give a big smile, the once proud Queen Chrysalis was nothing more than his plaything now, and she was actually happy to be so.

===============================

Spike came out of dreamland when he felt the sharp prick of a loose stone hit his face. He looked over at Chrysalis, who was far more physically appealing to him now than she had been just a few minutes prior, he blamed pheromones and hormones for that one. “You weren't imagining anything too crude were you?” Inquired Chrysalis with an annoyed look at the dragon.
“Of course not,” said Spike with a slight blush, then before he could stop himself he said, “just you tied down to the bed while I rammed you in your pussy with you calling me master every time I asked you a question,” Spike suddenly realized what just said and backpedaled by saying, “sorry, when male dragons sense a female is physically ready they tend show a sense of dominance or assertion, so far I'm only doing that in my fantasies. I don't know how long I'll last at holding it all back in reality,” he then blushed at the thought of Chrysalis still tied to the bed.
“Thine have quite the active imagination,” said Chrysalis, “I would not fault you for wanting to have me be submissive, even if you were a mere pony, many have fantasized about being the dominant force over a ruler during intimate moments.” She then thought, He actually imagined tying me down on the bed and pounding while I called him 'master', well maybe I could try it once...no, bad Chrysalis, you shouldn't be thinking of how that dragon...will ravish my body and breed me so hard that I swear I'm his speci...you need to keep control of yourself, give yourself a few days to mourn your hive before fantasizing about what any males do to you...but what a male to fantasize over! Those muscles, the innate magic and that wonderfully huge co...no, focus on what needs be done before rebuilding the hive! When that's done you can talk with him...and maybe scream as he 'rides' me li...no stay focused on what is needed before indulging in thoughts of sexual activities.
A little pebble snapped her out of her thought, “Chrysalis, are you having trouble focusing too?”
She nodded and said, “Yes, with what my head knows needs to be done and my biology giving imperative on the creation of my new hive I am in conflict.” With that she got up to leave, “The hive made sure to well stock everything, I'm going to lock myself in another room until my head is less distracted, changeling heat cycles are much longer than those of ponies, and unfortunately mine just started today,” with that she she left the room.
As she made her way out Spike entered another daydreaming
==============================

Spike's daydream as Chrysalis left

______________________________________

“Say it again,” snarled Chrysalis erotically.
“I am your sex pet, a male who's only purpose is do as you command,” cried Spike in ecstasy, “your every wish is my command, your every desire is my greatest priority, my only purpose is what you command, I am your slave. Mistress! Please reward your pet.”
“Not yet,” cackled Chrysalis, now in a black dominatrix suit while her carapace was in Spike's shade of purple, “eat my pussy with only your tongue and maybe I'll consider it."
Spike's tongue did as he was commanded, when he was done he found himself strapped to a chair in the nude with a fully erect penis as Chrysalis came down on it in her plot, “my pussy is too good for your use right now, slave,” a shiver shot through Spike and he felt like something was holding back his ability to cum.

=============================================

Spike blinked out of it when he realized he was squeezing his cock too tight, “I can't believe I'm fantasizing getting laid in such bizarre manners,” he said to himself as he released his hold on his penis. “Now my mind thinks Chrysalis is really good at being dominant in bed, or just dominant period. He suddenly pictured her in her dominatrix outfit again, “and it makes her beyond divinely sexy to be in one of those suits,” he licked his snout and lips with his long draconic tongue, “I never thought a mare in uniform could be so damn sexy before now,” he felt a sensation in his groin, looking down he saw his fully erect member, “and now I'm hard, great, better go find a restroom to relive this sensation since I can't really do it with her yet.” With that he left the room to find the somewhere more acceptable to unload his wad.
> Chrysalis's Memories
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Chrysalis's head moved over the plush sheets of her bed in the decadent room that was prepared for her, the bed was definitely big enough for her and Spike to share, even with a few children curled up between them. Her face suddenly heated up as images of her and Spike playing house with dozens of changeling larva, made all the more worse when she imagined her carapace and that of her offspring being a similar shade of purple to Spike (made all the more frightening to her that she was already entertaining how good her carapace would be in 'Spike purple' to the point that she could feel her whole body blush).
She decided that some sleep was in order, and prayed that Spike didn't invade her dreams again. As she slipped into slumber memories of her life before began to flow.

======================================

Chrysalis's Memory dream

________________________________________________

“Chrysalis why can't you have the drive of your sisters,” chastised a dark green Changeling queen, her mother, who also went by the name Queen Cicada, said with a disapproving voice, “you are the youngest, the smartest, and most patient of your sisters, but you're also the one with the least ambition, look at them,” a dark green hole riddled changeling arm pointed to her sisters, “they've all laid egg sacks and taken on the properties of new creatures like proper changelings should."
A blue changeling queen a little older than Chrysalis was swimming around, a yellow one was buzzing in the air and poking the others with her stinger-like wrist protrusions, and a red one was sucking some kind of small animal dry of its blood. Her mother's voice came back with a vengeance laced tone, “But you... you are content to take the castoffs of your sisters and call it a hive, you will be your own ruler in a few decades, but this action of yours is beyond disgrace. 
We naturally feed on positive emotions, but your sisters have added something new to better sustain their colonies, but you are content to not even try and make your own hive prosper with attributes not found in any other place. It's bad enough that you have an inability to develop any children without a mate, something that every queen should be able to do,” she fixed the shaking black seventeen-year-old Chrysalis with a stare, “but you have the gall to think compassion is what a queen needs to keep her hive running. You can always make more workers and drones, it should be their privilege and honor to give up their lives for you, but you seem to think that the hive can function when you give your subordinates your own essence, I never taught you that, in fact, I told your the exact opposite was true, you won't even make it to the end of your first century."

=========================================================

Chrysalis woke up in a cold sweat, that caused her whole body to glisten. That had been almost twelve hundred years ago, the fact that her mother still haunted her was beyond terrifying for Chrysalis, the only reason she made her play on Canterlot, to begin with, was to show up her sisters, and it had backfired so tremendously that she placed herself in a self-imposed exile with her hive knowing that any alternatives were far worse. To make matters worse their mother was still alive, she was so old she remembered the parents of Celestia and Luna. Not mention her sisters deciding to “punish” her by killing off some of her hive.
Cicada was one the most feared of all the changeling queens, which meant for one of her future successors to fail at something so magnificently was a stain she would have to wipe clean, Chrysalis and her hive would have been purged by her if they were not already in the means of dying out and made a mad run from her mother.
Chrysalis prayed to Celestia and Luna, the irony didn't escape her, that her mother didn't find her whereabouts for at least a century or two, by then she would have a new hive and hopefully better relations with Equestria. She hoped the princesses would have what it took to keep her mother at bay, if not then she would meet her end with one last fight and show her the dignity her mother deserved, that is to say, her mother deserved no dignity and showing her any was a waste of energy. She hadn't mentioned her mother in her letter, she decided to save that for when Spike made a promise she was sure he couldn't keep.
The thought of Spike pounding her as she changed to his colors sent a ripple of hot excitement down her spine, but before that happened she needed to prove to all of Equestria she was no longer intent on the actions she showed years ago. Even with him out of sight and hearing range, the thought of Spike excited her, she figured it would dissipate after a few days as she cleared her head. The fact she had managed to live to such a respectable age, despite the expectations of her family, was an accomplishment. She didn't feel accomplished without her hive, a queen needs a hive. Thankfully her sleeping chamber and the throne room were the warmest in the caverns.
Much like bees, changeling queens seemed to function better in warmer environments, it was the primary reason her hive had been living out in the badlands. Everything changed for them out there when something started picking off her precious hive's members, it the main reason they had done the locational jump ritual in the first place.
There were very few things that could make a changeling legitimately afraid, one of which was a creature many thought now extinct. A colossal amphibian called the Leviathan Toad, she thought they would be safe from such creatures in the arid climate of the Bad Lands, but as luck would have it the very oasis they used to sustain the colony had the eggs to one of the monstrosity within it. It took decades for the toads to mature to the level of a viable threat to changelings, but as tadpoles, they only cared about something affecting the vegetation of their 'pond', so it was no wonder they hadn't found out about the beasts after their retreat in the aftermath of the wedding debacle. It was only about three years ago that they became aware of the insidious amphibian. She had mentioned the creature's existence and activity to Celestia, as part of her plea that she was trying to turn over a new leaf.
Just thinking of the sight of three of her changelings being snatched up in its jaws as the rest of her hive retreated to the safety of their deepest underground chambers of the colony still sent a shiver down her spine. But then her mind had to fuck with her some more, she started imagining Spike bashing the creature hard in only a pair of shorts that did nothing to obscure his anatomy and how after he had torn the creature and its ilk into nothing more than bloody heaps of meat that the two of them would feast on the flesh of her former predator before having some the wildest sex her mind could devise. She immediately started blushing at all the kinky positions.
No that wasn't her, she's a queen, that means she's the one who takes charge and demands things of others. She suddenly started drooling at her imagery of Spike positioning himself in every eye candy type pose she told him to before issuing her commands during their more intimate moments, she wiped away the drool when felt it on her leg and snapped out of her daze. That was how a changeling queen should be with her mate, her sisters had only taken enough from their mates to change their colors and only slightly modify their personalities, she would go full force and see just how far she take her changes. The thought of every aspect of her inside and out changing sent chills of excitement down the changeling queen's back.
What are you thinking, Chrysalis, that is not how a changeling queen should act. A queen should accord herself with an air of authority and grace, not some whore. But those muscles, Mmmmm Mmmmm MH, that's the kind physical power my hive needs, and all my little larva will look cute in such in that lovely shade of purple, they might even inherit his fire breath in addition to his dietary capabilities. Dragons can eat gems, wonder what it will be like to eat crys...focus, I need to put a priority on forming better relations with Equestria before the formation of my new hive. Hopefully, I'll have enough children by the time my siblings or mother find me that I can put up a decent fight, changelings with dragon aspects will probably put my sisters' hives to shame. I have no more desire for conquest, of course, I barely had the desire twelve years ago.

Chrysalis suddenly had another flashback, this time to a much sooner point in her life

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Chrysalis's flashback
Age: (Around) 17

___________________________________________________

“Good work,” said Cicada as Chrysalis demonstrated the new spell their mother had chose to teach them, a spell for making magical duplicates, “you have it, but chances are you won't be using this spell anytime soon. Vespa, you try now, again,” said their mother as Chrysalis left the room.
All her sisters, in their beautiful black carapaces, shot Chrysalis a sinister look as the young changeling queen left the room, maybe if she hurried she could get in a game of chess before her sisters got out and 'congratulated' her on showing them up in magic again. When it came to things that involved thinking Chrysalis was always ahead of her sisters, her sisters excelled at everything else (including the physical world, she was the smallest and weakest of her siblings after all).
As she was setting up the board for a game of chess she heard her sisters coming. Thinking fast she used the invisibility spell she'd learned the prior month, which she hadn't been able to practice 'til two weeks ago thanks to the beating her sisters had given her last time, then generated the illusionary self she had just learned (she then poured magic around it to give the impression that it was physical), and finally she prepped her ventriloquism spell (which she had figured out during her time of being without magic over the past month).
She made her double look like it was heading for the room that was designated as hers. “There she is,” shouted Nymph, pointing to Chrysalis's double, Chrysalis quickly switched the double to a gallop around the corner while simultaneously making it give a startled cry, she kept it going with her memory of corridors as her sisters gave chase. Just after three twists and turns she 'felt' her double collide with Culicidae.
“So, you think you can outrun us in the hive,” said her sisters in unison as they surrounded her double, “we've known how to run the secret passages of this colony before you even hatched.” They started beating on her double, putting an emphasis on assaulting her horn. When they left the body looked very broken and the horn looked like it was fracturing in ten different places.
After they departed for their chambers a still cloaked Chrysalis came to look at her doppelganger and saw how badly it was trashed, if that had been her she wouldn't be able to do magic for months or even move about a week. She shivered at how close she had come to being incapable of anything.
“An impressive use of your skills,” came her mother's voice, “I could barely see through your invisibility spell myself, and I have practice seeing through such things. Your way of dealing with the threat is exactly how a changeling should respond,” she smirked, “I'll be telling your sisters about this, Chrysalis,” she continued smirking and with a wave of her jagged emerald horn the double and Chrysalis's invisibility dissipated, her next words were saturated with disappointment, “pity you lack the ruthlessness of your sisters, if you did you'd be the perfect changeling.”

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chrysalis came out of her thoughts, I thought I wanted to be the perfect changeling twenty years ago, and twelve years ago I just wanted to prove I wasn't a failure of a changeling, but now I want to show that even changelings can change more than their appearance and voice. It's been so long since I used those spells, I showed them to my agents that joined me before the wedding and one of them slipped up. How fortunate I had a contingency for if something like that were to occur, masquerading as Mi Amore Cadenza proved more difficult than I had calculated, especially when Twilight Sparkle took note of certain facts about her that I was unaware. I kept telling my information gatherers to do a thorough job, I specifically told them to dig as deep and go all the way to what was then the present, and pay particular interest to those she seemed to have a strong connection with, but apparently somepony decided to rush things when they learned of the impending wedding date, insolent idiot. While I cared for all members of my hive deeply I sometimes found it was more like trying to herd cats when it came to my orders, the be general orders worked fine, but highly specific orders seemed to give them trouble for some reason.
When my new hive is active I will do everything in my power to make them as tactically gifted as I seemed to be, up until that glaring lavender blind spot came into the picture. I hold no ill will to Twilight Sparkle, I actually feel a strong sense of respect and admiration that she was able to see through my ploy. Shining Armor would surely have seen through it all if I hadn't used the mental subjugation spell mother taught me when I was little. I find it ironic that I now plan on using my great mind for protecting a pony nation instead exerting my rule over it in order to provide my hive an extended feeding period.
The new era will be ushered in with my new hive, and what a glorious hive it will be. Spike's contributions will be so...mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmh mmmmmmmmmmmmh mmmmmmmmmmmmh mmmmmmmmmmh, I always did like 'em big and strong, not to mention he is quite attra...I need to focus on other pursuits, hopefully, my mind won't keep wandering off to that dragon...who's big, strong, sweet, well endowed and...and making me go on tangents like that! Chrysalis blushed to herself, here she was supposed to be worrying about when her family decided to 'come visit' and she was thinking about how much she was attracted to Spike, with any luck it was just her forced heat talking and a few hours or days without the dragon would allow her to think without his image infecting her thoughts.
In heat if a changeling was separated from a potential mate for an extended period of time they could actually could think more clearly, this had mainly to do with their rather long heat cycles, she was also fortunate that it was only her first week of heat. She had been told that once a changeling enters heat the first and last weeks are the most manageable, the second all the way through the penultimate were much harder to manage.
We are going to have one of the greatest second weeks along of all time, mostly because I'll be...don't think about that now, I can do that after I get these first few days out of the way. Chrysalis took a deep breath and started to try thinking things through, she pulled some of the paper and pens from the work desk that had been placed in the room with her magic. Looking at the parchment carefully she used her magic to start writing out her full intentions now that she had basically lost everything, sparing no expense of the details. She wrote down every detail regarding her family she could think of, then on a separate set sheets she started writing out everything about her she was comfortable telling anypony, but she also went into detail what the past five years of her life were like. She ended it all with stating that no matter how hard she tried she just couldn't bring herself to be ruthless like the rest of her family, she still had no idea why she lacked the ruthlessness her family seemed to have.

----------------------------------------

“Mother, why am I different than my sisters,” said a six year-ish old Chrysalis, “my carapace seems to be not as lustrous than any of theirs, my horn is a bit more jagged and my eyes seem to be a brighter shade.”
“I suppose it comes from your egg,” said Cicada as she set up the lecture hall for magic lessons, Chrysalis always seemed to be early when it came time for learning, that was fine and all for the changeling queens, but her daughter's friendly and nice demeanor during those early years was cause for concern, especially since Chrysalis was now nine years old. What if she was nice to her hive, or dare she think it, cared about her minions, the thought made the green changeling mare shudder internally. Chrysalis had been born like the rest of her sisters, the egg was laid with the absence of a male assisting Cicada and then injected by the queen with an extra chemical to turn the developing larva it into a queen. 
However Chrysalis apparently was born defective to her, it appeared by increasing the level of chemicals that influenced the base intelligence of a changeling had the unwanted side-effect of making the changeling nicer and less ruthless, it was barely the price to pay for almost doing away with the recklessness that seemed to be highly active in the other queens. Now Chrysalis had just pointed out it also did something to her physical properties as well, it seemed the experiment for a better changeling was not going as the queen had hoped, she needed Chrysalis's development to become more ruthless as well.
“It probably has something to do with the modifications I made to your egg,” said Cicada, “to make you go from drone to queen.”
Chrysalis said nothing. Looking back at the memory now the older Chrysalis was able to piece together what her younger self had not been able too. She was an experiment into 'improving' the changelings. She was smarter and more cautious than her sisters, which was what her mother wanted, but she was also more caring and friendly, which were traits her mother did not desire. Probably the biggest blow to her mother's ego was the fact that Chrysalis had an inability to produce drones whenever she wanted to, that clenched for her mother that whatever she had done in creating Chrysalis was not worth the trouble of duplicating.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chrysalis came out of her remembrance and screamed into her pillow, “That bitch, she intended to destroy me from the moment she learned I couldn't grow my own hive without a mate, she just kept me around to motivate my sisters into doing better at their studies.”
My mother intended to destroy me from far too early on. Well, I'm much older and wiser now, and when she finally does come I'll show her defiance, I'll show her my resolve and above all...I will let that big dragon rod impale me so hard I practically spit up my new hive...that completely ruined my train of thought. I'll try my thoughts of defiant vengeance when I can go a full two minutes without thinking about Spike...and those sexy muscles of his, mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmh and his juicy cock, oh how I want to milk his penis in every way I c...I really need to get some better focus...but what a body to be focusing on, I bet my mane would look lovely when it changes to a green that is a match for his spines and my carapace would be absolutely sexy in that shade of violet.
Chrysalis slapped herself, “There will be time to think about, and toy, with him later. If I ruin my chances with the princesses then all efforts I am making will be for not. I need to stop thinking about the dragon for a few hours...even if it is exceedingly difficult.”
> Learning and Changes...in More Ways Than One
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	It had been almost seven hours since Chrysalis's memory-dream, which may of very well been a nightmare, she didn't know how long she'd been out, she was also thankful for the fact that Spike was still respecting her privacy. Being down in the caverns also made it difficult to tell how much time was passing, she could have slept for days or just a few minutes without knowing it. What made things more confusing was she hadn't felt hungry or weak at all since it all started, with the way she had been given her energy it should have burned out of her system during her wait for a response from the princesses.
Her body didn't seem to be keeping the form it had when she had awoken as well, in fact, she was feeling more vitalized and (dare she say it) sexier than before. She figured it was time to go and look for Spike, she gathered up the notes she'd written. When she had started she figured she would just share a few pages of them at a time with the princesses, starting with the most recent and moving back, but she decided that was the old her thinking and it would probably be best to get them all to the princesses in one go, at the very least if she weren't around they could prepare for her 'family' to come and 'visit', beyond that she had nothing more to offer... except herself to Spike, and mmmmmmmmmh would that be worth it, she caught herself again.
There is no way I would prove my willingness to change for Equestria's benefit by fucking Spike, and in all likelihood making him submit to my will during intercourse...but that shouldn't matter he seems to be thinking the same thing.
After navigating the cavern she found Spike in what may as well have been a ballroom or one of the egg chambers. He was surrounded by blank parchments and quills with ink pots, he seemed to be practicing some art or calligraphy, she couldn't tell from her angle and distance. “Spike,” she said, “I have some documents to send to the princesses, they just need a basic piece of parchment to wrap around them for delivery, kind of like an impromptu envelope.”
“I guess you don't have a mail room then,” said Spike as he looked up and quickly scribbled Celestia's name on one side of the piece of the parchment he had next to him.
“Changelings have no need of such things, we communicate through magic pulses to those born of other queens and a 'hive mind' amongst those of the same hive that were born of the same queen,” said Chrysalis as she took the parchment in her magic and carefully rolled all the sheets together so that none of the ink was smeared, “how long ago was the last set of messages to the princesses sent? It's rather difficult for me to tell the passage of time without a hive member outside reporting the passage of time when I ask them for a report.”
Spike looked like he was doing some calculations in his head before he said, “thirteen hours, you headed to wherever you decided to thirteen hours ago. I can tell the time down here because I'm an earth dragon, and us earth dragons are able to determine the passage of time for us when we're underground or completely blind, it's usually a case of both, though. I still haven't found a way out of this maze, have you?”
Chrysalis shook her head, “My old hive made the preparations here, but they didn't share the details of the colony's layout. For all I know we could be near the entrance to the main ballroom or deep in the depths within one of the primary egg chambers,” she inspected the massive roll of parchments, “without letter tape or a ribbon this is the best we can do and hope none of the sheets flies loose when the bundle gets to the princesses.”
“Um, yeah, which reminds me,” said Spike, “I probably should get a note out to Twilight and the girls explaining a few things.”
Spike blew his dragon flames on Chrysalis's mass of paper, after he did that she went over to inspect a wall. She didn't even notice Spike beginning to write his note, her mind instead decided to have another daydream.
===================================
Chrysalis's day dream

____________________________________________

A purple and green Chrysalis, she really did look good in Spike's colors, looked all around the room, all over the walls and ceiling were her darling emerald eggs with fuchsia offspring liquid. It was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen, her little draconic changeling brood. Around her ran her first two hatched children, they had just hatched that day and Spike and her were still trying decide on their names, and there would be hundreds more to name in the coming months and years. The offspring showed their draconic and changeling heritage well, their carapaces the same coat of purple as Chrysalis, their clawed forearms, their seemingly generic changeling faces with rows a draconic teeth. No more did she or her hive have to worry about needing love as a primary food source, everything Spike could eat she and they could eat. Chrysalis and her offspring were also well muscled, another gift from Spike. Her clawed hand went to her abdomen and stroked it, inside she was developing more eggs to lay. Whenever they could she and Spike would partake in some of the most intense intercourse she had ever had; it was rough, wild, and passionate in ways that only could be described that those that lived it, or were really good at putting sex scenes together in Steamy adult romance novels.

===================================================

Chrysalis snapped out of when she heard the sound of Spike's dragon fire mail returning a message. “What does it say?” She inquired.
“Um,” said Spike before two more independent belches produced two other scrolls, “how about you read this one,” he handed what he was sure was the first one to her, “and I'll go over the other two, then we can switch what we read to make sure we've read everything.” Chrysalis nodded and took the scroll before going back to the space she had zoned out in.



I am pleased that you decided to share your personal history and all knowledge you could regarding your “Family”. I would also like to say there is no more need to worry about doing anything to upset us, you've already proven everything you need to, Spike has told us all the opportunities you could have had to take advantage of him, but did not, with that you have my blessing to find a way to be more intimate with him, I assume that's what you were waiting for, really Chrysalis, you are even more old-fashioned than my sister if that really was the case.
~Sincerly, Princess Celestia.
PS— Try not to jump his bones too hard, I want him to at least have enough motor function to help you if you need it later. Also I highly doubt you'll be able to properly mourn your hive as long as you're in heat, yes Spike told us about that, the best way to remember the dead is act on the wishes you know were for the better, and their final wish was for you to be the mother of a new generation of changelings, Spike seems to be an excellent choose for a father. He said to not tell you this, but I don't see the harm in it, he genuinely loves you.



“You done over there? Because I finished my reading,” said Spike, looking over she could see Spike's face was a vibrant shade of scarlet.
“Yes,” said Chrysalis, “and you don't need to read it, it was something that Celestia intended for only me to read.” The umbra mare was sporting a vibrant blush of her own. The full weight of what Celestia said in her letter hit Chrysalis like a freight train, the reason she was feeling so vibrant was because of Spike's love, she could always tell the difference between the sensations of lust and love, that's why she was so confused, not once had she felt the sensation of lust from Spike, despite everything that was going on.
“Oh, mare to mare advice, gotcha,” said Spike as Chrysalis furiously tried to hide her blush and put the parchment somewhere she was sure Spike wouldn't touch it.
She took the two scrolls, the first of the new scrolls she opened was from Twilight,



I think it's sweet that you two genuinely love each other, come on Spike you can be a little dense sometimes and you know it, the way Chrysalis is acting says she really does love you. She probably even has fantasized a time or two what it would be like to raise your children. Speaking of biological functions I had no idea that changelings had such as a complex aspect to them, also Rarity is getting on that “Special Order” you made, you know her she has to make sure it's perfect, of course, she'll need some measurements to make sure the outfits are to the right size, don't want them being too tight or loose. I'm trying to find a way to rectify our not knowing where you are, Rarity says it has to be done in pony, no offense to you Spike but she says without the proper tools your ability to approximate sizes is almost as bad as a sleepy Applejack's cooking, and we all know how that turned out. Hopefully, we'll be there soon, I can't believe we haven't' seen you for twenty hours, I honestly thought that things would be a little different. Anyway, Rarity, Rainbow and Pinkie should on their way to help you out Soon.

Best of luck to you, Princess Twilight Sparkle



Chrysalis stared at the letter for a moment saying, “Spiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiike, just what kind of 'apparel' did you order for me?”
“Oh, nothing major,” said Spike with a bit of a nervous chuckle, “a few formal dresses, some casual wear, and maybe a couple dominatrix outfits,” he said with a sheepish grin.
“Oh, so the dragon had a fantasy or two about me 'whipping' him 'into shape' did he?” She gave a sultry smile, “Looks like you're going to be the one 'tied up' for a bit, I do believe the foreplay will be most entertaining. Oh, and I'll tell all of our daughters how I dominated you in our little games in the finest of details.”
Spike's eyes shot wide with surprise, “You would actually tell...our? You mean you actually plan on having children with me?”
“Oh, trust me, big boy,” said Chrysalis in a sexually teasing tone, “after seeing all of your...dimensions I can't think of getting it on with anypony else. By the time we're done the deepest chambers of this place will echo eternally with our cries of passion.” Spike did a full body blush to scarlet, “And you are so much fun to 'play with' too,” she continued, “when I get my domme outfits I will have so much fun teasing you, assertive instincts or not I will make you submit!”
Spike's penis went fully erect, “And apparently the thought of you abusing me is my biggest turn on, I'm not a masochist because some of my prior 'dates' made similar promises and my 'little dragon' managed to stay asleep, but the thought you doing it makes him go fully awake.”
Chrysalis giggled and said, "we could get a quick one in after I read the last note." She unfurled it, expecting to be from Princess Luna or Twilight Sparkle, instead, it was from Princess Cadance, this caused her eyes go bug for a moment.



Dear Chrysalis, I would like to say that I have gotten past your near destruction of my wedding, Shiny and I are actually highly appreciative of the test of our bonds you put in place. I am also happy that you managed to find a genuine love of your own, Spike is a fine catch. Make sure to treat him right, I already know about the threat Twilight imposed on you, she might have overdone it, she just wants to make sure her little brother is happy and safe. While I'm usually not one to condone consummation of your love with sex before marriage, but the uniqueness of your relationship (from what I hear about your aspects) is more than enough for me to say 'go for it' and show us just what kind of new queen you have become.

~Sincerely, Princess Cadance	
PS— I think you'll make a lovely mother, you'll have cute foals (which I insist on seeing some time), and I think you'll be lovely in purple (definitely much more so than your black chitin look, while black is a color that seems to go with everything I think that in your case black actually ruins your look).



“We're going to need a comfortable location that we don't mind messing up,” said Chrysalis, “and while I don't mind you taking me in this room, it kind of feels awkward that you'll pound me in a room we just did correspondence in. We do need to have standards after all.”
“Um, yeah,” said Spike, “and the fact that we both barely know the layout of this place doesn't help either, I mean what if we decide to go and do it in a chamber set aside for guests or a dining hall? And I certainly don't want to get my freak on with you in a room that is a potential ballroom, some of my family and friends would make me wish for death when they found out about that little hiccup. I'd take you now if it weren't for the standards we're imposing.”
“Yes, well if it were any of my sisters, or (the divine forbid) my mother, standards we think of wouldn't factor into anything, they'd just take you on the spot and after one or two quick fucks and be done with you. We could head to the throne room and make love there.”
Spike's eyes bulged before he said, “Okay three questions. One, Your Sisters? Your Mother? You want to have sex in the throne room?”
“Yes, I'm the youngest of four daughters to queen Cicada, and trust me when I say you really don't want to meet her. All four are ruthless bitches that care nothing for their hives and would rather repeat their mistakes rather than pull back and think of a new plan of attack. Tartarus, they won't consider retreat until at least eighty percent of the active hive army has been rendered nonviable.”
“And you're different, I can see that, but how?”
“I'm more cerebral than my mother or sisters. I prefer to trick my opponents into doing things to themselves, when I was little I always beat my family at games like chess or hide-and-seek, and I always took to my magic lessons much better than any of my sisters, of course my sisters would 'reward' me with beatings that made it so that I was next to useless for extended periods of time. My play for Canterlot was more of a ploy to get my family off my carapace. It would have all worked according to plan if my information team hadn't rushed it and actually taken their time, but there's no changing the past, I didn't really want to make that power play, to begin with, the whole thing was more an act for my family as they watched. To be honest with you, I'm glad we were beaten, it helped me notice I had the one flaw all changeling queens have.”
“What's that?”
“Claiming victory before the final plays are made! I don't want to fall into that pitfall again, I want to create a hive that shares mutual benefits with Equestria, I want my changelings to be as welcome in Equestria as you are now, I want them to be free from the vicious tendencies of my so-called kin, I want to break all ties with the changeling collective while I'm still very much alive. When my mother or sisters find out where I am they will do everything in their power end my life, purge all traces of my hive from the world, then raze everywhere they believe my hive used as colony grounds. That means our old hive in the badlands, these caverns, the mountainside that we were blown to after Shining Armor and Princess Cadance, not going to get used to calling her that anytime soon, combined the power of their love. And places that we were only sighted in would also be made targets because they would believe we were attempting to lay the foundations of colonies there. Places like Canterlot, Las Pegasus, Stallion-grad, and Ponyville will all be in their line of fire in addition to a host of other cities and towns.”
“Oh, that still doesn't explain why you want to naked wrestle in the throne room.”
“It's a changeling throne room, honey, that means it's designed to allow the queen to act freely, even in a public setting. For changelings, the queen having sex in the throne room while holding meetings with other dignitaries, usually the proxies of other changeling queens, is a perfectly acceptable business practice. I know that won't fly in Canterlot, no matter how much Discord and Celestia want to do that, in Equestria proper it's just not seen as politically or socially acceptable, in changeling culture those actions are, the only thing that isn't publicly acceptable is a perfectly visible assassination, the attempts fly because we just brush it off as changelings practicing their craft, but to perform a successful murder in the presence of a changeling queen is considered one of our greatest taboos, so much so that the queen has full rights to not only kill the successful changeling, then their queen as well and claim that queen's hive as her own, that's actually how mom got to be the most feared changeling in history. She tricked other hives into doing just that so she could claim those hives for herself, she's a master at covert politics. Me, I'm just a really smart mare that's made some bad decisions due to peer pressure from her family.”
“I figured there were other hives and some kind culture to the changelings, but I didn't figure that the hives would be more akin to their own independent nations.”
“No, it's more like a loose association of city states that deliberately makes itself appear to be a unified nation to outside forces. I took the time to explain this to the princesses in my last correspondence since my mother is one of the longest-lived and most powerful changelings her hive is considered a major power player. Living up to the expectations was bad enough, but when my ambitious play failed that basically meant that mom and my siblings could do whatever they wanted me and my hive.”
“And since your hive during the time of the invasion was composed entirely of the castoffs of your siblings your mother and sisters didn't see the need to take your hive, does that mean they deliberately didn't make a play for your life?”
“Yes, they wanted to see my entire hive obliterated before me, then only after I was beaten and broken and screaming in agony over the loss of my hive would my mother would personally end my life. Not a charming prospect, I know, but that's how I knew it would go.”
“Okay then, lead the way,” said Spike in shock, “you somehow managed to guilt trip me into going to the throne room to have sex with you, yet somehow not make it guilty sex or pity sex.”
“One of the many mysteries of how a mare can influence the decisions of her mate,” said Chrysalis with a wink as she began to lead Spike through the maze to the throne room.
“Did they at least leave a map for you in the throne room? I figured they would do that much since it should be one of the central chambers of this network,” said Spike as he followed.

************************************

Twenty minutes later they were in the throne room, Spike was looking at the back of the throne and cried, “Success, they knew you'd eventually make your way to this room. It looks like they carved a detailed map into the back of the throne, but did it in such an artful way it just looks like some kind aesthetic design if you are looking at it casually. Looks like they also wrote the name of the rooms in the smallest script possible, my eyes might be good at reading thanks to growing up with Twilight, but for stuff like this I still need a magnifying glass.”
Chrysalis huffed in her throne, positioned in the most provocative way she could think (figured she'd keep exciting Spike while they were still alone a bit more, assuming he actually got out from behind her throne) and said, “dragons and changelings can channel their senses, just draw energy from your sense of taste and redirect it to your eyes, I would suggest other senses, but chances are you'll need them for when the guests you invited finally arrive.”
“Oh, I did not know I could do that,” said Spike, “none of Twilight's books talked about that...feature of my biology.”
“Not surprising,” said Chrysalis, “I doubt any of the princesses know that, I only know that because I studied dragons as best I could when I was younger, I noticed during some of my observations that the effectiveness of certain senses seemed to fluctuate, and since changelings can imitate some properties of other creatures I tested the theory of adjusting energy from one of sense to another, it worked for me so I just figured might work for a dragon, although I never had one that would cooperate enough to fully prove the theory.”
“Yikes, you're more like Twilight than I thought, only a little more crazy when it comes to learning practices.”
“We never had much of a library when I was growing up, that and most changelings aren't all that big on actually stockpiling information, as I've told you I'm a bit of an oddity among changelings. If I had grown up in similar circumstances to Twilight I might have ended up with a closer personality to her.”
“It's cool, I like the you that you are now,” said Spike.
“You do realize that I'll be taking some of your mental traits when we reach a certain point in our intercourse, right?”
“That'll just make you a better Equestrian citizen.”
“Get out from behind the throne and fuck me already,” growled Chrysalis.
“Um, while I would like to oblige, I need to get copies of the map to Rarity, Twilight, Celestia, Luna and Cadance.”
“Alright, I suppose company being able to navigate this place would be a good idea, you have seven hours starting from the moment you leave this room, after that ready or not I drag you back here and administer 'discipline' to you, am I Understood?”
“Um, it might take a bit longer to copy the map after I go to get utensils to do so.”
“Fine, nine hours, but no more than that. It should only take you couple of minutes to transcribe your copies of the map after you've managed to duplicate it anyway. A queen does not like to be kept waiting, this allowance is one of my charity tithes, you will not be getting another one!” Her eyes narrowed, and even though Spike couldn't see her he could feel her stare and shivered before he rushed out of the room, the room with all the materials looked like it was seventeen minutes from the throne room, but if he had memorized the map as good as he hoped and rushed it he hoped he could make it five.
Chrysalis had a daydream of Spike and her in an intimate moment, it would have to do until the real thing happened. Right Now she now she was beyond horny, but at least she still had her self-control.

==============================

Chrysalis's Daydream

________________________________________________

Chrysalis was the same shade of purple as Spike's scales and in a very revealing white dominatrix suit, Spike's mention of the suit was something she really liked the idea of. Spike hung by his arms on chains from the ceiling, spread wide, the chains that held his arms were attached to a pulley that Chrysalis could magically operate to bring him closer and further to the floor, but within certain margin because his legs were also spread out and chained to different areas of the floor. Even Spikes tail was chained, but it was chained to both the ceiling and the floor at four different points to restrict its movements. And the top it all off he had a black metal collar with arcane script etched into it firmly, yet snugly, clasped around his throat.
Chrysalis herself held a black dom's whip and was viciously lashing his tail with it. Spike Screamed in agony, which only intensified her whipping.
“Come on and say it,” Chrysalis said in a vicious, yet erotic, tone, “tell me why you deserve this.”
Spike glared at her with a small hint of defiance, she'd weed that out soon enough, “Fuck you,” growled Spike.
“Oh, you already did that, and will again once I've broken you in.”
“I can still burn you to a crisp!”
“No you can't, dragon fire is magical in nature, that lovely collar on your neck disables all things magical whether it's from you or something else. Oh yes, I've put a lot of thought into this,” she floated a lilac colored key next her within the field of her magic, “this is the only key to free you from the collar, you'll be released once you release into me,” she gave an erotically vicious grin, “assuming your 'little dragon' performs to my standards,” she squeezed his hanging balls with her free hand, they were the size of door large knockers, “once you satisfy me you will be free to go where you please. Of course, by that time you'll be the kind creature that gets excited to do whatever I command, no matter how demeaning.”

===========================================

Chrysalis snapped out of it when she felt a warm, sticky liquid running down her legs. Looking in the direction she could see that she apparently had made herself 'wet' just thinking about what she would to Spike. My carapace would look really good in that color, and I definitely need a white dominatrix outfit on account of it would look beyond incredible on me, she licked her lips, I just need to make a few alterations, maybe have some onyx stones positioned so they 'accentuate' my figure as boarders for my exposed layers. Yes that would be good, a nice little reference to my current carapace coloration. Yes, I'll wear the most scandalously revealing dominatrix outfit, that will certainly make Rarity blush when I request that, and in addition to the onyx I'll make have it so the groin piece doesn't need to be removed for me to partake in sex. Mmmmmmmmmmmmh, yes, that should excite my dragon to no end. Then he'll be my little play thing, doing every sexy (and sexual) thing I want him to. Mmmmmmh mmmmmmmmmh, those muscles slapping me any way I want as I 'ride' that dragon in a way that will make even the kinkiest mare blush in embarrassment. But before all that we should get to know each other properly, it'll give me some ideas of what we should do first. When I take that big dragon cock into me it will be one of the most delicious feelings in the world. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmh, yes those tasty muscles will be all mine, and only mine, to play with. I suppose those notes from the princesses helped me more than I thought, I need to build my new hive and I've given them all I can, I just hope what I gave enough.
“Okay, I got all the stuff I need to for copying the map,” said Spike as he reentered the chamber, "and to save time I brought the resources for...whoa, you kicked your sexy up to the next level,” his flag flying at full mast and equally as large balls swinging for a bit after he rushed to the point behind the throne, “I'll be with you as soon as I can.”
“We should probably talk about you first,” said Chrysalis.
“I hear it's much easier, to be honest with your partner during 'pillow talk',” said Spike. A shiver of excitement went down Chrysalis's spine, “besides, you've already shared a few things with me that you probably haven't with anypony else.”
“I recently figured out that my mother basically made me as an experiment to create what she thought of as 'the perfect changeling', I let the princesses know about that, as well as my family. Something I haven't told anypony is that changelings really don't get along well with water, the deepest most of us are willing to go is knee high, for us wet wings can often be fatal.”
“But you have a massive shower, and bathtub, both with valves for regulating flows of diverted underground water to any level you want.”
“We don't mind it within a generally protected area like a hive's colony, but out in the open we try to ovoid swimming in streams and lakes.”
“Ponds too?”
“You'd be surprised how many changelings will take their time to keep from crashing into ponds if they have a choice.”
“Is there a reason for this?”
“Yes, my sister Nymph and her hive are not subject to that rule. That's because she bred with highly aggressive water monster, some in the region that she found it called it a water demon. Her wings have some sort of coating that makes them highly water resistant, she also has retractable body and head fins for aquatic stability.”
“Oh, but doesn't her 'adaption' to aquatic environments mean she's not as well suited for more arid environments as she was before 'acquiring' those traits?”
“It's possible, but changeling queens require warmer conditions to keep their functions up higher, it's why the throne room is so warm.”
“Things can be warmer without being drier, she'd probably have to have her throne room and private chambers be regulated by some kind of thermal vents.”
“An...accurate observation, but Nymph has widely been regarded as my prettiest sister, regardless of what species she's interacting with.”
“Well, I haven't met your sister,” he finished the map, “so I would have to say you are the most gorgeous creature in existence, I used to think that was Rarity, but after our date failed to meet either of our expectations we basically shot each other down at the same time. I tried the dating scene a few more times, but every single go just seemed to fall through with every go.”
Chrysalis could hear the furious scratching of quill on parchment writing a note, “How long has it been?”
“Only five and a half hours since you issued the statement regarding my time limit in regards to my initial leaving the chamber. I kind of rushed it, and might have overestimated how long it would take to copy the map, I tried that trick you talked about and it worked, for the convenience of everypony else reading the map I wrote the chamber names legibly in the margin and assigned a number to each of the rooms instead. Hope you don't mind I numbered them a bit like a Role Playing dungeon map, that is to say, the entrance chamber is room one and the numbers climb up from their based on their general proximity to other rooms, mostly.”
“That's fine, as long as it's readable for everpony that receives it. You might want to put a cipher spell on the maps to make sure eyes we don't want seeing it can't read it.”
I take it that you know a cipher spell.”
“Kept my family from reading my notebooks, which now that I think about it were mostly filled with observations of other creatures and a few recipes I thought would be interesting. Changelings naturally have the ability to feed on positive emotions, love being the most sought after, but we can consume some solid foods, mostly raw meat. I never cared much for the stuff myself, but when your mother is the Green Queen it is inevitable.”
“What did your mother 'acquire' as her extra?”
“A very rare tropical carnivore called a Pseudo Floris, they're large tropical predators that have the ability to blend with and imitate some plants, they're natural very green, hence where my mother gets her title.”
“You're naturally black...”
“As are all changelings!”
“Okay, does that mean you're called the 'black queen'?”
“Yes, but it's more of an insult since I haven't taken on the properties of any other creatures, my sisters would also tease me by calling me the 'colorless queen', I didn't mind it all, I just let it roll right off, most changeling queens think their color and title are important, I never thought that once.”
“But...”
“But when they poked fun at my hive it angered me, greatly.”
“You cared about them greatly.”
“Yes, but every other changeling queen I'm aware of, my family included, see their hive's members as expendable, their thoughts are 'I can always make more' and that's it.”
“But you are incapable of producing a hive like them, so as a coping strategy you developed a mentality that focused on preserving your hive's standing members.”
“Yes, that is correct.”
“Wait, if you got your hive by taking in and saving your sisters' unwanted offspring how is it they never took the colors or properties of your sisters' hives?”
“Young changelings have a fourteen day period where they are a default changeling regardless of the mother's properties, I took most of them in during that window. As for the rest of that question, when a changeling becomes part of a queen's hive they take on that queen's properties, no matter their age, while simultaneously losing the traits they had of the prior queen's hive. That's how my mother was able to amass a massive swarm of a hive that all have her properties when the entire hive shifted over to being her hive they changed their colors and abilities, but only those directly born from her can take advantage of the 'hive mind' that changelings possess. I have no intention of taking the hive of another queen if I'm forced to kill her. I'm distinct in that I say 'if' when I refer to taking the life of another queen seeing as every other queen says 'when' in reference to the potential killing of another queen, backstabbing is common among queens, I was always expected to do so, but for some reason instead of invigorating me during our political lessons when we practiced it for our mother to see how well we could handle 'court' I always felt guilty for betraying the trust of those I had supposedly built up with others. I haven't trusted my sisters to do anything other than stab my back these past twelve years, they pulled their false support when the Canterlot invasion failed, I thought the support they gave me over the twenty years of planning was genuine up to that point. They always said I was too trusting.”
“They say you're weak for it,” the sound of messages being sent off by dragon flame was heard, “but I think all the things they said made you weak are what makes you strong,” he came out from behind the throne, “I put all the spare materials somewhere out of the way, so what do you say we start getting freaky?”
Chrysalis jumped out of her throne and licked her lips as she said, “No time for foreplay, let's just get to it!” With that she jumped on Spike's member and clasped onto him with her arms and legs, expertly making his cock slide into her vagina, she screamed in pain for a moment before moaning in pleasure. Her form shifting ability already taking hold as it conformed to be a perfect fit for Spike's penis. She could feel his penis stopping with its tip just a few inches into her womb, pleasure flooding her body as her vaginal walls transitioned into the perfect 'sheath' for Spike's 'sword'.
Spike felt a spike of pain when Chrysalis jumped him before it melted into a pleasure that was intensified as he felt her vagina literally reshape itself to make sure its every pleasure point stimulated every pleasure point on his penis. Spike literally fell on his back from the sheer ecstasy that his partner subjected him to. Chrysalis was literally jumping up and down on his waist, further stimulating his already teased cock. Spike blew his load, a load bigger and more powerful than any he had ever experienced merely whacking offing in the bathroom when he was alone and thinking of things that make it impossible for males to keep their load.
Chrysalis screamed in ecstasy as she felt Spike's seamen flow into her womb. She felt a change coursing through her, one that didn't feel like when masqueraded as another, this change felt like it was coming up from her very core and spreading out. First her black shell transformed into a vibrant violet that was much more lustrous and slightly darker purple than Spike's scales. Then her husk like mane and tail became fuller and seemed to become more like dragon's scales as they changed to a green that matched Spike's spines. Her now purple carapace became more flexible and showed signs of imitating Spike's dragon scales, including some of the scale work. Her physique became more muscular, in a way that accentuated her feminine figure, but still showed a bulge of muscle that indicated the kind of tremendous physical strength Spike now had. When her tongue made itself known just before her zealously passionate kiss of Spike's mouth it seemed to be changed to the same kind of fork he had and seemed to be of similar length. Her eyes changed to become more draconic and a more vibrant emerald shade, and even felt the echo of her voice changed to become a more of crystalline reverberation. She felt as her hands became more like dragon claws, and even the formation of gem devouring teeth restructured her entire mouth to the point her fangs altered their form to match Spike's teeth more closely, a wave of pleasure tore through her mouth as her jaws restructured themselves to be more in line with Spike's draconic ones. She could feel her wings taking on a more draconic form, and even become a bit more leathery. She could feel her abdomen swelling with the early forming of what would become the eggs of her new children. She could also feel a new organ forming near her stomach, she could feel the heat of her new fire generation chamber filling her with more passion as her new draconic tongue wrestled with Spike's. The sensation of her change during sex had sent her pleasure center into overdrive. Each new load from Spike's scepter sending an even greater wave of pleasure through her body. It seemed as if she was just experiencing a continuous orgasm that was magnified with each one of her changes, which began with the start of her first. And it seemed that she was also in control of when Spike could pass out during their session, she hoped that would stay for all their sessions.
Spike could feel the physical changes in Chrysalis's body and with each of her new changes, he shot another load into her womb. The sensation of her tongue and his fighting in passion was intense. There were several times he thought he would pass out from the pleasure, but somehow Chrysalis was able to keep him from nodding off and missing every millisecond of bliss. The feel of her now droagonized breasts pressed up against him sent an intense wave of pleasure through him that seemed to go on a loop that magnified the pleasure of everything else. He dared not pull out of his mate, such a thought was blasphemy now.
Chrysalis and Spike passed out while still in the throws of sexual interaction at the same time. The two happily within each other's hold. Overflow from Spike's semen sprayed into Chrysalis's womb forming a white pool around them as they collapsed in pleasure.

************************************

Chrysalis awoke some time later, she assumed it was hours, with Spike's rod still firmly in her pussy. The pleasure of just having his member there was quite clearly present, as much as she didn't want to she had to, so she climbed off of Spike and made her way to the bathroom, she had no intention of washing herself and every intention of seeing just how much her body had changed.
When she arrived at the room she found the mirror to be sorely lacking for what she wanted from it, seeing as it could only show her her her head and neck. The only part of her that hadn't undergone a radical change was her horn, which was now a bit more streamlined while still maintaining its characteristic jagged edges, she had felt so much intense pleasure from the rest of her changes she hadn't even noticed the sensation of the only minor one. She moved her hand over her new horn, enjoying the smooth leathery texture against her fingers. She made her way back to her room, where she knew a full body mirror awaited her. When she arrived to at her mirror she gasped at her new form, she more beautiful than her imagination had dared to dream. Even the slight draconic edge to her wings added to the aesthetic. As a sort of test she puffed a small burst of green flame, her flame had a bit of a darker emerald to it than Spike's, but that was okay because that meant their flames would be distinguishable from each other. She rubbed her her abdomen, it would be a few weeks before her tummy began to swell with the eggs of the new generation that would be her new hive, on top of that she was sure she could feel some of her future offspring moving about.

_______________________________________________

Spike awoke to a dwindling pool of seamen around him, Okay that's weird, he thought.
That's nothing to be alarmed at, came Chrysalis's voice in his head, A throne room is enchanted to absorb all liquids introduced to it, it should be all gone by the time your friends find their way here. I do hope the map of the tunnels gives them an idea where to head.
You're in my head, Chrysalis, this is both cool and frightening.
It's just the hive mind, you'll lose the your connection with it by this time tomorrow, and you won't gain access to it again, no matter how many times you have me 'ride' you. Sorry honey, it's a one time deal for you, that's the way it is with all Changeling mates.
I can live with that, and having some experience with it will allow me to better explain it to Twilight, you she know she is going to want all the 'juicy' details when it comes to your biology, she duped me into being her study subject after all.


********************************************

The following day Rarity (around ten in the morning), Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy were making their way through the Everfree on their way to Chrysalis's new colony grounds. “I can't believe you two,” said Rarity, “the moment Spike said he had a few outfit requests for Chrysalis I already started packing my bags and was ready to go the moment we got the note and the map.” The purple maned mare was dressed up like she was going to a convention hall as Daring Do, only with the pith helmet switched out for a slightly frilly lilac sun hat (which happened to have a convenient set of hidden pocket sewn into its inner region. In addition, she was trouncing around with a backpack that was surprisingly not overstuffed with tailoring tools and supplies, this had surprised her friends since they knew Rarity could go a bit overboard on the simplest tailoring tasks from time to time.
“Oh, but we can't have a party with just the three of us, Spike and Chrysalis,” said Pinkie, “Nothing new would happen other than us learning what her personality is now, and we'll basically do that when she greets us. I spent hours trying to decide if I should pack anything,” the overly pink mare with blue eyes was dressed up in a dark blue shirt that had hot pink letters saying 'It's Always a Good Time to Party' and a pair of dark pink shorts covered in balloons.
“I had to make sure all the animals were in good condition, and their temporary caretaker was aware all the no-noes that are for my current animal guests,” the pink maned yellow pegasus mare was wearing a dark green shirt that was adorned with cats doing some kind of strange dance where they bobbed around and tan hiking shorts that bore three pink butterflies on them.
“Fluttershy, darling, the main reason you volunteered to come with me was to make sure no animals hurt me or got hurt by me. Pinkie, I'm happy you left everything back home, once she has her new attire we can throw that party you want to for Chrysalis. Right now we just need to find the entrance, Twilight said that according to her calculations it should be around here. Keep an eye out for any large groupings of rock or cave mouths.”
The three mares were looking left and right for their quarry, but of Pinkie just had to trip over a root and roll to a stop right in front the well-disguised entrance with her arm dangling in the entrance, which gave the impression she had suddenly lost her arm in a mass of solid rock. “Found it,” screeched Pinkie, “somepony made it look like the rest of the rock around it.”
The other two other mares rushed over to Pinkie's side, “Well, at least they had the good sense actually make the disguise match the aesthetic around the entrance,” said Rarity.
The three made their way into the entrance.
The slight dark that met them caused Rarity to cast a light spell so she could illuminate the chamber and passage around them, “This place would be great for hide-and-seek,” giggled Pinkie and bounced around, her D cups jiggling with her excited movement.
“Focus girls,” said Fluttershy just before Rarity could voice her own thoughts of chamber and tunnels beyond, “we still need to find Spike and Chrysalis, he said they were in the Throne Room.”
“That's right, darling,” said Rarity, she took off her hat and reached into the third pocket from the left of the side of her hat facing her and pulled out the carefully folded map, it looked like it had been folded like a cloth handkerchief that was usually used to adorn a business suit's chest pocket and if you looked closely you could see the stitches of a piece of white cloth instead of the fibers of white paper.
“Didn't Twilight say that proper etiquette for that was to roll it?” Said Pinkie as she inspected the room.
“I wanted to avoid creases in the paper,” said Rarity, “this one is cloth, I used a spell to copy the map onto a piece of scrap fabric from one of my projects earlier this week.”
“Ooh, does that mean there are different rules to it?” Said Pinkie as she bounced behind the pearly white unicorn while looking over her friend's shoulder at the map.”
“Yes,” said Rarity, “this way if I fold it right the creases don't cause any problems, and the folds add to the aesthetic of the map. Now, quiet down dear, I'm trying to figure out the best course from here to the throne room. I'm sure it will look marvelous, and if it doesn't I'll draw up some plans to make it look as awe inspiring as it should be.”
“Oh, I already figured out the fast way from there to the Throne Room,” said Pinkie happily.
“Then why are we still standing around in this room?” Said Rarity as she used her magic to bring her hat to her hand, she would place it on her head again if proper etiquette didn't say wearing hats in another pony's home without permission was impolite and disrespectful. Using her magic she dusted off the hat, completely embarrassed she had thrown the hat aside while opening the map.
“Because you have the map, and proper dungeoneering etiquette says the one with map leads the party through to the first destination, that's assuming the encounters don't split the party of course.”
Rarity blinked a few times before slapping her face and dramatically pulling her hand over her face and saying, “Pinkie, where did you hear that?” The ivory mare had her suspicions but wanted confirmation.
“Oh, this fun game Twilight introduced me to a few years ago, you take on a role and go on adventures as somepony you want to be. I made a Bard named Joy Sprinkles, kept the morale of the party up and filled in for all the types of ponies we didn't have, it was a lot of fun.”
“Uh huh,” said Rarity, “and one of the 'rules' for going underground was the one with the map guides the others through the terrain?”
“At least until the map is lost or destroyed,” chirped Pinkie, “oh and it's just a rule of dungeon adventuring, it's a CARDINAL RULE!" The sound of her last two words echoed through the chamber for a moment, "So that means you guide us through this, I can just go off my memory of the map if the party gets split.”
“Alright, girls follow me,” said Rarity as she heading off down the tunnel before them with the open map in hand.

*********************************

What felt like hours later had them coming up to the Throne Room. They could hear some kind of moaning coming from the room as they approached the entrance. Fearing the worst the three rushed in. At the sight Fluttershy gave out a map sound, Pinkie giggled and Rarity nearly fainted.
The sight before them was Spike bound to the wall by chain like projections of Chrysalis's magic with his groin facing outward, his eyes covered with an opaque band also formed by her magic, his legs and arms spread wide, tail with several of the magic generated clasps similar to the ones holding his arms and legs bracing his tail against the wall with Chrysalis licking his member all around with her highly articulate dragon-like tongue. Chrysalis in her new dragonesque form either hadn't noticed them or just didn't care that there was an audience that had just entered the room.
Chrysalis stopped and undid her magic, her next set of words told them it had actually been of both. “Hello girls,” said Chrysalis, her reverberating echo replaced with a reverberating crystalline sound, “you seem to have caught us in the middle of our little sex play, I heard you coming a little while ago and wanted to see how Spike would react to knowing there was an audience. He reacted just I thought, pity I was hoping he'd surprise me. Did you know that he gets s...”
“Chrysalis,” said Spike cutting off what she was going to say, “that is private information that you do not share, how would you feel if I told somepony else about all your little kinks?”
“Wouldn't have a problem with it, honey,” said Chrysalis with a purr to her tone.
“Must be a cultural thing, hope she fazes out of that,” muttered Spike, “Sorry you had to see that, girls.”
Rarity gave a polite cough before saying, “Yes, well you shouldn't have been doing such things in public view in the first place.”
“We didn't know when you would get here,” said Chrysalis, then in a teasing voice said, “did you see anything you liked or give some ideas for your own bed action?”
“A proper lady does not speak of such things,” said Rarity, with a light pink blush, as she put the map away and started getting some things from her pack. Out came the measuring tap, a clipboard, some pens, a few leafs of parchment and a small stack of various clothing magazines, “Now dear, let's get those measurements.”
Pinkie and Fluttershy led Spike from the room, “Don't worry Spike,” said Pinkie, “we'll get you some clothes later.”
“Thanks,” said Spike, “but that's not what I'm worried about, you see...”
> Mares...Go figure
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Chrysalis couldn't believe it, for the past five hours she had been standing and posing for Rarity as the white mare took her measurements while yammering on her body's natural aesthetics...FIVE HOURS of time alone with Rarity, and thanks to said white mare's chatty disposition while taking Chrysalis's measurements, and jotting them down on parchments attached to her clipboard, the now violet changeling mare couldn't even retreat into her memory of her first time with Spike or a daydream of a random sexual scenario with the male dragon.
Finally, Chrysalis decided that she had been patient long enough, at this point she couldn't actually make out what Rarity was saying, her efforts to tune out the mare had resulted in hearing sounds that were just short of being words. “Rarity,” said Chrysalis with an air of authority, “I know you're excited about examining my...features, but to be honest I stopped listening to you hours ago since to me it sounded more like you were talking to yourself more than me. It's been five hours, or at least it feels like it has been.”
“Oh, dreadfully sorry, darling,” said Rarity, “it's just with your natural ability to change your physical properties I was thinking how much of a wonderful asset you could be to the fashion industry, you could act as a body double for any mare who just doesn't have the time to get fitted for a new outfit, or maybe even show clients a look of what the outfit they want would look on them before buying it.”
“You do realize that to most of Equestria I'm still seen as a major criminal, right?”
“Oh posh darling, A little public announcement from Celestia and a few weeks of the news circulating through all the right papers and ponies on how much you changed will bring that to the point of a nonissue, especially when we share who your special somepony is.”
“Or make it loads worse,” said Chrysalis, “if it means Spike has to be hassled by all the wrong sorts then I say don't tell them about our private standing with each other.”
“Darling you've changed, in more ways than one. Most ponies think of changelings as the black bug-like creatures from twelve years ago, not some dragon-like creature.”
“What have you been told about my family?”
“Only that they're brutish and don't have the personalities to backup their physical charm. You on the other hand, my dear are much more cooperative and have the kind of personality that does backup your physical charm.”
“Why thank you, the letter Twilight sent mentioned Rainbow Dash would be in your trio, not Fluttershy, care to explain that one?”
“Um yes, when Twilight said that I would definitely need to see you, seeing as you literally are lacking a wardrobe, she asked for volunteers to accompany me. Pinkie and Rainbow were the fasted to volunteer, all the girls did actually. Twilight decided that Pinkie and Rainbow would accompany me on account they didn't have any prior obligations at the time and could move the fastest with me. However while she was getting ready Rainbow got a note from the Wonderbolts saying she was needed for an upcoming show, so she had to fly to Cloudsdale for practice. Fluttershy still has a bit of an open schedule, and also was concerned about any animals in the area of this tunnel network doing something they shouldn't.”
“Oh, did she tell all the animals to give the colony entrance a wide berth?”
“More or less, yes. Oh, and once you have your new attire all ready to go Twilight wants you to visit her, something about sharing notes.”
“I'd rather play a nice game of chess, it's been ages since I properly played anypony.”
“Really, I expected you to like some brutish sport like wrestling. I meant no offense darling, but last time we saw you was your attempt to claim Canterlot for your hive.”
“Yes, well it was mostly an act, and an improvised one at that, I was doing more as a means of getting my family to ease off of my hive more than anything else.”
“Why is that?”
“They said they would purge my hive if I didn't at least do some kind of conquest, the thing is when your mom is the biggest big shot among the changelings you can't just make a play on a small town that almost nopony knows about. Nope, you gotta go grand, and before my ploy no Changeling queen had dared attack anywhere in Equestria, I had to make it the grandest assault possible, so naturally Canterlot won the invasion list. However not everything goes to plan, my play at pretending to be Mi Amore Cadenza was completely unplanned, in fact, the wedding hadn't even been factored into my original invasion plan. To make matters worse my information team bumbled multiple times. The fact that Cadenza prefers to be called Cadance was only half-substantiated, her special greeting with Twilight was completely ignored, and I had to resort to a mind manipulation spell my mother taught forever ago to keep Shining Armor from spilling the beans. I would have preferred to avoid all of that, the wedding was fortuitous for me, having being told about it only a couple years in advance, but I had been planning my original invasion for nearly twenty years, I had planned to make the actual invasion happen just a few months after the wedding, but my hive had already told my mother so we had to rush it with a modified version of the plan I had been carefully cultivating. However some of my hive fumbled it a bit and at least one was spotted by ponies when they were out of disguise, which put the whole city on lock down with the bulk of my hive outside the city.”
“But you still planned to invade Canterlot for your hive.”
“We were only going to occupy the city for few weeks, scare up a few ponies, maybe trick a few into giving us sizable donations from their personal accounts, say thanks for being good sports to the princesses and leave. We'd have it under our belts that we took Equestria's capital when no other hive had and call it a win, mostly because it would get all the other hives to back off. After all, there's nothing more humiliating to a changeling than being shown what they thought was useless was in fact, a pivotal piece in a victory.”
“Useless? Darling, you are too hard on yourself and your hive.”
“No, I was the soft one, every member of my hive was composed of children my siblings cast aside. They called me the 'defective queen' and many more unsavory things,” her hand went to her abdomen, “all because I was born with the inability to build a hive without a mate.”
“They're mothers, and they're ruthless? Wait, did you say without a mate?”
Chrysalis nodded, “Yes, normally a changeling queen can produce offspring without the aid of a mate, they usually just choose a mate that has properties they want to 'add' to their hive and have intercourse long enough for a first pregnancy and leave their 'mate' behind with no further thoughts on the matter. Every other hive has its core members composed of the children of the queen that founded the hive, she is literally the hive's mother,” she gave a dejected look at Rarity before rubbing her abdomen again, “they see their children as expendable game pieces, I never saw my hive that way. I never got the chance to be a mother before now, I can feel the beginnings of my new hive developing within me. In a few years this place will be swarming with my offspring, and hopefully, we'll have good relations with Equestria by the time the first brood matures enough to leave the forest.”
Rarity smiled and said, “They probably will before your foals arrive.”
“Oh, no, Changelings are born as larva. You see we're first born in bulbous translucent eggs that we call 'egg sacks' and after those are laid it takes a few more months for them to emerge. Once my egg sacks reach a certain point in their development I'll go to the egg chamber and lay them, then position them so they are out of immediate harm's way, of course, I have to make sure the angle is right so the little darlings don't hurt themselves when they hatch.”
Rarity blinked a few times before carefully saying, “Well, I suppose pregnancy wear will still be a good idea.”
“I know it might feel awkward for you, but for me, it's something natural. My little darlings will be born with my properties and their father's, it's funny how things turn out. You see, according to our history the earliest history changeling queens would keep their mates closer, but sometime between then and now the changelings chose to abandon having mates around for just finding something that would amount as a sperm donor and call it a day. I don't know if we've always been so ruthless, reckless and callous, but something my mother did when she modified my development made me caring, cautious and trusting. The persona I played back during the Canterlot invasion was just a ruse, an attempt to make my hive seem like it was like the others. I knew that my hive had a lot of faults, but I put my faith in that hive and told them no matter what I trusted them to follow my lead and watch my back. I didn't think of them any as friends, but I did see them as the kind of family I could put my trust in, and they usually rewarded my trust by going above and beyond what I asked of them. That fight you had in Canterlot with my swarm was actually one of my alternatives, I never intended to execute the swarm contingency in the first place.”
“Well, you did an excellent job of hiding it.”
“I was always the smartest one, every game that involved using my head I came out on top. Chess was always my favorite, I could take pawns and turn them into just about any other unit if I moved them the right way. Of course my sisters didn't care much for me trouncing them at something, there wasn't a month of my early years I can recall that didn't have at least one incident of me being so damaged that my magic suffered or just plain stopped working. I was beaten up by my sisters on a regular basis, and since I was physically weaker than them I just took it. Before you say anything, that sort of thing is common among colonies with more than one new queen developing within them, I was just the focus, if I hadn't been born my sisters would have been regularly assaulting each other, it's a miracle I survived to point where I made my play on Canterlot. You know, it's a coincidence that it was Spike that ended up with me in this tunnel network, and a cruel twist of fate that forced my coming here in the first place.”
“Oh Darling, the circumstances don't matter as much as the special connection you have with that special someone in your life.”
“Um yes,” Chrysalis made sneaky smile, which confused Rarity (at least until the request was made), “Spike said he requested you make me some kinky outfits for some of our more private moments.”
Rarity's whole face flushed crimson as the mare said, “Um, yes, he wasn't particularly clear on those sorts of outfits since they come in a pretty wide variety. I didn't really know that until I started doing a little research on the subject after Spike sent his request, and trust me it was little embarrassing when Applejack found me doing the research, I don't think she would have entirely believed me if I hadn't shown her the letter with Spike's work order.”
“I didn't know about it until I read the response letter and asked just what he asked you to make me.”
“I suppose he wanted it to be a surprise, but without specifics, it almost ruins the gesture. I usually don't make that sort of attire, but I'm willing to give making any outfit once.”
“Well, I decided on a dominatrix outfit that will have your full body blushing.”
“Darling, it might make me feel a little embarrassed, but a full body blush might be p...”
“An outfit that is the most revealing you can make it, basically I want all my goods up for anypony see in the outfit, and I was thinking onyx as an accentuator for my properties, but the gem part was when I was imagining my colors would be a bit lighter, of course, I was thinking of making the outfit white so that might still be work.”
Rarity suddenly saw the outfit in her mind's eye and her whole head went to crimson, “um, yes, d...darling, that would be very scandalous when it comes to outfits,” she shook her head to get the blood to move on, “but a few white outfits with onyx accents does sound lovely, but I really haven't got that many onyx stones in my supply so I try to save them for something really special.”
“The royal wedding twelve years ago wasn't special enough?”
“No, I just didn't start finding the onyx until a few months after the wedding,” the white mare took a look at her clipboard notes, “it looks like all your dimensions are designed to entice stallions to an incredible extent. A bust size that is the area as Princess Celestia and Princess Luna are rumored to be, the kind of thighs a number of models would kill for...”
“Please don't use expressions like that, changelings literally will murder each other for things they want.”
“Oh, sorry dear,” the white mare gave a light cough and continued, “a shapely, yet rather large, rear, I remember when I wanted a bubble plot,” she shook her head a bit, “well toned body and arms, I suppose you get those from Spike's 'contributions',” Chrysalis nodded politely, “and a waist that's well designed for birthing, do you call it that in spite of the fact you'll be laying eggs?”
“No, queens need that particular anatomical piece because it helps to facilitate quick egg laying.”
“Oh, I suppose you don't have deal with many of the pregnancy signs that pony mares do then.”
“You would be correct, but that doesn't mean my behavior once my little ones are out of me will be pleasant.”
“Of course not darling, it'll probably be unwise to be near you for a while.”
“At least until the chamber attendants have matured enough to handle things.”
“I'm sorry, what?”
“I'll save it all for Twilight, she'll probably be pestering me about it all when I finally drop in for a visit.”
“I suppose you're right darling, will you let Cadance see them?”
“Not all of them, that would take far too long. Months at the very least, I probably won't remember the names as well as I should once we pass the two hundred mark, my old hive already had names and wouldn't stop telling me what they were. Once my little ones come along Spike and I will be responsible for their names.”
“How many are you going to...lay?”
“Since it's my first brood maybe just a couple dozen.”
Rarity's eyes bugged, “Dozen? Darling how will you be able to feed them all.”
“Kind of still working on it,” said Chrysalis with another rub of her tummy, “If we could find an extensive vein of gems that might be able to do it.”
“I thought you fed on love!”
“Love is merely the most sought after emotion, changelings actually naturally feed on any positive emotion, but just happiness or joy always makes most changelings feel like they need more, love is the most satisfying of the emotional spectrum. With that all said since with Spike's contributions my hive will have the same dietary capabilities as him, me included.”
“Oh, then we could just have them eat like any normal pony, Spike can eat anything we can.”
“Oh,” said Chrysalis, suddenly she seemed to space out and started drooling.
A light slap on her arm from Rarity snapped her out, “A lady doesn't drool where others can see her, dear. I don't want to hear what you were thinking about if it has to with your mind drawing some sex stuff.”
“Sorry,” said Chrysalis with an embarrassed smile, “it's just Spike's physique is so yummy, his muscles are just mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmh.”
“Darling I know all about physical attraction, that's what usually draws a mare to her stallion. But if that's all there was to you and Spike you would have acted like your sisters or mother and not even spent all that time chastising yourself or taken the time to try and improve relations with the princesses.”
“Speaking of which, Twilight and Cadance, still not used to hearing myself call her that, seemed a little too accepting of me.”
“Oh,” Rarity giggled, “Twilight's academic curiosity probably overruled everything else, but when she sees you she'll probably snap out of it and give the kind of response you expect from her.”
“And the other alicorn?”
“Cadadnce is the alicorn of love, she's more caring and forgiving than most. She's probably willing to forgive and forget your actions on her special day since she heard you are in love with Spike. But I'm not the authority on that, you should really as ask her yourself.”
“You have all the measurements you need for me, hope that's enough.”
“I do too darling, I just hope I have a mannequin that's close enough to your figure to work with. Putting an outfit together completely on the work table is much harder, and Celestia forbid I put it together on the floor.”
“Changelings only have clothing fill a need, so all of our attire tends to be very generic, even the 'royal attire'. I didn't start thinking about outfits in a more ornate or personal way until I got stuck with Spike.”
“A good thing too, a figure like yours doesn't deserve anything generic, especially since you are royalty and will soon be a mother.”
“What does being a mother have to do with non-generic clothing?”
Rarity gave a mock, and very exaggerated, gasp before saying, “why mothers and mothers-to-be need outfits that accentuate their special glow.”
“To be perfectly honest with you, changelings have only been wearing clothing for the past two-thousand years, before that we went everywhere in the nude regardless of circumstance.”
“What happened two-thousand years ago?”
“Larger hives started moving into regions that required an extra layer to keep us warm, clothing was found to serve that purpose greatly, of course, we stole our outfits back in those days. Before you say anything I had nothing to do with that, my egg wasn't even laid when that practice was put in place, and I never did partake in the practice when I grew old enough to partake in such things. Instead I 'stole' production techniques for clothing and fabrics, the only reason my hive managed to survive for as long as it did with little scrutiny, and no assaults against it, was because we were the first hive to actually produce clothing for hives. We had a good relation with the Silk Queen, she and her hive were especially excited when I revealed they could produce fabrics themselves, we had a good relationship going.”
“Her hive made the fabric and you refined it into clothing, but you kept everything simple to keep production costs to a minimum. Who's the 'Silk Queen'?”
“Queen Arachne, she's the only Queen I'm aware of that's older than my mother, some say she's one of the original Queens. She acquired the aspect of an unknown spider of immense size and so her hive all have spider aspects, and due to the insectoid properties inherent within changelings in a fight with other hives they would have a distinct advantage.”
“You said you had amicable diplomatic ties with Arachne, what changed?”
“We taught them how to make clothes themselves ten years before the Canterlot invasion, it was me anticipating the worst. After we taught Arachne and her hive how to make clothes they completely cut ties with us, I figured that would happen. I don't have that knowledge anymore, and all my notes on the subject are well hidden at another site.”
“I didn't expect you to be quite the entrepreneur!”
“I may not have been as physically capable as other queens, or my hive as powerful as other hives, but I was always smarter and more resourceful. Arachne's hive didn't destroy us after they got the other half of the formula for providing hives with clothing out of respect for our sharing the knowledge, but without them as a potential threat to any hives that attacked mine my hive was in serious trouble, it put additional pressure on us to succeed in the Canterlot invasion.”
“Yes well, we've all decided to put that little debacle behind us.”
“I've told Spike this, but I guess I should just tell everypony, I don't think I told the princesses this yet, but I'm glad that my play on Canterlot failed.”
“It pointed a flaw in your character you want to change?”
“Yes, a failing that to my knowledge afflicts every changeling queen.”
“What's that?”
Chrysalis chuckled, “that's exactly how Spike asked that question?” Rarity cocked her head with interest, “The failing I'm talking about is claiming victory before the final moves are made in the encounter.”
“Well at least you're big enough to admit your flaws,” said Rarity as she used her magic to measure Chrysalis's bosom valley and took quick note of what the tape said. “If everything goes well you should have the bulk of your outfits in a two or three days, the rest should be ready for you to pick up next week.”

___________________________________________

At around the time Chrysalis and Rarity started their measuring session Pinkie was acting oblivious to the fact Spike was nude at around this time, Fluttershy was doing her best to avoid looking at Spike after she had learned that there wasn't so much a mass of rags for him to make an impromptu lowing cloth.
“Nice place ya got,” said Pinkie in her usual chipper voice, “bet you could throw some really great parties with all the space.”
“Once Chrysalis's eggs hatch we'll have some changelings swarming so there won't be as much space, Pinkie,” said Spike.
“Oh, she lays eggs,” said Fluttershy as she kept her eyes away from the dragon, “how long until she lays them? Where will she lay them?”
Spike gave a chuckle and said, “a few weeks if her estimates were accurate, and she'll lay them in one of the egg chambers, those are designed to be pretty spacious.”
“Are we in one now?” Inquired the yellow pegasus.
“No, they're deeper down, we're in one of the 'reception' chambers. Basically, it's a big waiting room near the entrance,” something hit him and he said, “which way to the Castle of the Two Sisters?”
“You mean your new house we made sure to renovate,” said Pinkie, who then paused to mull over something like she was consulting a source of some kind, “a little bit south-east of here, why?”
Spike thanked the pink mare and turned to one of the walls and rapped on it a few times before smiling and beginning to dig into the rock-like substance. In a few minutes, there was a hole big enough for him to slip through with a considerable pile of earth and stone on the floor near his hole's entrance as she moved and dug the hole bigger.

*******************

Two hours later, he thought it would be longer, Spike popped up in the castle courtyard next to an alicorn statue that had been cleaned during the renovations. He smiled to himself for his stroke of genius, Earth dragons had all those great big, streamlined, muscles for effectively moving through the ground as they dug through the earth, their claws were designed to not break or chip against even the hardest stone (he suspected he could probably dig through most gemstones if he weren't careful).
He headed up to the master bedroom, which he claimed as his new personal room given the fact no one else would be living their prior to the incident that brought him to being underground with Chrysalis. He was thankful that he was lazy and left some clothes in a couple of bags, he told himself it was for quickly packing up for a visit and left it at that. He went over to his open bags and pulled out a pair of ocean blue shorts and a pink t-shirt (some stallions would say things that insisted that pink never looked good on a stallion, even if it was said stallion's natural coat, but Spike disagreed, he thought Real Guys Wear Pink because it said they were secure enough in their masculinity that it didn't matter, or could just be that he spent most of his life growing up with mares and never really developed the concept like the other guys had). He carefully pulled on the clothes before heading back to the colony, pulling the statue over his hole as he slid down into it. He made a quick dig expanded part of the tunnel for him to turn around before doing just that and heading back.
Even though it had taken hours to dig to the castle grounds it only took him a few minutes to crawl through the tunnel back. When he returned he said, “You can look now Shy, I have pants on.”
Fluttershy looked him over and confirmed it before saying, “Oh thank goodness, did you find a spare set of clothes in one of the chambers you explored?”
“He dug into the wall,” said Pinkie before pointing to the hole Spike had made.
“I Dug a tunnel to the castle and grabbed some of the clothes I had lying around,” said Spike, “on my way back I moved something heavy over the hole to make sure it wasn't found and no pony or creature fell in.”
“Oh, thanks for thinking of every pony and creature's safety,” said Fluttershy.
“That's all Spike seems to do these days,” said Pinkie, “and now he also has thoughts of getting freaky with Chrysalis.”
“I only started that line of thought a few days ago,” said Spike.
“But you did do her,” said the pink mare.
“Just the once,” retorted Spike, “the rest was just her seeing what kind of foreplay she liked.”
Fluttershy went from demure yellow to furious crimson during the entire exchange of the two, but at the point, Spike finished his last sentence she decided to interject, “Could you two please stop talking about that kind of thing, it's a little embarrassing.”
“I guess a little of Chrysalis is rubbing off on me,” said Spike, “she says that changeling queens that keep their mates nearby, which is a very rare occurrence these days, still practice the tradition of having visible sexual relations during political and social meetings, it's actually considered perfectly acceptable in their culture,” he then muttered, “and I thought she was going to be the only one acquiring habits from their partner, I guess it's because I b...” he suddenly realized the two mares were following his muttering.
“You know what?” Said Pinkie innocently.
“It's not something I can say in Shy's presence, she nearly fainted when she visited during Twi's 'examination' of my matured features; and trust me when I say that half of what Twi said during that time did more than make Shy blush.”
“It's true,” said Fluttershy, “I fainted a few times during that visit.”
Pinkie giggled before saying, “So, how about the grand tour, you probably memorized the map.”
“A bit,” said Spike, “but probably not as much as I should have, we might get turned around or lost a few times, I might even goof on what chamber we're in.”
“That's okay,” said Fluttershy, “we really should leave them alone until Rarity is sure she's done.”
“Alright,” said Spike, “the first room we'll discuss, but not be visiting due to the state of its current occupants, is the Throne Room, that's where the queen entertains her guests; and trust me when I say changelings have a different definition of royalty entertaining guests than we do. Moving on, this chamber is the primary waiting room, now if you'll follow me to our next destination, if you could keep all questions limited to any rooms we find ourselves currently in at the time...” Spike started leading the mares through the colony.

********************************

Five hours later they returned to the 'waiting room' and Spike was said, “Did you really have to ask so many questions in the egg chambers, Shy, you'd probably learn more about all the missing bits of your queries by consulting a source on insects, seeing as Changelings have several insect-like traits.”
“But they also are capable of breeding with almost anything, and in doing so undergo dramatic changes," said Fluttershy, "I mean when you bred with Chrysalis she got a similar color to you in addition to some of your physique and some of your other physical traits.”
“And when we go at it again some of my mental traits,” said Spike, “that's just how changelings are.”
“Can they read minds?” Said Pinkie.
“No,” said Spike flatly, “they can read the emotions of other beings and determine the best way to approach them based on that, they also don't feed exclusively on love.”
“Really?” Said both mares simultaneously.
Spike gave a chuckle before saying, “Yep, they naturally can feed on positive emotions, love is just the most...filling, and now that Chrysalis has taken on my properties she adopted my diet on top of her own.”
“Ooh, does that mean she likes my sweets now?” Said Pinkie.
“No idea,” said Spike.
“Spiky,” came Rarity's voice, “Chrysi's measuring is all done. The two entered the room, which caused Fluttershy to start blushing furiously due to the fact Chrysalis still didn't have anything to cover up.
“And proper etiquette says it's impolite to dress yourself, and not your special mare,” said Chrysalis in a teasing tone devoid of contempt or malice.
“Didn't know where to go to pick up your things, babe,” said Spike, “it's just a short dig to my stuff anyway.”
“Short dig?” Said Rarity, “you dug your way to the castle? In the Everfree!”
“It only took two hours to dig my way there, and few minutes for the return trip,” said Spike, “of course I went for the minimalistic approach with my clothes. Just shorts and a shirt, no underwear.”
Chrysalis licked her lips and coyly said, “What makes you think I'd allow you to continue that pointless act?”
“What, gonna make a decree that underwear is forbidden in the colony's territory?”
“Yes,” Chrysalis purred, “such a restraining article has no place in my domain.”
Rarity and Fluttershy both had their cheeks go to scarlet, Spike said, “I think you're all exempt from that rule today.”
“Yes,” said Chrysalis with more regal tone, “but upon your next return you are to...”
“I believe the current common vernacular is 'go commando', sweet stuff,” said Spike.
“Ah, yes thank you, honey,” said Chrysalis, “upon the rising of the next sun all ponies, changelings, dragons, and other visitors are to 'go commando' so long as they are within the territory that is this colony. Also, since Spike dug a tunnel to the castle in this forest, and seeing as he is technically a member of the hive, the castle, and all its grounds will now be considered part of the hive. Thanks for starting the primary tunnel, honey,” she gave Spike a peck on Spike's snout, “once the larva reach far enough in their post-hatch development we'll begin proper expansion.”
“Anytime, babe,” said Spike before pulling her over and giving her a deep kiss on the lips, and making their tongues have another wrestling match.
“And that's our cue to leave girls,” said Rarity, “come on, let's go.” With that, the three mares made their departure.
“Now, where were we?” Purred Chrysalis a few minutes after the mares had departed.
"In the Throne Room with Your Horn Trying New 'Punishments' For Me,” growled Spike as they made their way back to the throne room, "speaking of which, I've been a naughty dragon, I think my 'Mistress' needs to step up my 'Punishment', don't you?”
“Oh, most definitely,” purred Chrysalis as they returned to the Throne Room, “but after this 'session' we are heading to the castle, I want to see what we can do to make it more hive friendly.”


***********************************************************

Four days later Spike and Chrysalis were in the chamber designated as her private one. She didn't have a four poster bed like the one they had put in the master bedroom of the former Castle of the Two Sisters, which meant neither of them could really be tied down as long as they were in the colony proper. Spike had told her he wouldn't be needing the bed for long and she could claim it since after another growth spurt his mass would probably be too great for a bed, Chrysalis had never been so glad she had been born a shape shifter before she heard that.
Chrysalis was lying on the bed while Spike was over her ramming his rod into her pussy, he only agreed to return to sexual activities that involved pounding her once she had told him that the developing eggs in her were designed to be resilient to blunt strikes and the only sharp things that could pierce them from outside were probably his claws. The changeling queen was screaming ecstasy as she was once again sexual stimulated.
“I see our queen hasn't had enough 'punishment' for her transgressions,” growled Spike erotically before picking her up and rotating her on his member to face the same direction as him before he took her legs to keep her from falling on off him and squeezed her legs so hard that Chrysalis felt pain with her pleasure as the Spike's claws barely penetrated her epidermis. He then rammed her into the wall as he continued to nail her and roughly pounded the dark violet mare.
Chrysalis said nothing as Spike continued to pound her. Spike's long tongue caressed her neck and before gently wrapping around her chin and turning her moaning face before diving his tongue into her mouth a split second before a sensual kiss with her, their tongues once again dancing in their own erotic embrace. He continued to push her against the wall as her hips gyrated on his hips. Another load spurted into her womb, which over the past few days had actually changed to be larger (the pleasure from the change that night had knocked her right out for what seemed to her to be hours). Spike then threw them both on the bed with him on top, while they were still kissing (keeping her her entire lower half of the bed). After removing his hands from her legs as impromptu supports he started spanking her just rough enough to leave light pink marks that indicated where his hands and struck her plot, Chrysalis moaned erotically the entire time.
Spike broke from the throws of passion, pulling away from Chrysalis out of a force of habit more than anything else, causing one last great moan to escape Chrysalis's lips as she opened her eyes to see why her lover had broken their erotic embrace. A puff of dragon's fire forming a scroll gave her the answer she needed. “Looks like your new casual wear, formal wear, and sleep wear is ready,” said Spike after scanning the Scroll, “Rarity would like to know where you want to meet to pick up your things.”
“Tell her I'll meet her at the castle, it's less hassle than her coming into the colony proper. Tell her to just to bring a small armful of casual clothes, I'll get dressed and join her on the return trip to Ponyville, figure I'll get as many things out of the way as possible as soon as possible.”
“That's probably for the best,” said Spike.
“And you really need to work on your bedroom assertiveness, your erotic talk is fine, but your execution is horrible.”
Spike gave a blush as he left the room and said, “Sorry, babe.”
Of all the creatures for me to fall for it had to be a dragon that's more assertive in his fantasies than in real life, but mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmh when he gets rough it is definitely divine, she fondled her breasts a bit, a nine-hour marathon of rough pleasure is always going to be appreciated by me, and the best part is I only feel sore for a handful of minutes before we can get right back at it. I am so glad he keeps a 'small' stash of gems at the palace, feeding him would be difficult under the circumstances. She snapped out of her thoughts when she felt a large mass of her saliva fall on to her breast, I should probably clean up, it  would the polite thing to...when did I start thinking like that? I never considered the polite thing do before now, did I? I always considered the most effective and efficient way to do things. Oh, some of Spike's personality traits crossed over and are already asserting themselves, well better head for that shower now, I need to clean up after a hot night of sex, how is it that I managed to get a total of seven hours of sleep between noon yesterday and now? No, wait, it's just the energy I gained from Spike's love defusing into body's physical regulating system. I am going to be spending so much time with Twilight, it'll be fun to compare notes with somepony who shares a sense of intellectual quandary. I can't believe I sent that note to Twilight saying where I hid my notebooks, I told her not to read them,but chances are she's already trying to, good thing I wrote them in code and embedded a cipher spell into the ink of almost every entry before it dried. 
Chrysalis headed for the restroom and started her shower, the warm water caressed her form as she let it wash over her and after a minute of just enjoying the feel of the water she used her magic to bring up the soap and work up a fine lather all over her body before putting the soap away and letting the water rinse the suds off of her body, she would have used shampoo or conditioner if they were present in the room as well, she thought about how to remedy that, then blinked a few times when she realized the old her wouldn't have really cared about such things.
After taking her time to make sure she was fully dry, something that was at least still a hold over from her old self, she left the room.
“Hey,” said Spike as he caught her in the hall, “I sent that note to Rarity, she'll see you in a few hours,” he took a quick whiff of the air, “you bathed, guess that means you're heading to the castle.”
Chrysalis nodded and gave him a peck on the cheek before heading to the tunnel. “Good to hear,” said Spike as she left, “I'll see you in Ponyville, Twi said she needs my help with something.” She was thankful that Spike had considerably more mass than her, 'in all the right ways', so her movement through the tunnel only slightly undid her work to clean herself, which surprisingly caused her to be irritated.

********************************

It had been almost four hours since her arrival to wait at the castle, in that time she had done a little additional exploring. She didn't find anything of interest, except the traps in the castle seemed to be designed for amusement instead of security. Chrysalis found herself meditating in the courtyard after an hour, which was something she was sure the old her would never do, because for a changeling to be out in the open and not be moving usually meant certain doom, she had learned that lesson very early on from her sisters. She also used the opportunity to clean herself for a half hour in the tub (which had been specially made to hold Spike).
“Sorry to keep you waiting, darling,” came Rarity's voice, thus pulling her out of her meditation, “I had to spend more time than my client than I anticipated, then I had to decide which pieces of the attire I made for you would be best. Not to mention I had to change for a hike through the forest.”
Chrysalis saw the ivory mare come into view, this time she was wearing a dark green shirt with light blue shorts with a pair of dark pink hiking boots and was carrying three clothing bags. Chrysalis just shook her head as she wondered how so much of her prior personality had changed. Her mother had 'weeded' out her friendly demeanor only for it to kick the mean aspect of her to the curb, she couldn't believe just how nice she was now.
Once Rarity got close enough she gave a dramatic gasp and said, “You got you washed up for our meeting!”
“Twice,” said Chrysalis, “once after my morning 'special time' with Spike and the second time after I got a little dust and dirt on myself on the trip here a few hours ago. It's funny; before I ended up with Spike I saw cleaning myself off before going to meet others was a pointless endeavor, I would just clean myself off when I noticed either a dust build up that couldn't be ignored or make a show of myself.”
“Like you did at the wedding?” Said Rarity.
“I'm never going to live that down, am I?” Said Chrysalis with a wince.
“Not until Cadance formally states your transgressions at her wedding are forgiven in more than a letter.”
“She's furious with me, I know. I wouldn't be surprised if she wanted to do something drastic like make me do some demeaning acts for her or duel for the right to reclaim my innocence.”
“I'm sure she won't be that drastic,” said Rarity as she handed the bags to Chrysalis, “go try them on in private, dear, I think I found a way to make your new natural look work, I just hope your relationship with Spike hasn't given you the fashion sense of a rat, some of his early ideas of outfits without Twilight's help nearly gave me heart attacks, it turned out his fashion sense was worse hers.”
“I worked with clothing for changelings, remember, at the very least I'll only have the fashion sense of a dragonfly or cat, both of which have a sense of taste better than any rodents.”
Rarity giggled and shooed the changeling into a room before using her magic to close the door behind Chrysalis. Chrysalis pulled up a sky blue blouse with an orange dragonfly adorning the front and back (which also had open slits for her back) and slid it on after she tossed the contents of the bags on the bed in the room, she then slid on a pair of dark yellow pants with a small swarm of violet ladybugs seeming to crawl around the legs. She then tossed the rest in the bags and opened the door with her magic and walked out with bags in her hands.
“Fabulous darling,” said Rarity, “your sense of aesthetics could use some work, but at least you can go in public without looking like you are lacking some fashion sense. If you want you could change to look like a pegasus.”
“I appreciate the sentiments, but I don't want to hide anymore and would rather just face fate with some sense of dignity. The only ones who don't deserve that courtesy  are my mother and sisters, and I intend to cut my ties with them like I should have a long time ago.”
“You shouldn't say that about family, they're very important. I couldn't think of doing something so drastic to my parents or sister.”
“How many sibling do you have?”
“One, what's that have to...”
“Who's the elder?”
“Me.”
“Count yourself lucky, I was the youngest of four daughters, and was always the punching bag for my elder siblings when things didn't go their way. Things never got better between us, only worse.”
“It couldn't have been...”
“I wasn't exaggerating about my early years with my sisters when we spoke four days ago, that was my regular routine. My mother wasn't much better, imagine if you will how princess Celestia is towards you and most other ponies,” Rarity took the time to pull up what she new about Princess Celestia and nodded, “now replace her love of sweets with a ravenous desire for meat and replace her motherly aura with a vicious murderous intent, that is my mother.”
Rarity made a motion to show she was feeling ill before saying, “But you turned out so nice.”
“That's some of Spike's personality overlaying onto me, sweetheart, but there was a time in my early years that I was a friendly little sweetie, mom did a pretty good job of tearing that aspect of me to shreds by the time I was into my early teens, at least I'm pretty sure, my early years have gotten pretty jumbled over the years.”
“Oh, how did that happen?”
Chrysalis held up her hand and said, “I'll be sharing it all with Twilight, you can listen in if you want.”
“Of course, darling, let's get going.”

****************************************

One walk through the forest, and Ponyville, they came up to Twilight's castle. When Chrysalis had sputtered about how it didn't match the aesthetic of the town upon seeing the castle when it came into view, Rarity gave the changeling a quick explanation about the circumstances that led to the castle's emergence. On the way to the castle, Chrysalis got some odd looks from the town's residents, but that was all.
The two trotted up to the door and gave it a knock, they heard Rainbow's brash voice say, “I hear ya, be there in a moment.”
The door opened a few seconds later to reveal a cyan pegasus mare with rainbow colored hair in a black workout outfit and track shoes with what Chrysalis estimated to be a B cup bosom. “Rainbow, darling,” said Rarity with a bit of surprise, “I thought you were in Cloudsdale practicing with the Wonderbolts.”
“Yeah,” said Rainbow, “we were in the middle practicing our moves when some jerk sent a message that the show was canceled, we kept going until we got official confirmation the show had been canceled. Somepony triple booked some events that day and the event we were supposed to show to got axed, so here I am."
“The price of show business,” said Chrysalis, “at least you don't have to worry about the politics end of it all just yet.”
“I thought they were joking when I heard you were a lot nicer,” said Rainbow, “I also dig the new look, it makes ya look cool. You can drop the disguise when ya get in here.”
“That'll be a bit easier than you think, especially since this is my new default,” said Chrysalis.
“How that happen? Must be quite the story,” said Rainbow as she let the two in and closed the door behind them, “Rares, did ya tell her who's vistin' right now?”
“No, darling,” said Rarity, “I thought it best for all parties to have a bit of a surprise.”
Chrysalis just gave the two mares a confused look before massaging her abdomen a bit, “...are you crazy? She practically ruined the whole event,” came Shining Armor's voice as they came up on the throne room, Chrysalis sighed and just resigned herself for what was to come next and hoped no one would make a shot at her abdomen.
“Oh, Shiny, don't worry,” came Cadance's voice, “I may have sounded forgiving in my letter to her, but there's still something I need to do in order for the scales to be balanced.”
The three entered the throne room to see Twilight, Cadance and Shining Armor standing next to a set of six thrones. Shining noticed their entrance and faster than anyone thought he could he rushed over to Chrysalis and punched her in the chest sending the changeling queen staggering back a few feet before falling onto her back. “That's for turning me into your bucking puppet, and it's better than you deserve.”
Shining was in a royal guard dress uniform, Cadance was in a blue dress with an open back. Twilight was wearing a dark orange blouse with forest green pants.
“You're right,” said Chrysalis as she returned to a standing position, “you can keep hitting me until you feel better, I won't resist or fight it, although I will guard against shots at certain areas, more out instinct than some sense of preservation.”
“Weren't expecting that, were you Shiny,” said Twilight with a grin, “turns out when Changelings breed with other creatures they take on some of their traits. Do you remember who she had sexual relations with?”
“Your dragon assistant, Spike,” said Shining, “that's why she has the purple exterior and different wing design.”
“I also got some of his personality traits,” retorted Chrysalis, “if I hadn't I would have foregone the clothes and done everything in my power to prevent you from striking me, I do have similar physical properties to him now, that includes the strength and claws. Basically, as I am now you could consider me a changeling/dragon hybrid.”
“That explains the lack of flying into the wall,” muttered Shining Armor.
At this point Cadance sauntered over to Chrysalis and slapped her face before fixing the changeling queen with a stern look on the face before evenly saying, “That was for nearly ruining my relationship with Shining Armor,” she then gave Chrysalis a peck on the cheek, to the surprise of everyone in the room, “and that's for being big enough to face whatever punishments we had in store for you,” she took a glance at Chrysalis's abdomen, “how are the little ones coming?”
“Should be ready for laying in a few weeks,” said Chrysalis, this earned her confused looks from everyone in the room.
“Maybe you should start from the beginning,” said Twilight, “let's get comfortable in the library and I can get my note taking materials, I have Spike in there trying to decipher your notebooks.”
Chrysalis smirked and said, “I have cipher spells on them, only I can read them,” they all headed for the library, “no matter what code you use to try breaking them the spell will make any translation come out utter gibberish, especially if you try to crack whatever code you think the books gave you after you got through the first code. I admit some of my earlier journals might have you getting some of the words right, but that's only because I cast the unrefined cipher spells on them when I was still very young. I found out about them, but never found any instructions on how to cast them so I had to generate my own.”
Twilight twitched, Cadance and Shining gave each other looks that told that they knew what was coming next. “You know a spell that lets you hide information in plain sight?”
“Four actually,” said Chrysalis as she settled into a chair, “but you want to learn about changelings and my history, I'll touch on cipher spells when I do that. I would be more than happy to teach them to you later on. Huh, that is definitely something the old me would never do, guess it's the traits that Spike passed on to me doing that.”
Shining groaned while Twilight and Cadance giggled. Twilight floated several blank notebooks, quills and ink wells over to her and set them down on the table next to her. Chrysalis looked around a bit and noticed an array of Daring Do poster that dotted the walls.
“First thing in this learning experience,” said Twilight as her friends filed in and took seats that made them feel comfortable. “How were you different from other changeling queens before you ended up breeding with Spike?” Embarrassed looks could be seen on the faces Fluttershy and Rarity.
Chrysalis chuckled and said, “Going right for the deep end I see, the short answer is my mother made a few adjustments to me when she turned me into a queen.”
“Turned you into a queen? Care to explain that one for us,” said Cadance.
Chrysalis took a deep sigh, “Changeling queens lay egg sacks that each contain a singular changeling, now usually the chemical mixture that the developing changeling is floating within, kind of like a foal in amniotic fluid for ponies, determines what kind of worker a changeling will be, and even their gender to a lesser extent. Changelings hives usually have a twenty to one ratio, by the way, one male for every twenty females. Although in rather amusing, maybe ironic, twist changeling males are more docile than the females, which are usually highly aggressive towards anything that is not of their hive. Anyway, queens can use their magic to change the chemical composition to guarantee a certain kind of changeling hatches from a specific egg sack. However to make a queen they need to inject a certain chemical mix into the egg sack, my mother added a bit more than that when she injected the queen chemical mixture into my sack, but it had a few side-effects she didn't like.”
“Where does the queen keep the queen chemical?” Inquired Twilight.
“Near the tip of the horn in a special chamber that only responds to a specific magic signal that is specific to the changeling.”
“Oh I see...did you say, changeling? The queen isn't the only one with the feature?”
“In the early days of the changelings the loss of the queen was always an inevitability, in those days hives were under far more danger than they are now, so as a fail safe we adapted the property of having every changeling be able to turn an egg sack into a new queen, although for worker changelings that will likely result in giving their life for the hive, you could call it an evolutionary holdover.”
“Fascinating,” said Twilight as she jotted it all down in one of her notebooks, “so what was the extra addition your mother made to your egg sack?”
“She increased the level of the chemical type for intellectual capacity, but the cost of the change was the chemical responsible for aggressiveness was diminished along with some of the chemicals responsible for some minor physical traits. When I came out I had brighter eyes and my carapace was less lustrous when compared to my sisters. I was an inquisitive and friendly little larva. Mom liked the inquisitiveness, hated the generally friendly nature, in her opinion a changeling should never be that 'nice or sweet', in all honesty, it was probably more like I was a curious pony foal in a changeling body. By the time I was fifteen mom had managed to 'weed' all the nice out of me, but I still lacked the aggression or ambition of my sisters. I was physically inferior to them, and they never missed an opportunity to 'demonstrate' that sort of thing, but mentally I was superior to them. I took to my magic studies much faster and more efficiently than them, all games of strategy I came out on top, even games like hide-and-seek I proved to be better at, all because those games were far more cerebral than everything else. However everything has a trade off, my carapace was slower to strengthen itself, thus my shell was rather soft for the first three decades of my life, and my ability to heal was slower than that of my siblings, what took them a couple of hours to get over took me almost a week to heal.”
“What was your mother trying to do? Make a better changeling?” Said Shining Armor.
“Yes,” said Chrysalis flatly, “if it had been my mother or any of my siblings instead of me as the cause of your wedding being disrupted chances are Canterlot wouldn't be standing now and the majority of Equestria's pony population would be comatose while what was left of those that fled would be meeting varying results against their opponents. Vespa is particularly ruthless and her wasp aspects mean that her hive can sting anypony into paralysis or death, Culicidae would probably have ended up drinking all the alicorns dry, and I don't mean their special stock,” everypony in the room shivered, “fact of the matter is that I was your best case scenario when it came to a changeling invasion, and due to changeling etiquette, which might as well be a joke most of the time, states that after an attack movement is made no other queen can issue the same attack plan regardless of the original attempt's outcome, it's more of an unwritten law of the changelings, it has more to do with pride than politics, only the queen that made the original attack attempt can repeat, and since failed attempts tend to lead to the extermination of a hive by other hives that can sometimes prove difficult. In short, my failed play on Canterlot actually saved Equestria from further changeling attacks.”
“And now you're turning over a new leaf trying to become an official Equestrian citizen, and trying to take steps so your new hive is also that sort of thing,” said Rainbow Dash, “I'm cool with all that, but I still want to deck ya, but since this is Twi's house I've been holding myself back.”
“Shining Armor decked me the moment he saw me,” said Chrysalis, “if it will make you feel better I'll let you deck me as well, just avoid my gut.”
“Um, why?” Asked Rainbow.
“It's where the beginnings of her new hive are growing, darling,” Rarity, “and just a reminder, in case you didn't hear or forgot, Spike's the father.”
Chrysalis nodded and rubbed her abdomen again, “I was called the defective queen growing up, all because I seem to have the inability to grow a hive without a mate.”
“Care to explain how that works,” said Twilight with a curious look at Chrysalis.
“Changeling queens usually have the ability to grow their hives without a mate, we typically only mate with other creatures to add in additional aspects to give our hives properties that aren't found in other hives, my sisters had all done that by the time I was around twenty years old, but for some reason I could never bring myself to partake in the practice, it's one of the reasons I was constantly called a failure of a queen. Despite their apparent superiority with new aspects, it was my cunning that saved me from them, I had an amicable relation with one of the major hives, which is why they couldn't just try to destroy my hive outright.”
“Who was that?” said Twilight with a vested interest.
“She called her 'Queen Arachne',” said Rarity.
A gasp was heard in the direction of the door.
Chrysalis seemed to be oblivious of the gasp when she said, “Yes, but our agreement came to an end when I gave her the other half of the recipe for making clothes.”
Celestia's voice came through with a tremble, “You had an alliance of agreement with Arachne, one of the most terrifying changeling queens to exist?”
Luna's voice then followed up, “How fortuitous that your ties with her are at an end.”
“We never had any ties, to begin with,” said Chrysalis, “just some string on the table that was arranged to look as so, that's how most changeling alliances are. She's the only one my mother, Queen Cicada, is truly afraid of.”
“Cicada? I thought she was brought to an end centuries ago,” said Celestia, “Luna and I displayed why it was foolish for her hive to challenge us by turning most of her army into brackets and blocks of ice.”
“Unfortunately such displays of power are not intimidation to Changeling Queens,” said Chrysalis, “I'm the only queen that hasn't seen her hive as completely expendable, every other queen has the mindset of 'I can just make more' when it comes to their hive, keep in mind most of a changeling hive is usually the children of the queen.”
“Wait,” said Applejack, “yer sayin' thair all some kinda really big family, an' most queens don't really care whut 'appens ta thair children?”
“Basically, yes,” said Chrysalis, “but because of my inability to develop new changelings independently, and my more caring nature, I built up my hive with all the children my siblings cast away, my whole hive was composed of my nieces and nephews. When my offspring finally come along I'm going to make sure I never toss any of them aside,” she rubbed her abdomen a bit, “they're all going to be my greatest achievement, I'm finally going to experience what is like to be a mother. I know it will be hard work, especially since by this time next year I'll probably end up bringing forth a few hundred new changelings.”
“Hundred?” Came Spike's surprised voice, “I'm going to be the father of hundreds of hybrid changelings?”
“Maybe a few thousand, honey,” said Chrysalis, “it takes a lot to keep a hive going, but from what I've been able to glean from the layout of the current colony it can a hive around fourteen hundred changelings at most, to keep things more economical I'll try to keep things to around half that many in the number of active changelings,” the ground shook as the sound of Spike fainting and hitting the floor reached them, "he's probably overwhelmed with all the names the little darlings will be needing, every one of my changelings needs a name, it's a quirk of mine.”
“Wait,” said Twilight, “you said naming your changelings is 'a quirk'? Care to explain that one.”
“Oh, well,” Chrysalis started to blush a bit, “queens usually only name their offspring that are queens, the rest get a very sterile number as their designation like 'number fourteen of brood one hundred thirty-nine', but every queen has a little quirk that lets you know something about her hive. My quirk was seeing all fourteen thousand of my hive's members as individuals, so each got their own name.”
“Fourteen...thousand?” Squeaked Fluttershy, “you had a lot of nieces and nephews.”
Chrysalis gave a despondent look and in a crestfallen voice said, “most of them didn't survive the purge as we escaped the changelings of the other hives, we were whittled down to a few hundred when we built our colony in the badlands. Now they're all gone, not one of the changelings I called my true family remains,” she started crying.
“I think I we've learned enough on that subject for now, we clearly went down a line of dialogue that upset her, and who knows what that could do to her offspring.”

***********************************************

It was three hours later and the only ones left the library were Chrysalis, Celestia, Luna, Twilight, Rarity, and Cadance. Rarity floated over a cup of warm herbal tea to Chrysalis. “I don't know about changeling children darling, but for pregnant mares, it is advised to avoid anything with caffeine, so this is just a simple herbal blend I found that helps to calm the nerves without the added kick of that dreadful chemical.”
Chrysalis took the cup in her hands, feeling the warmth and said, “Thank you, touching on still fresh, painful memories is hard on me.”
“From the way you distinguished yourself from other queens, as deplorable they truly are,” said Luna, “you've more than proven it was all for what you thought was the best. Although, I am curious why you chose to Canterlot as your assault point.”
The mare's all looked at Chrysalis, Cadance had a hint of displeasure in her voice when she said, “Yes, why did you choose the city and my wedding as your attack points?”
“One, I never intended to disrupt any royal weddings,” said Chrysalis, “I had been planning my assault for almost twenty years before I heard about your wedding plans two years in advance, I chose to ignore it in favor my original plan at he time, didn't even entertain the idea of crashing the wedding, but then I got wind of it a few months in advance that it was really happening, and after I heard who some of VIPs were I did a rushed alteration of the original plan. It was sloppy, I am not afraid to admit that, especially since I was working on incomplete information, something I thoroughly despise.”
“Wait, what was the original plan?” Inquired Cadance.
“My information network caught wind that Princess Celestia was having a new complex dedicated to the history of all of Equestria's citizens, the original plan was after the plans neared completion and the call for workers for the complex went out we'd fill the bulk of the work force and add in our own special compartments, then when the love of the citizens was reaching its zenith at the dedication ceremony we'd spring from our hidden chambers and reveal ourselves within the crowd after I cast a spell would only keep only the strongest of wills from being oblivious to the fact we had presence there, we'd force the Princess to confront us in what would appear to be an unflattering light causing the crowd to lose faith and love in her and have an increased sense of love and admiration for us after she had been driven off we'd feed of the surge of love and admiration that crowd had for us. Just my luck that I got word the whole project got scrapped the week before the wedding, that put added pressure on my hive since crashing the wedding was originally just supposed to be a side project that would hopefully drive an added need for a show of solidarity to the nation, but instead us crashing the wedding  became the invasion event. The main reason I went a power crazy after besting Celestia in a battle of magic,” she shot the ivory alicorn an apologetic smile, “was because I had never experienced anything like that before, in a battle of raw power duking it out my sisters won every single time and defeating one of the few ponies my mother said she was wary of kind of went to my head a bit faster than it should have.”
“Okay, that might not be forgivable, but at least it's understandable,” said Celestia.
“Why do you keep calling Spike 'honey'? That just confuses me,” said Twilight.
“I honestly don't know,” said Chrysalis, “it just feels like something I should do.”
“I've avoided your dreams thus far,” said Luna, “it has more to do with the distinct properties of changeling hives, but with your permission We would like to take a look your dreams, and perhaps the truth of your history through your memories.”
“I have no problem with that, if Twilight had suggested copying my memories to everypony here I would worry for their sanity, seeing as it's over a thousand years worth of memories, some of the more recent ones are very intimate. I would not want to subject Twilight to any memories that could cause issues with her and Spike, seeing as they view each other as siblings. The only ones I would know that can surely handle over a thousand years worth of memories are Princess Celestia and Princess Luna.”
“Oh, that's actually a good point,” said Twilight, “could we compare notes on some things, at least for now?”
“I don't see why not,” said Chrysalis floating over one of her notebooks from where Spike had been, she smiled and said, “this is the notebook from when I did my early observations and theories on dragons, it needs some updating since I gathered some wondrous new data,” she licked her lips seductively and continued with “mmmmmmmmmmmh, yes such wonderful data.”
Twilight gave a little blush and said, “I hardly think the bulk of information gathered on my little brother would be applicable in an academic setting,” she floated down one of her books on dragons, “let's first compare your observations to those of officially recognized authorities on the subject and see what lines up and then we can enter into a discussion about how you and the experts came to your conclusions.”
Luna, Celestia, Cadance and Rarity rose from their chairs without a word and began to leave the room, it seemed that Twilight and Chrysalis would be at it for a while.


***********************************

Six hours had passed since the two had apparently entered a geek zone, Dinky just went about reorganizing Twilight's calendar without a word when she noticed Twilight and Chrysalis deep in discussion, and both seeming to enjoy their moment of bouncing theories off of another intellectual. When Flash returned home and noticed the two were having a moment he just huffed a comment about mares and went to the dining hall and told the kitchen staff to make him three large pots of coffee and get him a really big mug. Flash had returned home at hour four of the intellectual moment.
Twilight and Chrysalis trotted into the dining hall to indulge in a late night snack after they noticed the time. “Hi, my darling shield,” said Twilight with a peck on Flash's cheek.” The blue nightwear clad stallion gave a little smile.
“No, you're not getting any,” said Flash, “I specifically told the kitchen staff to not give you any kind of coffee and only serve you teas that Rarity authorizes.”
Twilight gave a pouty face, “Come on honey, just a sip, I just need to be up for a few hours to compare notes.”
Not even meeting Twilight's gaze Flash said, “That tactic stopped working three years ago, magic girl.”
“Why isn't Twilight allowed any of the described beverages? Does she abuse them?” Inquired Chrysalis.
“Well, Twi does have a history of abusing 'pick me up' type beverages,” said Flash, “but the real reason is Twi and I learned she's now carrying our foal as of two days ago.”
“I'm barely a month along, or at least that's what the doctors say, and their medical spells can tell the development of my baby better than several of the latest machines.”
“Spike's in his old room, fast asleep,” said Flash, “go cuddle your dragon already, he probably feels neglected because you spent hours talking academic stuff with Twilight.”
Chrysalis just nodded two the two and said, “How do I get to his room?”
“Up the stairs to the residential level,” said Twilight, “sixth room on the right, if you get confused just look for door with gems and dragon fire carved into it.”
Chrysalis dashed up the stairs, after the sound of her ascending the stairs seemed to end Flash said, “Okay, the kids are tucked in, the staff is will be tucked in within the hour and we're all alone for a few hours, what do you want to do first?”
“Let's start coming up with names for this darling,” said Twilight with a few taps of her tummy.”
“I'm not getting any bed action until the baby comes along, am I?”
“I had my suspicions, and wanted to wait until a bulge that couldn't be explained as fat made itself known, but you had to push for a doctor's visit,” said Twilight with a teasing voice, “the least I can do is show you what it's like when the mystery is undone.”
Flash sighed and said, “If it turns out to be a colt how about...”

***********************************

Chrysalis awoke to Spike's embrace with their faces mere inches form each other, his tail wrapped around her legs. He was facing the ceiling with her on top with his member sunk into her vagina yet again, she hadn't really done more than stick his 'sword' in her 'scabbard', it wasn't any fun with one-half of the partnership lacking enough consciousness to give some manner of response that didn't seem to be automated.  She blinked a few times before using her magic to gently ease Spike away from her, she slipped on her clothes from the day before (a crime in Rarity's opinion) and made her way to the entrance (which was where she had left her bags with the clothes Rarity had crafted for her). Chrysalis grabbed a blue shirt and white pants from the bags and headed to bathroom to shower.
As she let the warm water caress her she searched for the soap and worked up a good collection of suds all over her body, she then found the shampoo (which was also conditioner and scented like roses) and worked up fine lather in her mane and tail. After rinsing herself off, the feel of cleaning herself was more exhilarating than she thought, she thoroughly dried herself off she pulled on her fresh clothes, a pair of navy blue shorts and a forest green shirt, and came down the stairs to see Fluttershy at the foot of the stairs, the pink maned yellow pegasus was in a sky blue shirt t-shirt and a forest green skirt with three pink butterflies near the hem.
“Oh, Fluttershy, are you looking for Twilight or Spike? I know Spike's not up yet, I don't think Twilight is either.”
“Um, actually,” said Fluttershy, “I'm here to see you, also Rainbow's outside waiting to deck you.”
“I told her she was free to do so,” said Chrysalis, “to be fair I deserve worse, regardless of what drove me to those actions twelve years ago.”
“You're going to be a mother, you even admitted you already think you might be carrying, you shouldn't subject yourself to such punishments.”
Chrysalis smiled as she came up next to the yellow pegasus, “I know your heart always seems to find the right place, but the egg sacks I lay are designed to take more punishment than whatever ms Rainbow Dash can throw my way.”
“Yes, well her husband is probably waiting to give you a little extra roughing, he's a Wonderbolt as well.”
Blinking a few times Chrysalis said, “I heard about her marriage to Soarin, they make a cute couple. Before you say anything, my hive didn't send any of its members to attend that event, I considered it and shot down the act.”
“Um, why?”
“I learned from the Canterlot wedding that if any of your friends or you were in attendance at he wedding, which was highly likely seeing as it was one of your closest friends getting married, then some of you would try to be on alert member of my hive and we couldn't take the chance that one of our diminished hive were discovered before they gathered enough positive emotional energy to dispense amongst the hive. After all, we left a very poor, if somewhat accurate, impression regarding changelings. I told you all yesterday that my hive was a best case scenario, that wasn't an exaggeration.”
“I suppose, you said you had three older sisters, but you only named two of them, who's the third?”
“Nymph,” said Chrysalis flatly with hint of irritation.
“Her name doesn't sound all that frightening.”
“She bred with a water monster of some kind, I still don't know what it was supposed to look like or what was called, all I know is she came back blue. Nymph is regarded as the most beautiful of us, so much so that my sisters and mother have claimed that no matter the species they are entrapped by her beauty. She's a vicious menace to anything in the water, period.”
“Oh, um, is her coat color like Rainbow's?”
“No, Rainbow has a much lighter coat,” the sound of a door opening and slight chastisement from Applejack to Rainbow was heard, Rainbow gave a rather shallow retort.
“Oh, how much lighter?”
“Rainbow is the sky, a graceful beauty few can obtain and many admire. Nymph's coloration is a deep blue, she may look pretty from afar or close up, but her callous and vicious personality always bleed through in her voice no matter what form she takes. She's about as far from Rainbow as you can get, ugly as sin on the inside with a case of chronic backstabbing disorder and willingness to sell anyone else out if she thinks it could give her an edge.”
“What's your honest thoughts on Rainbow, now that being with Spike has changed you for the better?”
“She's beautiful on the inside and outside, loyal almost to a fault, but only to ponies she believes earned it. To her loyalty comes with trust, if she can't trust you how can she have loyalty to you? I probably haven't done anything to earn her trust or loyalty, it will probably happen in time, but chances are it will be weeks or months before she places that kind of faith in me.”
“Well said, suguarcube,” came Applejack's voice, “sorry uhbout listenin' en, Ah usually don't okay eavesdroppin', but en this case Ah thought et might be worth et.” The orange mare came into view wearing blue jean shorts and a red plaid shirt with her signature stetson. Beside her was Rainbow Dash in a dark green two-piece athletic outfit.
“I heard Rainbow open the door to eavesdrop on us, and your little 'whisper-shout' debate,” said Chrysalis, “I don't mind too much, besides that's how I had my hive basically operate, there will be changes when the little darlings finally come along.”
“Ah heard ya yesterday, a few hundred little ones, ya 'ave designs on uh big family.”
“By changeling standards, it's actually kind of small, it is quite common for hives to have populations that exceed two-thousand individual members.”
“What's the largest hive your aware of?” Inquired Rainbow, “I'm still gonna deck ya for the wedding, but at least it won't be as bad as the next set of changelings that show their sorry flanks here.”
“That would be my mother,” said Chrysalis flatly, “with a total hive population of three hundred thousand nine eighty-six the last time I checked her hive requires multiple colony sites to function effectively, and yes she sees every one of those changelings as fodder for her ambitions. The next largest is Arachne's hive with a little over twenty-thousand individual members as of my last check.”
“Oh, that is a lot of flanks ta bust up, even if I did move at max speed I probably wouldn't get a chance ta deck your old lady, huh?”
“Basically,” said Chrysalis, “if you want to hit me then hit me already.”
“Et's not polite ta hit tha guest uh a princess en 'er home,” said Applejack sternly.
“Yes, well you have to forgive my lack of understanding on that part,” said Chrysalis, “I'm aware of that particular ethic, but such things are a bit foreign to changelings. We'll observe and respect the policies like that, but we just don't fully understand that sort of thing. Believe it or not it is actually perfectly valid for a queen to get hit in her own throne room, with numerous attendants, of course it's also perfectly acceptable for the queen to partake in open acts of intimacy in the throne room, that are probably left behind closed doors.” Fluttershy and Applejack blushed a bit at this revelation, Chrysalis continued, "the fact is changelings have a lot of very open ended rules because of the potential traits that they pick up from their mates,  most of which are either left alone after they got the queen pregnant or have her hive end said mate, to cut back on the demand for resources. Neither of those practices appealed to me at any point in my life, I made the conscious decision to share my life and hive with my mate, which just happened to turn out to be Spike. Changeling queens stopped the practice a long time ago, at least that's what I was told. Of course, my foalhood years were torture as well.”
“What were you like when you were young?” Said Fluttershy.
“I had the curiosity and dedication to knowledge that Twilight seems to have had most of her life and the sweet disposition that Fluttershy holds.” Everypony locked up as they tried to process a school age Chrysalis being nice and studious.”
“Uh, what happened?” said Rainbow.
“My mother decided to 'weed' the nice out of me and mostly succeeded before I reached the age of twenty, by that time I was a cold calculating creature that was callous to everything that wasn't my hive,  mom still didn't like that I treated my hive's members as indispensable creatures, and only further infuriated her by giving them names that denoted personality instead of the cold clinical naming that every other hive uses. A lot of stuff flies in changeling culture, but queens tend take offense to non-queens in hives having names.”
“Seriously, you can just trot up to a changeling queen in her own place and deck her?”
“Yeah, pretty much,” said Chrysalis, “if you feel the need to deck me for our relationship to move to another point then by all means go for it.”
“Well, if she insists, I don't think Twi would mind since I was told I could do just that,” said Rainbow Dash before balling her hand into a fist and punching Chrysalis in the face with all her might. Chrysalis fell backwards onto the floor and Rainbow started shaking her hand with it showing some minor swelling where it had connected with Chrysalis.
“Are you okay darlings,” said Rarity as she helped Chrysalis up with a disapproving look at Rainbow Dash.
“Fine,” said Rainbow and Chrysalis simultaneously, they quickly looked at each other and Rainbow helped the changeling up the rest of the way.
“You really do have the guts to take the licks from everypony that wants a piece of you, huh?” Said Rainbow.
“Yep,” said Chrysalis, “I was decked by Shining Armor when I got here, I fully expected that; slapped by Princess Cadance, I expected a bit more than that from her, and decked by you just now. Honestly speaking I expected Applejack to give me a good hit too, and I'm still expecting Twilight to deal out some kind of...” a magical blast hit her from behind causing her to spin a bit before falling on her back again before everypony.
Twilight trotted up in her blue nightgown bearing her mark with a smirk on her face as she said, “Glad you said all that in front of me, I was wondering when I'd get an appropriate time to show my thoughts on your past transgressions. I'm glad you want to square away with all of us, I'm sure Princess Celestia will have something prepared for you in private to show her 'appreciation' for everything your hive did at the wedding.”
“Ah'm not tha kinda gal ta go deckin' folks,” said Applejack as she helped Chrysalis up, but Ah do want reparations fer all tha backhanded compliments ya had fer mah family's recipes bein' fit fer uh weddin'.”
“How long do you want my hard labor in whatever you want?” Said Chrysalis, “You seem the type to think that old fashion manual labor is just what a pony needs to set things strait with others and themselves.”
“Well, shucks darlin',” said Applejack, “ya read me lahk Twi reads uh book. Two weeks, and ya 'ave ta sleep en tha barn until Ah say otherwise, just 'cause ya got muscles lahk Spike don't mean ya how ta properly use them.”
“That seems amicable,” said Chrysalis, “speaking of which, I was actually thinking of having some of my brood help out your farm when they mature enough, you don't have to pay them or me anything, I just want to make my hive a productive set of neighbors and helping your family out on their farm seems like a decent start.”
“Thank ya kindly,” said Applejack, “it would go a long way ta show this hive is much different than tha one ya called on twelve years ago.”
“If you want you can even name some of my offspring, I'm pretty sure Spike and I can't come up with names for all of them. In fact,” she turned to face Twilight, “Twilight, your friends and family are all welcome to give a few names to my brood whenever you want.”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” said Rainbow Dash, “you're letting us actually name some of your children?”
“Yes, but their egg sacks won't be reading for laying for a few weeks,” said Chrysalis, “then we have to wait a few months for the larva inside to mature enough to hatch, the first brood will need me their to catch them as they 'hatch'.”
“Why is that?” Inquired Fluttershy.
“We actually talked about that at length last night as part of our discussion,” said Twilight, “changeling egg sacks are stuck to the walls and ceilings because it's actually safer for them there, not only does it keep them from getting trampled as members of the hive mill about but it also helps them to regulate the heat of the sacks better to ensure the developing larva isn't so hot or cold it ends up causing their vital functions to go awry or cause death.”
“So, what did you need me for Fluttershy?” Said Chrysalis.
“Oh, um, you have some bug like characteristics and behaviors, right?”
“Yes, but most of those are now overwritten by Spike's dragon aspects,” said Chrysalis.
“Oh, well some of my animal friends like eating some varieties of bugs, but we're having trouble finding them.”
“I think I can help with that,” said Chrysalis, “after I help you with this I'll tell Spike about my new arrangement with Applejack and start working out the finer details, I suppose ms Apple wants me to start first thing tomorrow, if that's the case I'll get everything I can ready and set up for my new temporary sleeping arrangements tonight.”
Applejack raised an eyebrow and said, “Ah expected a bit more o' uh struggle, Ah guess that stuff abou' ya taking on some of Spike's temperament wa' more true than Ah thought. Ya used ta be tha proud type, Ah can tell that much, but now yer more along tha lines o' tha agreeable sort.”

*********************************************

An hour and a half later Chrysalis and Fluttershy were trotting through the Everfree Forest. “Alright,” said Chrysalis, “where have you been looking for bugs?”
“All the usual places that always seem to have lots of bugs,” said Fluttershy, “under rocks, in the mud near ponds, Froggy Bottom Bog, but for some reason I just can't find any of the bugs my animal friends want to eat, I know I made sure to only get a few and leave each place alone for a few months before returning, because bugs are animals too, just not the kind many ponies are willing to acknowledge.”
“Well, at least you have the right policy,” said Chrysalis, “have you ever trotted rotting stumps or logs?”
“Um, no,” I don't really see them all that often, and my animal friends say they don't like the smell of those sorts of places, and neither do I.”
“Rotting wood is one of the best places for insects to call home,” said Chrysalis with a smirk, “it's like a bug version of Canterlot or Manehattan, there's a lot of variety to a rotting piece of wood. While rot is seen as a bad thing with most other things, this is a case of it being very good.”
They kept going until a pungent smell filled both their noses, “I think we might near a rotting log,” said Fluttershy, “once we find it and I find which bugs are living there I'll come back with the proper tools to get a few for my flying friends.”
“Just remember that each type of rot has a different collection of bugs calling it home,” said Chrysalis as they came up on mass of rotting stumps and logs the size and width of a dining table, “and it looks like our first one of this venture is effectively a super city.”
Taking a closer look the two saw what amounted to a massive community of different sort of bugs, both hovered over the collection with their wings. Fluttershy seemed to be going over the whole assortment with a critical eye and taking mental note of certain locations within the massive collection of rotting wood pieces. They both left the forest after that and Fluttershy thanked Chrysalis for her help.

*******************************

A few minutes after leaving the Everfree Chrysalis was back at Twilight's castle and Spike was already up. He was in a blue shirt with white shorts. Chrysalis smiled as she trotted into the dining all and first saw him downing a bowl of cereal that basically amounted to the entire box worth of the food item.
“Hi honey,” said Chrysalis with a peck on his cheek, “Applejack wants me to make amends by help out on the farm for a couple of weeks, so I'll down there starting work down there tomorrow, I'll be packing everything up to get ready to sleep down there tonight in a few minutes.”
“Well, our early time of fun together had to end at some point,” said Spike with a hint of disappointment.
“Don't worry, the honeymoon will be quite memorable,” said Chrysalis with a seductive lick of his cheek and neck, “I'm sure we'll both make sure of that.”
“What about the kids?” Inquired Spike, “we'll have a few trotting around by the time that happens, right?”
“The first brood always takes the longest to hatch,” said Chrysalis, “we'll have a few weeks at the very least to enjoy some semblance of early married life.”
Spike turned to face her and said, “Well that's nice.”
Chrysalis licked her lips before his face and said, “What made you think a brood galloping about was getting you out of the extracurriculars I've got planned for you.”
“Ugh, can you two not do your pre-bedroom banter in front of me," said Twilight (still in her night gown), "especially when you both know that it will be more than a couple of days apart. Spike, I thought you at least knew that much!”
“The banter is all her,” said Spike after breaking eye contact with Chrysalis and meeting Twilight's gaze, “she just figured I opened up for that one. I guess it must be a cultural thing.”
“Can't use that as an excuse for everything,” said Twilight as she reached for the orange juice, “and I miss my coffee.”
“Hey, you're going to be a mother,” said Spike, “that should be making you happy.”
“Spike,” said Chrysalis, “she is happy, it's just that she's also annoyed that her usual habits have to be mitigated for an extended period of time, I'll probably be worse than this when the eggs are laid.”
“Thank you,” said Twilight, “somepony who explained it so everypony can understand.”
“Well, I'm off,” said Chrysalis, “I have some things that need to get squared away by sundown,” she gave Spike a peck on the cheek and was out the door.
“I didn't think I would find myself saying this,” said Twilight, “but I'm not sure if I like her like this or when we thought she was just a villain that threatened our homes.”

*****************************

Chrysalis was moving through the town on her way to the farm to work out the particulars when she nearly bumped into Pinkie Pie. “Oh, sorry, Pinkie,” I didn't see you there.” The pink mare in question was wearing a maroon shirt with cotton candy blue pants and a forest blue top hat that had her pet alligator riding on it.
“It's okay,” said Pinkie in a chipper voice, “but we really should throw you a party, everypony needs to get to know the new you.”
“I think we should give them the time to get used to the idea I'm so close and nonthreatening before we throw anything like that,” said Chrysalis, “but if you want to help you could ask Rarity to get whatever work outfits she's put together for me to Sweet Apple Acres, I have to work off the mistrust Applejack and her family have for me for the next couple of weeks starting tomorrow and I'll start spending the night where she says I need tonight so I can start things off early as possible.”
“Okie Dokie,” said Pinkie before bouncing off.
“Oh, and if you want I'll make some time for you once I'm done hammering out all the details with Applejack.”
“Yay,” came Pinkie's voice from somewhere Chrysalis couldn't discern.
After looking around a bit Chrysalis thought, If she was nowhere near me how did she manage to be so loud in my ears? After her little musing, she continued with making her way to Sweet Apple Acres.
When she arrived she was met by a yellow mare with a red mane in blue coveralls adorning an apple with a green plaid a green plaid shirt and a pink bow in her hair. The mare was just staring at her in surprise.
“Hi,” said Chrysalis in a genuinely respectful tone, “I'm here to see Applejack about repaying a debt I owe... miss, are you alright?”
“AJ said ya were different, but Ah didn't expect with tha new look ya'd also have an attitude similar ta Spike.”
“It's a changeling thing, miss,” said Chrysalis, “if the original plan of my hive had happened I don't suppose things would be this civil.”
“Why's that?” Came Applejack's voice, as she came up to greet Chrysalis she said, “Bloom, et's not nice ta stare at uh guest like that. Did ya at least intraduce yerself befer ya gawked?”
“Nope,” said Chrysalis, “so, she was one of the flower fillies at the wedding... Apple Bloom, right?”
“Ya actually remembered mah name?” Said Apple Bloom with surprise.
“And your friends,” said Chrysalis, “Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo, I believe. Before you ask, it's a quirk of mine. I did name all fourteen thousand members of my original hive, and manged to remember the names at least nine-hundred at any given time, I know keeping track of that many is a bit of a pain, but I loved it none the less. So, what's a few more names in my memory list?”
Apple Bloom and Applejack just stared with surprise, Applejack had heard it before, but she had just figured Chrysalis had exaggerated a bit on hive sizes to make things sound more impressive, now that the changeling queen was closer to her she could tell that Chrysalis was telling the honest truth.
“If Ah remember right, yer carrying,” said Applejack, “were ya serious when ya made that offer?”
“What offer? Ah hope et isn't somethin' foul,” said Apple Bloom.
“I just told your sister and her friends that their friends and family could name one of my children if they want after I lay my egg sacks,” said Chrysalis with a rub on her abdomen,  “MS Apple.”
“Yes,” said the sisters in unison, Chrysalis facepalmed.
“MS, Applejack, we have business arrangements to discuss regarding how I am to best compensate you for my poor manners twelve years ago.”
“Indeed,” said Applejack, “now whut was that part abou' this bein' not as civil like.”
“The orchestrator of the ritual that resulted in Spike and I being in my new colony grounds, a magic worker I named Spell Cocoon, initially planned on utilizing your brother as a means to regrow the hive, I told him to change the target male immediately. I had no intention of being forced to breed with a male that already has a mate, he was selected solely for his physical prowess, I would have wanted nothing to do with him even if he were not in a committed romantic relationship.”
“Well, et's nice ta hear ya got some sense ta ya,” said Applejack, “just why wouldn't ya 'ave considered mah brother ef 'e were still single.”
“One of my sisters is red, and she literally drinks blood, his color on changelings would keep causing some very bad memories to assault me. And can you honestly say you can imagine me in your brother's colors without wanting to cause me physical harm?”
“Eenope,” said the sisters simultaneously.
“Ah'm glad et was Spike ya ended up with,” said Applejack as she led Chrysalis on to the farm with Apple Bloom at her side, “he needed somepony ta help take his mind offa Rarity, and ta be honest Ah think yer matchin' 'is scales is much better than when we saw ya at Cadance's weddin'.”
“Agreed,” said Apple Bloom, “ya got plans ta marry Spike?”
“Yes, but only after I've managed to reconcile with everypony that needs it from me, and let folks get used to the new me a bit,” said Chrysalis, "I'll be meeting up with Pinkie later, I wonder what she's got planned for me, and when I do I'll probably discuss my marital plans with her.”
Applejack and Apple Bloom did a full stop before Applejack said, “Yer actually plannin' on marryin' Spike?”
“Well, I always planned on spending the rest of my life with my mate,” said Chrysalis without missing a beat, “I might as well do the whole legal end of things to minimize problems for the two of us, but honestly I'd spend the rest of my life tied to him without that sort of thing. I've told you before that I'm an oddity among changelings; if it were any other queen they'd have  ridden him once or twice and left for parts unknown, but me, I always planned on spending the rest of my life with my mate. My sisters laughed at me, saying it was a pointless act, and my mother said it was one of the most disgraceful acts a changeling could perform.”
“Sounds more like ya were thinkin' abou' doin' what ya could fer family,” said Apple Bloom, “and yah got sisters?”
“Believe et or not Bloom, she's actually the youngest of four," said Applejack, "and she's always been tha nice one.”
“Ah heard, one uh her sisters really does drink blood,” said Apple Bloom with a shudder, “what abou' tha other two?”
“Vespa would rather sting you, literally, than have any semblance of a civil conversation and Nymph is more likely to try and drown you than actually help you down at the swimming hole,” said Chrysalis in a matter-of-fact voice, "at least I'm civil enough to give you a sporting chance, and I always preferred playing games than actually doing  anything to cause any physical harm, yes I was prone to do a few things that could mentally scare some folks, but by my family's standards that was being overly nice, they always thought you weren't living up to your potential if there weren't any scars or bruises on your targets to show your progress.”
“So they like ta roughhouse, that don't sound ta bad ta me,” said Apple Bloom.
“That was when they played 'nice' with each other,” responded Chrysalis, “when they 'played' those sorts of things with me I ended up with broken limbs that would definitely land me a few nights in the hospital if I were a pony. And they said they were doing me a favor by doing all that, I was their favorite punching bag when I was your age,” she gave a mournful look to Apple Bloom to emphasize her point.
It took the Apple siblings a long moment to process this before Applejack said, “Tha' is no way ta treat yer kin.”
“That's how changeling ilk are,” said Chrysalis, “there wasn't a month that went by I didn't have damage worthy of a reckless foal, the difference being the damage to my body was a result of my sisters showing me their 'appreciation', I would have been content to just be playing games like chess or studying my spells, but my sisters would 'insist' on making sure I 'got some exercise', which usually ended with me beaten and literally broken on the floor or against the wall, my private chambers didn't even give me an offer of solitude.”
“Et's like if Shining armor was vicious and had no sense of personal space,” commented Applejack.
“No,” said Chrysalis, “that would a step up from how my sisters treated me, and to make things worse my mother endorsed that kind behavior from them and chastised me for my behavior. Now Applejack, about those arrangements.”
“Oh, righ', you'll be spendin' yer nights in tha barn until tha family agrees ya di' enough ta warrant usin' one uh tha spare rooms. But ya 'ave a debt ta tha Apple family ta pay, once ya've come close to payin' et off we'll see abou' ya payin' off some uh tha share we feel ya did ta tha ponies uh Canterlot.”
“That seems more than fair,” said Chrysalis, “I might try to shave off some of the interest I built up as well.”
“Will she really be sleepin' in tha barn? Ya just said she's carr...what did she mean by egg sacks an' namin' one uh 'er foals?”
“Talk ta Twilight abou' et,” said Applejack, “she's got et all recorded.”
“Okay, thanks, sis, later,” said Apple Bloom before she was off.
“You know where she's going, right,” said Chrysalis with a sense of certainty.
“Eeyup,” said Applejack as they made their way to somewhere more comfortable to conduct business, “now, yer duties on tha farm will start wid...”

*********************************************

A five hour lecture on what was expected from those working on the farm from with twenty-minute intermission, which involved Granny Smith giving Chrysalis a good smack and three minute lecture on respecting the efforts of others, before Chrysalis told both mares she had every intention following whatever instructions they had to the letter. That statement caught both off guard a bit, and got her a nod of approval from the elderly mare.
After the lectures, and a few discussions with the Apple family, Chrysalis decided to head back to where she left her bags to gather them, after a quick stop off at Suguarcube Corner for some face time with Pinkie Pie. She had every intention of laying the groundwork for making amends with those she wronged, and Pinkie was definitely on the list.
The moment she walked in she was assaulted by pink, a lot of pink, and when the pink cleared from her eyes she found herself holding a chocolate cupcake with mint frosting. Before taking a bite she noticed some glittering bits of purple crystal in the frosting and said, “Pinkie,  are there amethyst shards in the frosting?”
“The rest of cupcake batter too,” giggled Pinkie, “I made really big batch for you and Spike.”
“So, you don't have any displeasure to express towards me?”
“Oh, I got that all out of my system after I saw you again, yes I felt angry towards you and your hive, but holding grudge towards somepony who's remorseful towards crashing a party isn't my style. If you still didn't feel bad about ruining the party then you would meet my not-so-nice side.”
“It's okay Pinkie,” said Chrysalis, “if you feel a need to hit me for our relationship to move on go for it, but you might want to do it outside, we don't want to damage anything in here.”
“Okie Dokie Loki,” said Pinkie before bouncing out of the building with Chrysalis sauntering close behind. Once they were in an alley near the shop, but out the casual view of everyone Pinkie said, “Thanks for saying that I could, and sorry in advance for what comes next.” She suddenly pulled her party cannon from seemingly nowhere, Chrysalis was too busy trying figure that one out to actually pay attention to what followed, and blasted Chrysalis with said firearm. Chrysalis was knocked over to a laying position and when she got back up she was somehow in a pink party dress with Pinkie's cutie mark on the chest and the words 'All is Forgiven' in blue and green stitching in the design of saltwater taffy.
Looking herself over the changeling queen said, “When did you have Rarity make this?”
“I had her prioritize it soon as we got back,” said Pinkie with a smile.
Chrysalis then noticed she had still been holding the cupcake Pinkie had given her, and it was completely untouched. She just decided to not think about it and bit into the confection. She immediately stuffed the rest into her mouth and slowly chewed the sweet. For some reason, the gem embedded in the sweet had a tangy sensation that worked well with the chocolate and mint flavors that were also in her mouth. After her careful chewing and giving a graceful swallow that would do Rarity proud Chrysalis hugged the pink mare for a few minutes and resumed her trot to Twilight's castle. Pinkie giggled and thanked Chrysalis for taking the time to try and reconcile with her.
As she continued on her way back she heard Rainbow Dash Behind her saying, “Well, that dispelled a buncha my doubts about the new you. If you were the same 'queen' we encountered twelve years ago you wouldn't be trying to go through all this effort, or do that thing you just did with Pinkie.”
Chrysalis turned around to see the cyan mare, still in her black track suit, hovering just high enough to be eye level with Chrysalis. “But you still don't trust me, do you? I wouldn't blame you if that is the case,” said Chrysalis.
“Of course, I got doubts we can trust ya, your somepony who orchestrated the near ruin of Princess Cadance's wedding with Twilight's brother.”
“It's funny you say that,” said Chrysalis, “I think the princess has somehow found it in herself to forgive me for all my transgressions, which is something I certainly don't think I deserve this early on, but it looks like Shining Armor still doubts my sincerity. You and him are wary of my change, and to be honest, there's nothing I know of that can be said or done to alleviate those doubts. Now if you will excuse, me I have to collect my bags and return to Sweet Apple Acres.”
“What for?”
“Ask your friend Applejack. I'll tell you that my mother considered me a failed experiment and was waiting for an excuse to terminate me.”
“That seems cold, callous and unemotional."
“That's how changeling queens are, Rainbow,” said Chrysalis with a hint of despondence to her voice.
“And you're gonna say you were always different.”
“By pony standards, I was all of those things, my mother succeeded in making me that way in spite of my less than desirable properties, but by changeling standards, I was just shy of all of those things. I'm not going try and make excuses, especially to you or your friends, and I honestly think that at least one pony unwilling to fully reconcile with me is fair. When I was little I was more like your friend Twilight with a few hints of your friends Pinkie and Fluttershy, and maybe a touch you and Rarity.”
Rainbow stared at Chrysalis with a skeptical look, Chrysalis continued with, “If it makes you feel better I could share some my memories with all of you, but it's been so long I can just estimate my age range. A few nights ago I recalled some of my earlier days, but to be honest it felt a little jumbled, almost as if my mind had compressed certain things and focused my mind to thinking I was at around a specific age. My most recently recovered memory had me feeling like I was seven years or so, but I couldn't tell you if that was true or I was closer to ten or four years of age for some of the stuff in the memory. Truth be told I never really kept a diary or journal, or even made the effort to maintain my memories. It feels like I should change all that now,” she brought her hand to her abdomen again, “at least when it comes to everything that's happened in the past month or so.”
“You were obviously doing okay in the badlands, what changed all that?”
“Something that preys on creatures like changelings, it ate some of my hive and it's still there waiting for something to come along so it can eat them.”
“I thought your biggest threat was other hives that don't like you.”
“To an extent that is true,” Chrysalis shivered, “but there are some things far more terrifying than another queen out for my blood or that of some other queen.”
“Like what?”
“Ask the princesses,” and wit that Chrysalis turned around and continued on her way to Twilight's castle.

*********************************

A few minutes later she arrived back at the castle to see Spike already holding her bags. “Hi, sweetheart,” she said when she got close before taking the bags in her hold and giving the dragon a kiss with extra tongue action then pulling away with a little string of saliva connecting their mouths, both licked away the bridge simultaneously in the same manner.
“Okay,” Twilight whispered to Flash as she and he watched, “it's creepy enough that Queen Chrysalis looks more like Spike now, not to mention I just saw the two snorkel each other publicly like it was the most natural thing in the world, but she seems to have some of the exact same mannerisms as Spike as well. I doubt it all has to do with the changeling adopting aspects of their partner we discussed.”
“Well that energy blast you gave her this morning was more you getting some frustration out, she actually told you she was fine with it beforehand, right?”
“She said it to Rainbow, while in front of me, we haven't talked again yet.”
“You like her, I can tell. Aside from residual aggression towards her for nearly messing your brother's wedding that is. She didn't even try to mess with any of the weddings of your friends, or ours.”
“I know, but I'm still on guard with her, changelings can be tricky. But looking at her fawning over Spike with what appears to be legitimate affection just doesn't compute.”
“Did you take into account that she's probably being honest with everyone.”
“Yes, but just doesn't make sense, she's actually trying to make amends, but something just isn't sitting right with me.”
“You know we can hear you, right?” Said Chrysalis as she came up next to Twilight and Flash, “If you want you can look at some of my memories, but I guess I'll have to help you so you don't hurt yourself.”
“And have you cherry pick potential false memories,” said Twilight with indignation, “no thank you.”
“I said help, not show,” said Chrysalis, “I know a spell called the Memory Hall, it's a spell that allows you or one 'target' of your choosing to wander through the memories of a chosen entity nearby, I couldn't decide what memories you witness anymore you could decide what your dream tonight is, but I must warn you the spell has its risks.”
“Like what?” Said Flash with concern, “will it affect her health?”
“Physically, no,” said Chrysalis, “mentally or emotionally, yes. You see one of the big risks in the spell is you aren't guarded against the emotions associated with any of the memories you witness. Now Twilight, for your own safety I recommend you go back at at least a month, seeing as anything more recent than that might mentally scar you when it comes to Spike, because some memories are in fact fantasies and daydreams.”
Twilight took a moment before nodding and saying, “Will the memories be clearly marked? So I can tell which are safe.”
“Hard to say,” said Chrysalis, “your mind will shape how the hall and portals within are structured, you could end up in vast open field with doors that seem to be out of place and each bearing an icon that tells you all you what the memory relates too, or a narrow hallway with minimal lighting and doors of different composition with no indicators of any kind, or something else entirely. The point is the spell is formed as much by my mind as it is yours, although since we seem to have had similar mindsets at some point it's possible the spell will take the form that you're thinking it will.”
“Um, could you just teach it to me? That might be better for us,” said Twilight.
Chrysalis smiled and said, “it took me almost a month to learn that spell, but since you're an alicorn and have a talent for magic you might just be able to learn it by the end of the day. It seems I've already reconciled with most of your friends,” Flash giggled at this seeing as Chrysalis still was wearing the dress that Pinkie's party cannon had put on her, “let's head to the study so that I can write it all out for you and guide you through the spell's operation. Also when you cast the spell you always seem to end up in the region the corresponds with the most recent memory, usually one that is closest in terms the physical time you cast the spell, beyond that you'll need to let experience be your real teacher.”
“That's fine with me,” said Twilight, “does the spell have a built-in safeguard, or is it up to the caster when it's time to leave?”
“That's a variable I can't really vouch on,” said Chrysalis as they made their way to the study, once there Twilight used her magic to bring out a six big chalkboards complete with a handy supply of chalk.
Chrysalis lit up her magic and started writing out everything on three of the boards before turning to talk to her audience as the chalk kept going, “While the spell is called Memory Hall that's not quite accurate, it's more like a spell that lets the somepony visit nearly all the memories of anyone they want, within reason, with the gateways and their holding ground taking a form that is determined by the caster and the one the spell is being cast on. One of the spell's quirks is that just because you saw the 'hallway' of somepony one way on one trip doesn't mean it'll be that way when you use the spell on them again, much like the mind is a chaotic storm that seems to impose order the 'field' for the one entering the territory created by the spell will never have a consistent form to it, the only reason the spell has the name it does is because the first event of the spell actually being used had the caster finding herself in a hallway with gateways to memories of the pony she targeted with the spell.”
“Was it a changeling that created the spell?” Inquired Twilight.
“No,” said Chrysalis, “the one created the spell was unicorn mare almost seven thousand years ago, she created it by sheer happenstance. However, all her memories of the spell were stolen by a changeling spell collector, who then locked all memories tied to the spell itself and the spell before the mare passed on. I don't know which queen the collector belonged to, and the name of the mare was never passed on. This is one of the few spells that changelings actually have openly shared with each other, but we also have a rule against sharing it with ponies, a rule I'm breaking of my own volition as part of my attempt to make things right with everypony.”
“Wait, if changelings openly share the spell with on another that must mean it has some other faults you haven't mentioned, why would they share that spell openly? The way you said it changeling hives don't trust each other.”
“That's because you're right, on all accounts. The reason why this spell,” the formulas for the spell finished writing out on the boards, Twilight started copying them, "is because anyone targeted by the spell can terminate it at any time, usually that means you need to be aware of the spell's existence, but I have been told that on more than one occasion ponies that were targeted the spell managed to destabilize the spell in some way.”
“Can you provide examples?”
“Moving outside the casting range of the user,” one of the blank board suddenly showed an image of a changeling within a bubble that showed a pegasus moving out the bubble, “due to the almost erratic nature of the spell several mid to high range spells can disrupt it, “the boards showed a unicorn charging their horn to cast a big spell, “and to top it off if the will of the target is strong enough they'll just buck you out without even knowing you were there, to begin with,” the boards displayed an earth pony standing under a tree, “of course you also need to factor in things like magic resistance, like the kind found amongst several varieties of matured dragons.”
Twilight scribbled down all this in her notes before saying, “Actually, for a spell like this, I figured there might be concerns like this. And you're just going to willingly let me in and see what's happened?”
Chrysalis nodded before saying, “Now the first thing you need to know about this spell is...”
> The Halls of Chrysalis's Memory
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Twilight steadied her breathing, Chrysalis was sitting right across from her with a skeptical look. They had spent two hours going over the spell, and she had spent another five just studying it. If nothing else she was at least ready to give it a try, she knew that failure of a spell like this was an option, especially with all the ways she had been told it could go wrong or disrupted. She was told that when visiting the memories she would usually be a passive observer, but sometimes casters found themselves affected by something in a memory they were observing. Chrysalis had also told her that whatever ages Twilight saw in those early years were ages her mind had approximated because the further you get from the age the harder it is to recall the exact age the memory occurred.
Celestia, Luna, and Cadance had rushed over when they heard what Chrysalis had been doing, to everypony's surprise Chrysalis was actually waiting for Twilight to remove the formulas from the board. Even more surprising to Celestia was when she went over the formulas and the order that they appeared on the boards was that the spell was in line with exactly what Twilight had been told. She decided to study the spell herself, to see the full extent of the spell. Luna gave it a once over and gave comment about how similar it was to her ability to move through dreams.
Twilight repositioned herself to get more comfortable and continued to steady her breathing. A spell like this would take a lot of focus the first couple of times, but after she got the hang of it this spell might very well be something to expand on, for one thing, she could designate not only designate who's memories were targeted but also who would be journeying through them. Even with all that there were certain dangers that she had been warned of several times during her introduction to the spell, she deemed that in spite of it all the risk needed to be taken.
After calming her breathing Twilight lit up her horn focused the spell with her as the one entering Chrysalis's memories. She kept focusing until it felt like she was being thrown through a whirlpool, she had been told to expect some disorientation when entering the domain of another's mind.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Twilight blinked a bit and looked around, she was in a well-lit tunnel of some kind with a wooden door to her right. Taking a closer look she saw an image of a lavender alicorn drawn on a chalkboard, the lavender mare gave a little smile since she had been told entry point would be the most recent memories. She opened the door to just take a peek inside. What she saw was Chrysalis giving her the lecture, she expected the nervousness and excitement Chrysalis had rushing through the memory, especially when she took into account the amount of enjoyment the two of them had just comparing academic information, but what she hadn't expected was to hear the thoughts rushing through the changeling's head in relation to the memory.
She heard Chrysalis thinking, I'm taking a big risk teaching her this spell, especially since I'm sharing all I know about it. It will be worth it, I'm doing my best to change for the better. When Twilight finally gets this down I just hope she doesn't look in on some of my daydreams about Spike, they are a bit risqué in a few ways. Just focus on the lesson plan, not Spike and his big tasty musc...no keep on track, lesson first then fantasizing about that big sexy dragon, mmmh mmmh, stay on track Chrysalis.
Twilight shut the door and thought to herself, Okay, Chrysalis keeps having her mind wander towards Spike, not sure if that's a good thing or not yet. She also warned me there would be things I probably want to avoid, but it shouldn't be too bad as long as I don't wander in on her sexual fantasies or any of her memories of having sexual relations...with Spike. Twilight gave a shiver, just the thought of accidentally seeing something involving the dragon she saw as a little brother in a mature situation gave her a bit of a chill.
She wandered through the hallways of the tunnel spotting images depicted on doors of various kinds. She made a full stop and backtracked when she saw an iron door that had a thought cloud around its image, she figured it must be a dream or fantasy. The only part of the image she saw was a depiction of Chrysalis (in her classic black coloration) and Spike together, fortunately for Twilight the images on the doors were so simple that she couldn't make out any discernible anatomical features, if it were the case she'd have already terminated the spell herself and gone through the process of purging memories from her head while trying gouge her eyes out in an attempt to unsee any of it.
She pulled the door open just enough to hear what was on the other side while not seeing any of it. She heard Chrysalis's voice in the throws of pleasure saying, “...can take it, no other mare deserves to take it.” Twilight quickly shut the door with a scarlet look on her face that had managed to creep half way up her horn. It had taken almost instantaneously for her to figure out what was on the other side of that door, she was thankful that Chrysalis had been brave enough to admit there would be memory gateways that Twilight likely would probably have to skip. She then recalled seeing a door that had Spike and Chrysalis in a passionate kiss and gave another shiver, she decided that any doors that depicted dreams or Spike and Chrysalis in such close proximity meant she should just avoid it for the sake of her own mental health.
She continued through the halls until she came upon a pair of doors, one showed Spike and Chrysalis on opposite sides of the door and the other showed a lamenting Chrysalis in on her knees in sorrow with a changeling. Twilight decided to put a pin visiting those later. She continued down the halls until she saw a green changeling giving a lecture to four smaller changelings (all of which were black). She opened the door a crack to hear what was going on, “...and with this spell you'll be able to dominate the mind of any creature you wish,” came a self-important voice that sounded as if Princess Celestia had decided to become a cruel tyrant, at least that's what it sounded like to Twilight, the voice gave a similar impression to the Princess while also seeming to reflect the opposite of the lavender mare's mentor.
She then heard a vicious, yet startlingly attractive voice say, “Do we really need to know this spell? Our physical charms should be enough.”
“Nymph,” said the prior voice causing Twilight to throw open the door to get a better, revealing a bare basics lecture hall that seemed to be carved out of the walls with four young (still black) changeling queens in desks that were carved into the walls, one of which was around the size Twilight had been when she began learning from Celestia, a much larger changeling queen with emerald coloration and cold eyes was in front of a board displaying a changeling sending out beams that were making a variety of creatures (one of which was a unicorn) bow to the changeling, “you will one day encounter a circumstance that require you to force your will upon the target.”
A brittle looking hole covered arm moved up from the smallest of the young queens. The other three gave the youngest one among them an annoyed look, “Do you have to be so,” said the young queen to the right and behind the smallest one there in a condescending and highly aggressive voice, before making an exaggerated gagging noise, “pony, Chrysalis?”
“I'm just being respectful of our instructor,” said the young Chrysalis in squeaky lisp that sounded somewhere between a young Twilight and Sweetie Belle with a hint of Fluttershy to Twilight's ears, “better to be respectful than do something to direct her anger.”
“Regardless of your attempts, and the expression is appreciated,” said the green queen with freezing venom in her voice, “if you have something to say just say it, you act more like one of those naively sweet ponies than I would like. The only reason I tolerate such behavior is because your performance in class acts a good motivator for your sisters.”
“Yes, mother,” said Chrysalis in defeat, “when will we be given subjects to test this spell on, knowing how and application aren't always the same thing.”
“An excellent point,” said the green queen, “I'll be sending you out shortly to find targets for the spell, you will be graded on the quality of your spell application.”
“The quantity of victims and told impressiveness of each individual victim will affect your overall assessment of our ability to use the spell,” said Chrysalis with a vested interest, causing the three older queens to groan.
“Great,” snarked the changeling directly behind the young Chrysalis with a murderous tone to her voice, “now she'll be expecting us to come back with more than one, you are without a doubt the worst thing to happen to us.”
“Agreed,” said the other two in unison.

*************

The memory sped forward three hours and she saw the young Chrysalis coming up on a mass of large water rodents, capybara if she remembered her zoology texts right and heard the young Chrysalis muttering, “I'm so sorry, to all of you, you won't ever see the sun after today, but mother demands it, I can't go against my mother.” With that she shot forth seven rays for the seven large rodents, the began to thrash around for a few seconds before going into zombie-like trances. Chrysalis then began to make her way back to the colony grounds when a large cat, a jaguar, blocked her path changed her a few minutes later, more out reflex than forethought it seemed, she fired the subjugation spell off at the big cat causing it to stop a few inches from the young Chrysalis's face, Twilight heard Chrysalis whisper, “sorry about this,” to the big cat and continue on with it in tow surrounded by the large water rodents.
The memory zoomed forward again to reveal each of her sisters with one very large unusual jungle beast with their mother offering congratulations on finding such tantalizing meals. As Chrysalis trotted in with her catches. The jaws of her sisters dropped, and her mother smirked.
“Well,” said her mother with a hint of pride, “seems the youngest among you went for quantity and quality, she brought back some appetizers and a good main course. Chrysalis gets high marks. Leave your catches in here for better inspection and go now Chrysalis, I need to talk to talk to your sisters about optimizing their approach.
The young Chrysalis nodded and commanded the small herd she collected to move over by her mother before trotting out of the room. Once out of the room she did a quick look around before heading into the most sparse library Twilight had ever seen, it was so sparse Twilight swore it was a crime against literature to have a library with so many empty shelves while having so many occupants. Chrysalis turned around to check no one was around and watched a few drones pass by while attending to their duties before nodding to herself and going over to a tome with faded lettering on the Spine.
Twilight caught the young changeling thinking, Would it kill them to actually maintain what little written knowledge we have, I need to study up more so my sisters can't...
The sound of approaching hooffalls stopped her train of thought, and in an act that seemed more in line with Twilight than anypony else the young changeling jumped out of the library headed down to the halfway point in the hallway. She was met once again by her sisters. “Well, if isn't mom's little prodigy,” said one of the three her viciously aggressive tone, “thought you could hide from us in the place we don't like to go, guess you thought wrong.”
“Please don't make my damage too severe this time, Vespa,” said the young Chrysalis.
“Did she just say please,” said the young queen with a murderous tone, “you know that that means girls.” They all grinned viciously.
“Yep,” said the one with a vicious, yet attractive, voice, “triple, 'congratulations' are in order.”
Chrysalis gave a small sound of fright before trying to move up against a wall to prevent herself from being struck from behind, her efforts were in vain. Twilight watched in horror as Chrysalis was thrashed by her 'sisters' for almost a complete half hour. When it was over Chrysalis was broken to the point left leg wouldn't cooperate, her right arm was approaching the point of threatening to fall off, her body was covered in cracks, her wings had visible tears and her horn was so cracked that its base was dripping the green goo that passed for a changeling's blood. On closer inspection, Twilight noticed the young changeling was bleeding all around her body. A small trail of blood followed Chrysalis as he headed for some other distant part of the complex, it was at this point Twilight stepped closed the door to the memory.
She turned around and headed further into the later memories. She stopped at what looked like a preteen Chrysalis watching a red changeling queen and threw open the door, ready for whatever was next to come. What she was greeted to was a more cynical, yet still very pleasant, Chrysalis watching a red carapaced changeling fly around snatching up birds and biting into them with a sense of delight as the red changeling drank her catches dry and dropped them to the ground. Twilight and, surprisingly, Chrysalis had waves of nausea flow through them before Twilight practically slammed the door shut. Just as the door was shutting Twilight heard the much older Chrysalis, now devoid of the hints of Sweetie Belle and Fluttershy and a tone that sounded much closer to a disillusioned Twilight say, “You make me sick, Culicidae!”
Looking over she noticed an 'earlier' door with a younger Chrysalis running from an airborne yellow changeling. She threw open the door just in time to see Chrysalis get stung by an aerial yellow changeling queen with her green abdominal stripe now a dark green a few shades lighter than her mother's carapace. “Ha, nice one Vespa,” came the murderous voice, “Chrysalis always does make the bast test of our abilities.”
“Thanks, Culicidae,” said yellow queen with more of a buzz to echo in her viciously aggressive voice, “Chrysalis, you really need to work on your running, you're the slowest thing out here, and that's an accomplishment since I ate the only snail in the area two minutes ago.” Twilight closed the door to the sound of Chrysalis's sisters laughing.
Twilight then turned her attention third door, this one had a blue changeling dragging Chrysalis into the water, Twilight had a good idea and bad impression about this one. This was Chrysalis's third sister, Nymph. She opened the door to witness a teen Chrysalis getting dragged int the water and held below to point her lungs were near bursting before she resurfaced and slowly crawled out of the water of what looked like a reservoir for the colony. After Chrysalis had crawled a few feet and nearly collapsed she weakly huffed while spitting up some water, “Not funny, Nymph, I said I was heading to take a bath, not that wanted to drown the drink.”
The vicious, yet attractive, voice laughed from the water before a dark blue changeling queen brought her head to the surface and a set of guide fin on the crown and sides of her head folded back, “But you're the best little test of my abilities,” said Nymph with a sinister smirk.
“That's not true and you know it,” retorted Chrysalis as she finally got back up, “facing Culicidae with your abilities would be a far better test of your abilities.”
“Maybe, but you're so much more fun to 'play' with.”
Twilight closed the door and continued to her intended target while thinking, Well, her sisters are pretty bad, but I still doubt her mother was that bad to her. Sure her mom sounds like a villainous Celestia, but I doubt it means...was that a door with just her and her mother? Twilight did a quick backtrack and she saw a young black Chrysalis on the door looking dejected in front of a green changeling queen that Twilight now recognized as Queen Cicada. She carefully opened the door to see a wounded teen Chrysalis trying to support her broken leg and doing quite badly and from the emotions, she felt from the memory she could tell that Chrysalis was crying on the inside.
“Just walk it off,” said Cicada with no sense of compassion.
“It's not a sprained ankle mother,” declared the young Chrysalis without almost all sense of the cute and sweet foal Twilight witnessed a few minutes prior, “and even if it was that's not very good for the healing process. This is a seriously broken leg, my support structure is shattered, I need to keep it straight for at least a few hours.”
“Just use your magic to accelerate the healing,” said Cicada with little interest.
“That's more than a little hard with a fractured horn,” said Chrysalis icily while making quick gesture to her horn, which had three large fractures that were clearly visible with several smaller ones branching out from the larger cracks, “it'll take at least a few hours for my horn to be usable enough for your 'suggestion' and without my horn's magic my leg would take weeks to heal, not the better part of a day.”
“Then it's time for a trust exercise,” said Cicada before trotting over and stepping on the injured Chrysalis's leg as she coldly said, “never trust another queen with knowledge of your weaknesses they likely haven't learned of yet, and certainly don't tell another queen about the length of you healing time.”
Chrysalis still didn't visibly cry, but the pain was evident on her face as Twilight heard the thought, And now my mother has made my healing time bump down to three days. Never misses an opportunity to extend my agony. It was at this point Twilight shut the door and shivered, she remembered when she had broken her leg, and part of the practice hall, with an awry spell while Celestia was elsewhere, the moment the princess had learned of Twilight's injury, which was mercifully light after an examination in the medical wing, she had rushed Twilight to medical and stayed with her until the doctors had given the all clear. She also recalled the time she caught a cold and her mother stayed by her side and eased her worries, only leaving Twilight's side to prepare meals or get the young Twilight another book to ensure the filly didn't strain herself. Cicada, Chrysalis's own mother, and teacher had deliberately gone out of her way to increase the damage of an injured Chrysalis, it didn't matter what age Chrysalis was because that sort of behavior to Twilight was inexcusable, she knew her friends and family all had similar compunctions.
Twilight continued down the hall back to Chrysalis's most recent memories, there was a memory she wanted to check out before leaving. Once again Twilight found herself at the door that showed Chrysalis and Spike at opposing sides of the door, she carefully swung it open and heard Chrysalis's thoughts as the black carapaced Chrysalis wandered the halls and thinking, Alright, I found the throne room, some of the egg chambers, and the archive room, Chrysalis gave a sigh, Why did Spell Cocoon do this? I desired so much for my hive to survive anything that was thrown its way, and to make matters worse this artificially induced heat is going to drive me up the walls, I'm lucky it's just the first week. At least in the first week I can manage it, but come next week or the week after my ability to control myself will be noticeably less. I just hope... she started crying [Rest of what happens is found in the first chapter]. Once Twilight saw Spike give Chrysalis a tender embrace she shut the door and said to herself, “That's what we need, Spike. I'm sorry I let my ill feelings towards Chrysalis get in the way, I'm happy she's taking these kinds of risks, they're the kind she needs.” Twilight cut out the spell with a promise to herself to visit the one the gateway that had Chrysalis on her knees weeping.
When she came back Rarity was in the room(and the princesses had all left), and seemed to be measuring Chrysalis's waist area and writing down a set of estimates. “Okay, two things,” said Twilight, “one, what makes a changeling's heat cycle different from a pony's? And two, what is Rarity doing?”
Rarity stopped when she heard the first question, Chrysalis just giggled and said, “Our cycles specifically target our mates and usually can be triggered by the Queens themselves, Spell Cocoon found a way to artificially induce mine so I honestly don't know how long this first heat cycle will last, for a queen her first heat cycle usually lasts around a year, it allows us to facilitate optimum breeding conditions within ourselves regardless of the mating cycles of our mates.”
All the ponies in the room just stared at Chrysalis like she had just told them she was holding an active bomb without knowing it, “I suppose that makes some sort of strange sense considering changelings don't always know what they'll be mating with,” said Twilight, “not to mention dragon breeding cycles have always been hard to study and predict. Also I owe you an apology for my less than friendly actions towards you.”
“I forgave you the moment I hit the floor,” said Chrysalis right at Twilight with a tone of acceptance, “I knew some of you would feel the need to exact some sort of vengeance on me; you, Shining Armor and Princess Mi Amore Cadenza would be the most likely to want to enact some sort of vengeance on me, I wasn't wrong with that estimate. And to answer your second question, she's taking measurements and running calculations for my maternity wear.”
Twilight blinked few times and just before she opened her mouth for retort Rarity said, “She'll carry egg sacks around for who knows how long...”
“Three months,” said Twilight offhandedly.
“Yes well,” continued Rarity with a flourish of her mane and quick press on her elegant, violet sundress, “it would be reasonable to assume she'd have some semblance of a pregnant mare during that time.”
“Oh, I won't have what you call a 'baby bulge' until about six weeks after my day of impregnation,” said Chrysalis with an elegant flick of her wrist. The two mares just stared at her.
“And you just now decided to share this with us,” said Rarity, “you've been going at it with Spike for nearly the past week now, and you're certain you're developing little ones. That means you have five more weeks before you show, darling, I need to step up on your maternity wear.”
“I'd make it looser by about thirty-six percent than you estimated, just be on the safe side,” said Chrysalis as Rarity made her way out.
“I saw some of your memories,” said Twilight, “and thanks for the warning, but you could have told me that there would be a chance I could hear your strongest thoughts within some memories.”
“I honestly didn't consider that,” said Chrysalis, “changelings are taught early on how to block out the thoughts of others that aren't their queen, so in all honesty, I can say such experiences are foreign to me. I only did the spell thrice before, all were during my magic lessons. I could have used the spell on Shining armor or your sister-in-law, but I deemed the threat to high, also even the old me would only violate that kind of privacy if the situation were perceived as dire.”
“Which at the time it wasn't, you could easily cover up the gaps in your knowledge with a spell like the one you used on my brother, which we're both still not happy about.”
“I'd feel insulted if you were,” said Chrysalis.
“Or shifting doubt to any pony that was suspicious of you, like you did with me. That was well done by the way, and leaving the bride's maids under a weaker version of your subjugation spell to stop me and Cadance was brilliant, in a way you actually wanted somepony to stop you.”
“At the time I figured it would be more impressive for you to come back at just the right time to continue casting doubt, I figured you and Mi Amore Cadenza would beat each other up so badly you'd barely get past my easily distracted guards and she would collapse just shy of a location for others to catch on to my ruse.”
“That...actually makes a lot of sense and explains why you taunted me in the chamber just outside where you were holding Cadance, that and you initially intended for the wedding invasion to fail. Maybe on some level you still wanted it to end poorly for you.”
“Perhaps you're right,” said Chrysalis, “so now that you've seen my family, which I'm assuming you have since I have no idea what memories you actually saw, what's your impression of them?”
“To be blunt,” said Twilight, “just from how they treated you I can see why you acted the way you did at the wedding, and I'm thankful it was you that tried that ploy. You were a cute little foal that was practically the pinnacle of what any pony parent could want, which I find a bit ironic considering you are a changeling. Since you have the same basic body structure of us I'm going to assume changelings and ponies have some sort of common ancestor that's just far enough back to impart the basic body design while causing a host of evolutionary differences.”
“A fair assessment,” said Chrysalis, “what did you think of my mother?”
“That...individual has no right to call herself a mother, she intentionally worsened your wound while saying it was a teaching moment.”
“Actually to my recollection she performed that maneuver two hundred and seventeen times, and not once was she remorseful of the act,” said Chrysalis with contempt, “I have no intention of doing such things to my offspring, and when I finally decide to make another queen I'll make sure the treatment my mother gave me isn't done and instead nurture all of those wonderful properties that my mother decided to weed out of me.”
“When you finally decide to have a new little queen what will her name be?”
“I think I'll leave that up to Cadance, still not used to that name exiting my mouth, to decide, she deserves the right, considering what I put her and Shining Armor through, maybe by the time my little queen is laid he'll have few names for her as well.”
“Will you leave her in their care before she hatches?”
“Not likely,” said Chrysalis, “it's ill-advised to move egg sacks once they've been positioned. The only exception would be a rapid transit with caretakers dedicated to ensuring the survival of the egg sack all day and night until the egg sack is placed in its new location, then they would have to have somepony watch it and help deliver the larva when she hatches, I'm sure Cadance would want to do that personally since it would mean she helps form a stronger bond with the newly born queen.”
“Well, now that I've gotten to better know your family maybe we should hammer out some details for when they finally decide to 'visit' you.”
“You should get the other princesses involved in this discussion,” said Chrysalis, “but first you should begin the plans with...”
> Mare Time
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Chrysalis just stared at the massive pile of apple bushels, it had been around a week and a half since her arrangement with the Apple family. Her three biggest problems were now her mind kept wandering toward Spike in her off time, half the time she looked at red apples she was reminded of her sister and the fact Apple Bloom would pester her when the two were in close proximity about the naming offspring offer. What made things better, and worse, was Applejack's managing.
Chrysalis was thankful for the exercise, it helped her get more used to her new physique, but sometimes Applejack pushed the changeling well outside her comfort zone when it came doing things. Getting three or four trees to surrender their fruit within a time limit was well within Chrysalis's limits while pushing them, having to hall a cart full of Apple baskets had her panting every couple of minutes (it usually took her a little over half an hour to get a loaded cart to where she was told to take them).
She much preferred acting as quality control, her distinct eye for detail helped immensely here. The property was a hereditary trait in changelings, with them being able to alter their form to match just about anything that was something that made sense. She had explained it in depth to both Twilight and the Apples when their conversations that got to being around to that part of her characteristics. In fact her third day on the farm her distinct of ability was able to point out how one tree was leaning a bit to the right when compared to the other trees, it had been so slight that the Apples themselves hadn't noticed it until Chrysalis had taken the time to point it out. Righting a full grown tree was not as simple a task as it sounded and Chrysalis was thankful for her new muscles when the time came to correct the tree's position, they spent the rest of the day looking for other off-kilter trees and reorienting them, thankfully none of them needed to be bucked that day.
Chrysalis was sorting the apples, as usual, when she noticed that some of the green and red apples felt a little odd, in both her hands and magic. Taking a few of the odd feeling ones she broke them open with her magic to find to her disgust they had unwelcome additions and quickly tossed them aside and went through the whole assortment six times, a process that ended up taking three and a half hours instead of her usual twenty minutes. She was in the midst of getting ready to throw out the next bad batch when Applejack walked up in her usual attire.
Chrysalis took out two and handed one to Applejack. The country mare just gave Chrysalis a funny look that showed she didn't quite follow.
“What tha hay are ya up ta? Ya just can't throw out perfe...” Chrysalis broke open the apples to reveal the worms and beetle larva inside before tossing them in the waste barrel. “Thay looked jus' fine ta me, how'd ya know thay were bad?”
Chrysalis fished up the last two and handed one to Applejack as she said, “How does it feel?”
“Lahk et's a bit lighter than et's suppose ta be,” said Applejack, “don't feel too wrong, et's within the margin of error we allow fer all 'ur produce.”
Chrysalis split both open with her magic to reveal a pair of earthworms, one for each apple, and said, “I could feel they were off with my magic and decided 'better safe than sorry' then broke some sample pieces open and found the unwanted extras inside, so every apple that feels similar I pull out and toss in the junk barrels, as far as I can tell these are the last two, looks like a good twelfth of the harvest was infested to me. I think it's time to call somepony to clear out your unwanted guests, maybe Fluttershy can help with that. I'm surprised this happened now, I've only got four more days 'til our agreement reaches its end. You would think if I were a cause for all this it would have happened sooner.”
“This many bugs and other crawlin' pests et once don't sit right wid me,” said Applejack, “sure we get a few around this time of year, but not much as ya estimated, Ah'll 'ave AB take a look at yer finds an' crunch tha numbers, we need to know jus' 'ow much special treatment tha orchards need, and where thay need et most.”

********************************

It was almost dinner time when Apple Bloom came back with the estimates, “Well, et coulda gotten worse ef Chrysalis 'adn't spotted et when she did, good news is she's not ta blame an' we've been lucky wid our harvests not havin' any uh tha extra bits 'til now.”
“'Ow bad we talkin', AB?” Said Applejack.
“a good third uh four orchards 're infested by mah reckon,” said Apple Bloom, “Tha rest only jus' barely started gettin' new residents, we need some good pest control.”
“Some varieties of insect will eat other insects,” said Chrysalis, “and several varieties of bird and small mammal also consume bugs and worms that get too close to crop plants. So, I have to ask, why haven't any of those been present here? I heard from Fluttershy while we went on our bug excursion, you asked her to make sure all the animals steered clear of the orchard around this time of year, even the bats on your sanctuary orchard.”
“Um, yeah, et's a busy time fer us 'ere around now,” said Applejack rubbing the back of her neck, “we just didn't want any uh tha animals gettin' en our way around now.”
“you should have at least let some of the insect-eating creatures on the premises,” said Chrysalis, “they would have helped mitigate this problem to something a bit more manageable. I get it, you wanted to make sure no animals were hurt during the harvests, but your over concern for their safety led to the issue we have now. The vampire fruit bats can all get something nice to eat by consuming the ruined apples, and the bug eaters can eat what's left over and patrol the orchard for more tainted produce. You just got ahead of yourselves a little, so call Shy and the whoever is in charge of pest control and get this matter sorted out. I would recommend putting everything on hold for a couple of days just to be safe, I'll keep at whatever tasks you set for me regardless of your decisions.”
“No, yer right,” said Granny Smith, finally speaking up in her usual elderly voice, “we got a little too ahead uh ourselves this year, we woul' uh spotted this problem a bit later than this, probably during our usual quality control test.”
“You mean biting into a random apple,” Chrysalis playfully snickered, “good thing it was me that noticed this, otherwise a few of you might have ended up biting into a worm or grub. Just the thought of that makes feel a little ill, truth be told I never liked biting into anything sort of animal or bug.”
“Why ya say et that way?” Inquired Apple Bloom.
“Let's just say that my mother insisted on a very aggressive high protein diet,” said Chrysalis with notable disgust in her voice.
“So she had ya eat a lot uh beans and nuts,” said Apple Bloom not seeming to get the hint, “Ah don't see how that's bad.”
“She had my sisters and I eat other creatures,” said Chrysalis flatly, I always felt a little sullied whenever I bit into the meat she had us eating, I eventually learned to tolerate it, but now the thought of biting into some semblance of another living creature makes me feel sick again.”
“Oh,” said Apple Bloom before turning a little green, “Ah'm glad ya don't eat lahk that anymore too.”
Applejack went to check on the cooking meal that was intentionally left unattended for a few minutes before telling Apple Bloom to start setting out the dishes for the meal, Chrysalis took initiative and got out the glasses, and after gently persuading Granny Smith to just relax in a chair at the dining table also got out the silverware.
Once everything was ready, and everyone was seated at the table, they all said their thanks and Chrysalis started portioning out the vegetable soup to all those in attendance, she made sure to serve the Apples before herself.
“So,” said Applejack as they started settling into their seats, “what's new.”
“Oh, the usual,” said Chrysalis, “happy to be helping out, chasing away distracting thoughts of Spike, nothing to really report on.”
“Come again,” said Apple Bloom.
“It's a changeling thing,” said Chrysalis, “one that does not have a proper place as any sort of dinner table discussion.”
“Nice ta see ya got some conversational tact,” said Applejack, “'specially with whut ya told us all flies free fer changelings.”
“It is a little ironic,” said Chrysalis, “that a culture built around deception would be so brazenly open about some things, of course, the way I was told was such acts are more intended to be shows of intimidation. So in a way, it's more changelings like to bluster a little differently.”
“Ya mean thay lahk ta make a lot uh empty boasts.”
Chrysalis chuckled and said, “That's basically half of what Changeling politics is like.”
“Ah just noticed et, but Chrysalis don't have those holes in 'er arms an' legs anymore,” said Apple Bloom, “when 'id tha' 'appen?”
“I have no idea,” said Chrysalis, “I always thought I'd have the holes, even if they weren't quite as big as they used to be, I always figured the holes in our limbs were an unavoidable hereditary...” the small holes (which were now half the size they were the last time Chrysalis saw them) in her limbs reappeared, “trait, I'm going to have to do some experimenting with Twilight when this is over, away from Spike,” she gave sensual lick of her lips, “no matter how much I want him there, he'd just be too much of a distraction.”
“How is Spike bein' there uh distraction?” Said Applejack.
“The first and last week of a queen's heat cycle are manageable, but all the weeks in between are a strain on our willpower and trying to do other things while our biology is effectively hitting us over the head with a prioritized need for intimate time with our mate is usually a bad idea. It's why queens usually try to get everything done in their first week of heat, they don't like being distracted from their ambitions.” All the Apples gave a bit of a blush.
“Yer only ambition now is better relations wid Equestria,” said Applejack, coming out of her stupor first.
“As far changelings go I was never all that ambitious, to begin with,” said Chrysalis, “if I could get away with it I'd have just been content sit around all day reading an playing strategy games.”
The Apples chuckled and the dinner table conversation took a turn towards business and the farm's future.

*****************************************
It was the following day and Chrysalis got up at the time she always did, an hour after sunrise. After heading to the washroom to shower, dry off and throw a towel on for her return trip to the guest room she was stopped by Applejack, in her usual attire, just outside the door to the room, she was using. Looking at the orange mare with confused look Chrysalis said, “Is there a reason you're blocking my return to the room? Which I would like to remind you has my clothes in it, I doubt your family would endorse you facilitating a lack of modesty on my part.”
Applejack gave a chuckle and stepped out of the way as she said, “Yer right there, darlin', the gals an' I 're gonna 'ave a little get tagether, an' Ah'm bringin' ya along.”
Chrysalis went into the room and shut the door, as she was pulling on her clothes the muffled sound of her saying, “Why? Don't you still require my presence here?” Came from behind the door. When she reemerged from the room she was in a tan shirt and forest green skirt.
“Yer sure not dressed fer usual farm work,” said Applejack with a quick look over Chrysalis.
“We discussed the reasons in detail yesterday,” said Chrysalis, “We already threw out all the non-serviceable equipment that couldn't be applied aesthetically away.”
“Ah still don't know 'ow you managed ta arrange all tha damaged baskets inta lawn art ready ta paint,” said Applejack.
“Your sister and grandmother didn't seem to mind too much,” said Chrysalis with a wry humor to her.
“Maybe 'cause ya set up tha busted baskets as great big apple, tha' always seems to score uh few point wid mah family.”
Chrysalis chuckled and said, “You all had fun though, right?”
“Ah guess, but all ya did was bring out and mix tha paints fer tha project.”
“I figured it was a family activity, I might do something like that once I have my own little darlings.”
Applejack chuckled and said, “We were in need of an activity Granny Smith could get involved in, an' thanks fer thinkin' abou' et that way. Let's git goin', we have some gals ta meet with.”

**************************************

A few minutes later Applejack and Chrysalis were coming up on a picnic area in the park. The other girls were all on a picnic blanket with stylish cloth napkins placed where Rarity believed each attendant would be sitting. All of them were in sundresses that complimented their coats, except Rainbow who instead was in a forest green two piece running outfit designed for pegasi.
“Thank goodness Spike isn't here,” said Chrysalis, “we could have a potential 'incident' on our hands if that were the case.”
“I'm sure it wouldn't be that bad, darling,” said Rarity.
“This might sound odd to you,” said Chrysalis as she took seat next to Twilight, “but the heat cycles of changelings, especially the queens, operate differently than ponies. We never experience the event called estrus, for us the queen decides when that period of our lives becomes active. The thing is a queen's first heat cycle tends last around a year, but it's down to mostly manageable levels the first week and last week of the cycle. I'm on my third week of the cycle, the only reason I'm so lucid and not constantly talking about Spike or how I'm going to 'play' with him is because proximity to our designated mate plays a major deciding role in our interactions and choices, the closer he is the more likely I am to lose all sense of decorum and jump him so that I can 'ride' him right there with no sense of shame.”
“Oh,” said Twilight, “well, I sent him to Canterlot for a few days yesterday to find anything on Cicada and Arachne that Celestia and Luna are willing to share, based on their reactions to those names they have some kind of history or knowledge regarding those two. What can you tell us about them?”
“Aside from what I've already with some of you on her I have nothing more to say about my mother,” said Chrysalis with a huff.
“Yes, I think we've got more than enough data on Cicada for now,” said Twilight, “What can you tell us about Arachne?”
“I shared a bit about her with Rarity, darling would care to share what I imparted to you regarding Arachne?”
“Certainly,” said Rarity, “Arachne is one of the longest-lived queens, many of the hives have stories and legends about her. She's also known as the 'Silk Queen' because she managed to acquire Spider aspects and is well known for having her hive spin spider silk. Presumably she and her hive can control the quality of the silk since Chrysalis in her time before the, *ahem* Royal Wedding incident had an agreement with Arachne where Arachne's hive would spin silk fabric and Chrysalis would have her hive refine it into clothing, it was an amicable agreement that kept Chrysalis's hive safe up until her failed play at the wedding.”
“Thank you for that summary, Lady Rarity,” said Chrysalis with a dip of her head.
“Which begs the question,” said Twilight, “why did no queens make an invasion attempt on Equestria until your failed attempt at Canterlot?”
“Three reasons,” said Chrysalis, “the first is compared to the loose association of hives mistakenly called the Changeling Nation Equestria is quite young, and all the influential hives were basically bickering for centuries over who would get the distinction of being known as the conqueror of Equestria, believe it or not that was actually a debate topic among the hives until I made my move; the second reason is the fact Equestria has alicorns, most queens at the pinnacle of their strength couldn't stand up to a single alicorn and Equestria now has four of them.”
“But you managed to defeat Celestia at Canterlot,” Rarity pointed out.
“Only after I had been drawing the love Shining Armor has for Princess Cadance, whata ya know that name doesn't feel odd coming out of my mouth anymore, into myself for several days, if I had not done that or only just started the process when I faced Celestia, something I had anticipated as a worst case scenario at the time, she would have come quite close to turning me into a smear and I'd have basically divulged everything I have over the past weeks to you within days of being locked in the dungeon. I'm more of researcher and tactician, I don't particularly like the idea of confrontation when it can be avoided. I'd probably have tried making a plea bargain on behalf of my hive, which would have likely failed given the reason for me being there in the first place.”
The girls all blinked a bit before Rainbow Dash said, “Since ya got so many queens, are there any changeling kings? Has there ever been changeling king?”
Chrysalis took a deep sigh and said, “I honestly don't know, we have a legend of an attempt to make a king before the many hives we have now were formed. The legend is pretty basic, it doesn't give any names or places to reference. Chances are it was made up by a changeling queen a long time ago to try and get the other hives to unite under them.”
“How does it go? This is our first chance to hear some kind of changeling lore,” said Twilight with excitement.
Chrysalis sighed deeply and said, “Long ago, when the five original hives were all there were to the changelings the five queens came together to craft the perfect mate for a changeling, a King that would provide all the qualities the hives needed, and focus point for them have an excuse to finally fight each other. To make sure that no male from any one hive would be their king they went and found a winged ant prince and carried it to the place they all agreed as neutral ground then each poured a bit of their magic into ant to transform it into the ideal changeling male they would call the 'King', but something went wrong with the transformation. As is the nature of Queens they will undermine each other when they don't want another queen to gain power. All they managed to do was make an ant their size that could barely understand the basic changeling language, but the giant ant's body was not sturdy enough to support it and it died less than an hour later. Moral of the story, mom said 'never trust another queen with what you want' my takeaway was changeling queens seem to let their desires and ambitions override their perceived needs.”
“Oh my, that poor ant,” said Fluttershy.
Chrysalis chuckled and said “That was the same reaction I had when I first heard the story, my mother was very displeased with my reaction. But enough about me or the culture I come from, that's all we seem to talk about. This is your time, you make the decisions. Twilight, I know you have questions, but chances are you asked a similar question during our six-hour knowledge sharing session. So, Rarity, how have things been for you?”
“Simply marvelous, darling,” said Rarity, “after some of your disclosures, and dramatic change, I was inspired to develop some new designs. Oh, and you'll just have to help display them.”
“Rarity,” said Twilight, “I know you feel close to Chrysalis, and quite frankly she does seem to have a better sense of aesthetics than most of us, but I'm going to start worrying about both you if you start making your time with each other any longer than before, I mean how do think it would look with Spike's ex-fillyfriend and current fiance getting along so well.”
“I'm thinking of making her the Maid of Honor at the wedding,” said Chrysalis with a smirk.
Applejack facepalmed and said, “Et's already too late Twi, they've bonded to tha point they'll discuss jus' abou' anything wid each other.”
“Not quite yet,” said Chrysalis, “maybe in few more months. Pinkie, do you have the thing we discussed the other day?”
“Yuppers,” said Pinkie as she pulled out two wedding cake images. One looked like it was made with a generous dose of emeralds and amethyst, which it probably was, and designed to mimic the coloration pattern of Spike and Chrysalis. The other cake looked as if it were a five-tiered wedding cake with a different kind of chocolate for each tier, in addition to having a refined art to them displaying the happy couple at different stages of a happy marriage done up in a sort of edible glitter. The tiered cake had it's top show little figurines of Spike and the new draconic looking Chrysalis.
“The traditionally styled one is for everypony to enjoy, the other one is for the personal enjoyment of Spike and myself,” Chrysalis made some dreamy eyes at the cake as she appeared to be imagining something, a few seconds later she snapped out of it and said, “have any of you given any thought to whether or not you'll give a name to one of our children? Twilight, I think it would mean a lot to Spike if you gave one our offspring a name.”
“I have,” said Twilight, “and I would love to give one of them a name, I even came up with the perfect one, it's...”
“Save it for a surprise, Twi,” said Chrysalis cutting off the lavender alicorn, “I want the moment the little darling is named to be the moment we both hear it, and this way you can mull over whether or not you really want your niece to have it or your coming foal to hold it.”
Twilight gave a slight pouting face while Rarity laughed and said, “I've been going over a few ideas for the little darlings myself and I re...did you say Twilight's getting a niece?”
“Several,” said Chrysalis, “you remember what I said about changeling gender ratios?”
Twilight's eyes lit up and she said, “Oh yeah, the gender dispersion you described means that it's almost a guarantee that the first larva to hatch will be fillies.”
“The first one that looks awesome I'll give a cool name,” said Rainbow Dash.
“They're a default black for roughly two weeks, Rainbow,” deadpanned Twilight, “not to mention during their first month they usually all look so much alike it's hard to tell them apart.”
“I said the near identical appearance would last five days after they start displaying the physical traits I got from Spike,” said Chrysalis, “you might want to fix that error in your notes, Twilight.”
“Oh, darling,” said Rarity, “you just had to let Pinkie design the cakes, she usually does a good job, but the one intended for you and Spike only seems to be a little off to me.”
“Actually, I told Pinkie the exact characteristics and designs I wanted for both cakes,” said Chrysalis, “I said she could put her own spin on them, but the basic format I set out had to be adhered to.”
Rarity gave a surprised look between Chrysalis and Pinkie, it was at this point Pinkie said, “I'm also planning the reception and afterparty. She said she wants the help of you, Fluttershy and Twilight to lay out the plans for the main event.”
“She wants the three of us to help her plan the wedding itself,” said Fluttershy, “oh my, that might not go so well, remember when we offered to fix up Twilight's new castle?” All five mares that weren't Twilight gave embarrassed blushes.
“Ah take et everypony's 'ere and suitably embarrassed now,” said Applejack.
“Actually, I set this up two months before Chrysalis came back into our lives,” Twilight, “I invited Cadance, Celestia and Luna. They cleared it on their calendars for this, they should be arriving shortly.”
“So, basically I'm a last minute invite to a big get-together you've been planning for months,” said Chrysalis, “I'll leave if I'm intru...”
“That won't be necessary,” came Cadance's voice, “you're a pleasant addition.” All three of the arriving alicorns were in ice blue summer dresses.
“I'm well aware of the reports Twilight and her friends have been sending on me to all of you,” said Chrysalis, “I'd be the same way myself under similar circumstances,” said Chrysalis.
“We have done our best to respect your privacy,” said Luna, “but visit your dreams to learn your intentions had to, much to our displeasure,” she gave a shiver, “you seem to have dreams that fall into three categories, two of which have content unintended for anything within public venue.” The three took a seat near Twilight.
“Me dominating Spike in the bedroom, him dominating me in the bedroom and memories I wish would leave me be,” said Chrysalis flatly.
“Well yes, that is the family friendly version,” said Celestia, “the abuse of your foalhood surprises and sickens me.”
“I find it disturbing as well,” said Twilight, “and on another note, ew, that almost had me visualizing such a thing. Although I suppose if Chrysalis weren't serious about her affection for Spike she wouldn't be so dedicated to keeping him in her dreams, she could just as well dream about anypony she wants.” Chrysalis gave a little blush.
“It's a time of my life I try to mostly forget, the only good parts about it were some of my magic lessons. Of course I would rather forget that subjugation spell, truth be told I intended to wipe from my memory after the Canterlot invasion, but I couldn't bring myself to do it, still can't.”
“Removing a known spell is like removing a piece of yourself sometimes,” said Celestia, “sometimes when we forget a spell unintentionally it can feel like we lost a part of ourselves. Your understanding of the spell could help to create a countermeasure.”
“Thanks,” said Chrysalis, “if you want to issue your retribution on me for what my hive and myself did that you feel needs to be punished go right ahead.”
“You'll find my sister has a...unique sense of humor,” said Luna.
Looking over everyone noticed Celestia floating a fruit pie in her magic, which was then catapulted at Chrysalis's face, “And thus justice is served,” said Celestia as the contents of the pie slid down Chrysalis's face and the front of her top, a little even dripping onto the clothing at her waist.
“Blueberry-Cranberry, really,” said Chrysalis in a deadpan tone, “you just ruined my outfit, the longer it takes to get to the wash the harder it will be to clean. Fortunately, I usually like to think ahead,” she seemed to disappear for a few minutes and the outfit landed neatly folded where she was sitting and she reappeared wearing the 'forgiveness dress' that Pinkie had shot onto her with the party cannon.
“I'm sorry, but I just can't take her seriously in that dress,” laughed Rainbow Dash.
“You do know how to pull off pink well, darling,” said Rarity, “I'm glad Pinkie talked me into making that for you.”
“Outfit...stain...wash,” deadpanned Chrysalis, “I really don't have much experience with such things, especially since changelings usually have a tendency to throw out things that they figure have had their usefulness compromised in some way, I can not tell you how many stained outfits I saw when my hive was the primary source of clothing for changelings.”
Rarity gasped dramatically and rushed off with the stained outfit, “Was that necessary?” said Twilight, “also how did you get the dress here, I get that you used an invisibility spell, but what was the other spell you used?”
“Probably not, but I really do want to make sure the outfits Rarity has been giving me are treated properly. Also, the spell I used was just a basic pocket dimension, it was one of the first I spells I created myself, seeing as I was unaware of anyone actually making a spell of its nature before I created it.”
Twilight shot a look at Celestia and said, “The same goes for you in regards to the first part, Princess.”
“She asked me to issue a punishment for her transgressions, so I did,” said Celestia with a playful smile.
“And ended up ruining a perfectly good dessert in the process,” snarked Chrysalis.
Twilight sighed and said, “Yet another one of Spike's personality traits is showing itself, she's been uncharacteristically nice the past few weeks.”
“That was the old me,” said Chrysalis, “Also, Applejack, your sister is rubbish at strategy games, I always seem to beat her in four moves or less, Scootaloo is bit better, not by much seeing as it only takes around twelve moves for me to beat her,” Rarity returned and took her seat, “but Sweetie Belle, for some reason every time we play it takes seventeen moves or more for me to beat her, I haven't had an opponent that challenging in a long time.”
Applejack chuckled, Rainbow laughed and Rarity said, “Glad you get along so well with our sisters, Sweetie always seemed to beat me when we played games like chess and checkers after she finished with school.”
“She's a smart girl,” said Chrysalis with a chuckle, “but I've still got far more experience with such games, even if I am a bit rusty these days.”
“It's been ages since I had a proper chess match myself,” said Luna as she floated some sandwiches over to herself, "a little time at the game with somepony a bit more experienced would be a nice change of pace, Tia's guards never seem to last more than twenty-three moves before I beat them, my own guards aren't much better.”
“I'd like that,” said Chrysalis, “and yes, Twilight I'll teach you the pocket dimension spell,” Twilight closed her mouth while it was in the midst opening, this earned her some giggles from the other mares around the picnic blanket.

*************************************************

Three hours later everyone was showing they were enjoying themselves and almost all the food had been consumed. To everyone's surprise Chrysalis had not once tried to feed on the good emotions floating around the interactions, it was even more of a surprise to Chrysalis and she said that before her time with Spike it was practically instinctual, she also explained how if the emotions were directed right at the changeling it was more revitalizing for them. Any business the mares had to discuss finally had been gotten out of the way, after much insistence by Chrysalis they stop focusing on her.
“What you've told us about changelings seems to indicate they are very militant in how they approach things,” said Luna as she followed Chrysalis and Applejack back to the farm, “yet they seem to focus more on the logistics of maintaining their forces than what is required for a successful victory with minimal casualties to them.”
“As I seem to keep explaining to everypony,” said Chrysalis, “I'm the only changeling that thought in those terms, every other queen just viewed her hive as mindlessly obedient drones. While they are called drones they are far from mindless. Obedient to their queen to the point of it being a major fault, yes, believing that obedience means loyalty, yes, actually speaking up to their queen when they had an idea regarding something, no. I actually had to train my hive to speak up when they found a fault in my actions, that took years and even then they only spoke up when I practically commanded they do so,” she rubbed her abdomen, “I hope the new generation has a bit more will to it than what I was raised on.”
“I'm sure Twilight will see to that,” said Luna with a smirk.
“Yeah,” said Applejack, “basides Spike's probly onea tha mos' loyal sorts ya can find, an' despite 'ow it might look mos' tha time 'e also happens ta be pretty strong willed. Yer new foals will 'ave all tha qualities yer concerned abou', an' ya 'ave tha right concerns. Yer not thinkin' abou' 'ow yer gonna 'ave uh hive fulla drones tha' 're gonna do things fer ya, but...”
“I would never do that, I never did that,” exclaimed Chrysalis beginning to breathe hard and beginning to border hyperventilation, “my hive was loyal to me because of all the faith and trust I put in it.”
“Whoa thare,” said Applejack, “simmer down darlin', Ah wasn't tryin' ta upset ya.”
Chrysalis started to calm down, Luna said, “Your body may be that of a changeling queen, but your soul seems to be that of an Equestrian pony, maybe the reason you made for your ploy was because you were looking for a home that would accept you, but you let your fears lead to the events in our memory that some are still trying to bring themselves to forgive. You had given up on acceptance for yourself, but didn't give up on the dream of acceptance for your former hive.”
Chrysalis began to weep and sobbed, “They're all gone because they put priority on me above all else, but I kept putting my priority on them before all else.”
“Tha' just means ya got uh good 'eart,” said Applejack as she picked up Chrysalis, “ya jus' showed et tha wrong way. Yer gonna get another shot at et, an' be a mother ta boot.”
“Speaking of which,” said Luna, “I think I've devised an excellent name for one of your offspring,” she winked, “I'll share it when the foals are born.”
“About that,” said Chrysalis nervously, “changeling larva always have a set of three hatch ahead of the rest of the brood with the first set, the three each are of a worker type that the queen prioritizes above all others in her hive. I don't know what that could possibly be for me.”
Luna just nodded and flew off, Applejack smiled and said, “Yer like Twi, so one o' yer foals will probably be an intellect o' some kind, ya prioritize family so you'll definitely have a worker type that tends tha young an' yer worried about an eventual attack so yer third might be some kinda protector, like tha Royal Guard.”
“Maybe,” said Chrysalis, “I just don't want to find out I'm prioritizing soldiers, it would mean I'm thinking like most changeling queens on some level, every single one of them prioritizes soldiers.” They entered the grounds for Sweet Apple Acres
“But thay don't put emphasis on family or knowledge lahk ya do.”
Chrysalis shook her head a bit, “Even so, many have been known to prioritize expansion of their colony and hive, and those kinds tend to have a lot of workers to tend their eggs and orient the new workers.”
“But yer gonna 'ave yer family doin' et differently, ya keep selling yourself short, why?”
Chrysalis took a deep sigh and said, “Because to my knowledge no queen has had the priorities I do, I'm prioritizing offspring because I legitimately want to have them in my life.”
“While every other queen does et bacause thay wanna do some kinda military operation wid em, Ah know. Ya've told us all abou' tha' uh lot, en fact et's tha thing ya keep emphasizing tha most.”
Chrysalis bowed her head and said, “I just want you, your friends and the princesses to be ready for when they finally get here. It won't be an invasion like what I tried, it'll me a military operation of extermination with me and my hive as the primary targets. They won't stop until my hive's potential colony sites are razed.”
“Ah know, ya told Twi all this a'ready.”
“Did she mention that the treatment will happen to the bulk of Equestria? Including Canterlot and Ponyville?”
“Um, no, she didn't mention tha' part!”
“She probably didn't want to cause a panic, or was busy trying devise countermeasures after I told her about all the inherent weaknesses changelings have.”
“Yeah, that sounds like sounds like Twi, so caught up en 'er duties an' research she don't think ta bother the rest of us wid details she thinks will worry us.”
“To be fair this is something that worries the princesses as well, they've tried peaceful means with the hives before, those attempts led to scenarios that were designed to frustrate them to the point of military operations, but they proved that just mildly irked by them, not anger them to the point of war.”
The two then entered the farmhouse to begin a much simpler, and much more preferred set of thoughts and chores.
> Talks of What's to Come
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Chrysalis awoke in her bed back at the colony, Spike lying next her holding her in his embrace. They were both nude, an insistence of hers, and had spent a good ten hours of straight intercourse, in fact his member was still lodged in her vagina. She cursed her forced changeling heat cycle for making this a thing, but enjoyed the feeling with great satisfaction. It had been almost a week since she'd finished her time of working at Sweet Apple Acres.
Pinkie Pie kept pushing her for a party, to which Chrysalis explained that without some means of suppressing her overbearing sex drive would prove difficult, something Twilight was thankfully looking into, any party that involved Spike's presence would result in her trying to make the two go at it without a care for where they were or who was present to see them. Chrysalis was sure that would not be a good impression to make on everyone, so she somehow managed to convince Pinkie to wait a few months for that particular kind of party, which also allowed her to feel like Twilight's research wasn't being done under deres. Her first month with Spike was rapidly approaching its end, something she was quite proud of, especially since the record for all other queens in her memory was just short of a week when it came to mates. It seemed having him inside her kept her sexual desires at bay, which made sense when she thought about it. She found it amusing that the clearest she thought under the circumstances was when she had Spike's penis inside her, when they weren't in the act of sexual interactions that is.
Chrysalis smiled to herself as she just laid there listening to her lover's breathing. For all her careful planning, tactical approaches and trying to consider every possible outcome, it was a simple coincidence brought on a mix of her old pride and desire to not show an aesthetic present in her family that brought her to the greatest joy. She hadn't fed on the emotions of others since leaving the colony grounds, the only exceptions being her passively feeding on pieces of the positive emotions that were aimed at her specifically.
The fact she was actually being serious about marrying Spike had surprised everyone when they learned it, probably her most of all. Spike had told her that he wouldn't stop her plans, and might try adding in a few of his own. He was elated when he learned of her double cake plan, especially since both of the cakes she had planned out with Pinkie were probably composed entirely of his favorite snacks. Chrysalis had to continually remind him that the two of them would be sharing the cake, and was pretty sure she'd be doing her best to keep her 'husband', the thought of that made her entire chest warm in all the right ways while making it feel light in just the right way, away from the desserts. She had initially planned on making the cakes a surprise for him, but she decided since it would be his special day too he had right to decide on the kind of cakes they would have as well as the decorations.
After just laying with Spike how she'd woken up for a few hours Chrysalis gently extracted herself from Spike and made her way out, on the way she tossed on the pink nightgown Rarity had insisted on giving her earlier that week (she might as well look some kind of presentable if they ended up with unexpected guests, a habit that Pinkie seemed to excel at), towards the colony's library.
She decided to float a random book over and noticed that her once emerald magic had taken on a violet hue. After the book reached her hands she set it down and rubbed her eyes, thinking she was just a little tired. She headed to the wash room and let the warm water encase her in the tub, she really needed to get some bath soaps, for a few minutes. She nearly dozed off in said tub. After her soak was done she climbed out of the tub and drained the water, after a quick drying and reapplying her nightgown off she made her way back to the colony's library.
Upon her return to the library, she found Twilight surrounded by some of the collected tomes with a pair of reading glasses on. She just stared at the scene a few moments before politely coughing to get the lavender mare's attention and saying, “Twilight, is there a reason you're in my library instead of the one in the castle or the Canterlot Archives.”
“I had most of the books at the castle here in the Everfree moved to my castle's library and I just finished go through the Archive in Canterlot yesterday, so it's your spell collection I'm having to look through to find the stop gap measure you want, it won't be very elegant when I get it down, but you'll at least not try to jump my brother in a socially inappropriate way for a few days, at least that's what I'm hoping for.”
“Did you bother to study ritual site and materials at the caster's platform?” Said Chrysalis, “Or did that possibility completely slip your mind?”
“Oh, I didn't think of that at all, I mean Celestia and Luna went to the site where you last saw your...” she trailed off.
“Old hive,” said Chrysalis with a solemn voice, “which means that what you need might be in the investigation notes. If you have some idea of the confluence of spells that brought me and Spike together you might be able to break it down to the individual spells and get some idea of how my heat cycle was artificially induced, maybe even be able to calculate how long it was projected to last. Remember a queen's natural heat cycles are triggered by the queen herself, and those last around a year, but since I was being brought together with my potential mate through a spell that put us both in relatively small space that...”
“Could mean that it was intended to have a much shorter time frame,” said Twilight, “maybe a bit closer to the estrus cycles that ponies go through, so it could just be a handful of months. Even if the spell was a gateway for triggering your cycle it was still artificially induced, and knowing that we can find a means whereby we calculate a projection of the allotted cycle duration.”
“I was a lot like you when I was younger, remember?”
“Wait, does that mean that I would have grown up to be like you if I had been raised in a similar environment.”
“Who's to say, it's definitely a possibility.”
“Not one I'm willing to entertain, although the inverse could be true too.”
“Kind of hard to have a loving and supportive father when you know that your mother can just drop an egg sack with perfectly viable offspring with no help from a male, which is exactly what she did for me by the way. However, I would love to of had a mother that loved and supported me and sisters that were more akin to best friends, but what I got was a family that constantly tortured me, is it any wonder I was so cynical when I crashed the wedding of your brother and sister-in-law?”
“Not without knowing your personal history, but I think you wanted to fail, and took steps to ensure that's exactly what happened, and I don't mean just the wedding, I think you intended for your initial invasion to fail as well. Because you still had that caring heart that they tried to bury and couldn't stand the thought of hurting all those ponies, your old hive probably didn't have same compunctions you did, so you tried to work the best with what you had, after all they still had something of your sisters in them,” she put down the tome she was reading.
“You've put a lot of thought into this, ever since I learned the truth of your childhood,” said Twilight coming up and hugging Chrysalis, “before last week I never thought I would be so happy at the prospect of having you as a sister-in-law, you make Spike happy and are genuinely serious about a future together with him.”
“More than you know,” sighed Chrysalis.
“Go on, tell me.”
“The thought of him being my husband makes my chest light and bosom warm in all the best ways.”
“I know the feeling,” said Twilight with a smile, “just the level of detail you've put into the wedding plans is incredible,” she gave a chuckle, “it's even more than the plans I had going on for my wedding, and Spike complained about the level of detail I was putting on it.”
“Probably because you designated him as your wedding planner and did more of the planning than him, and it wasn't his wedding,” Chrysalis smirked, “I don't know if he's just trying to please me or genuinely believes it himself, but he says he can't find any faults in my plans for the wedding. Well, except for the fact I'm going be keeping him away from the gem wedding cake most of the time, I'm starting to think asking him if there was anything he'd change about our wedding cakes was a bad move.”
“Trust me I know where you're coming from,” said Twilight with a giggle, “Flash wanted the affair to be more 'by the book' when it comes to ceremonies, and he also tried submitting a dozen new cake designs to Pinkie as to what he thought the cake should be like, she turned down his cake designs.”
“If I remember my chat with Pinkie right she did the same to you, it was actually some designs submitted by Rainbow and Rarity she was having trouble deciding between.”
Twilight giggled and said, “Yes, that is true. Well, I'm back off to Canterlot, thanks for the talk. Oh, and Rarity is right, you really do look good wearing pink, have you given any thought to the design of your dress?”
“Sixty-seven different styles from five different eras, twenty of them have pink interwoven into the design, I haven't managed to narrow it down to a top thirty yet, but when I do I'll submit them to Rarity to see her opinion on the matter.”
Twilight blinked before saying, “I only had forty-two designs in mind, and submitted half to Rarity for approval,” she gave another giggle, “we really are similar where it seems to count most.”
“I suggest you get going, Twilight, you have some research to do. And I have some much needed private time with Spike to catch up on,” Chrysalis licked her lips erotically, “so much private time to make up for.”
Twilight shivered and hurried from the room, and complex, chanting under her breath, “Research first, fix this later,” over and over.
Chrysalis chuckled to herself, it was quite easy to convince Twilight to leave when she was like this. Now to attend to Spike, she didn't want to go back to having sex with him, but she still wanted to have sexy time with him. It was her will versus biology right now, and her biology kept winning to the point she was frustrated with herself.
“Hey babe,” came Spike's voice, oh how she had missed the music of his distinct tones, “I know we've been going at it for a few days now, but when Twi had me in Canterlot I ran into her parents, and in a sense they're kinda mine as well.”
“What are you getting at, sweetheart?” Said Chrysalis with a hint of panic.
“I kind of told them about us, the whole story!”
Chrysalis felt like blood was rushing from her limbs and collapsed in a conveniently placed chair. “What did they have to say?” Said Chrysalis with dread in her voice.
“Well Twi's dad kind of went ballistic for a few minutes, but Twilight Velvet, Twilight's mom, was ecstatic after she got over the whole Canterlot invasion panic. She keeps saying she wants loads of grand-foals, and when I explained how things were with you practically jumped for joy.”
“About that,” said Chrysalis, “dragons are typically slow to mature, but changelings mature quite quickly.”
“How quickly are we talking?”
“Physical maturity within a year and full mental maturity within three years, but with your dragon properties the egg sacks might have the larva maturing at a much slower rate, they might take years to mature enough to hatch, and the first three will give us some idea of what their maturation rate will be post-hatching.”
“So what can we expect with the first three? When will they arrive?”
“If I'm timing it right, which I'm not sure of anymore, the first three should be hatched just shy of the wedding's date, in other words, our first three will probably be guests at the wedding. Did they...”
“Give a blessing, after some fuming and debating, yes, but only if you'll meet with them and show them the new you, also Velvet insists on cuddling at least one of the larva after they're born.”
“You explained to her about the time period where the babies look like generic changelings, right?”
“Which is why she wants to see them exactly three weeks to the day they're born.”
“By my calculations, that would be about a month before the wedding, which I've done most of the planning for.”
“Oh, she knows, I forwarded a copy of all your wedding plans, she was elated that you put so much thought into it.”
Chrysalis facepalmed and said, “What's the bad news? I ask because I figured your father not liking me would be a given at some point.”
“They don't approve that we've been having sexual relations before marriage, Velvet's okay with it because she's under the impression that we'll be married before the foals come along.”
“Well, if my calculations are correct she's mostly right. Besides, I'm sure she'd enjoy holding one of her 'nieces' regardless.”
“I suppose you're right...wait, you have a plan for who's in charge of our children during the ceremony?”
“It's always good to plan ahead, darling.”
“You sounded a bit like Rarity a moment ago! You know what, I'm just gonna go and help out in Ponyville for a bit.”
“Meet me in the throne room when you're done with your errands, honey.”
“I'm surprised you're not pushing for more sex!”
“Just because it's a biological imperceptive doesn't mean it's what I want at all times, besides it's more fun when you have to wait. I want sexy time with my big, strong, gorgeous dragon, not just sex time.”
“Well, that's a relief, anything I should know.”
“Twilight's working on finding a stop gap measure just in case she can't find out how long this cycle will last.”
“You said it was something that lasted the equivalent of a year.”
“That's the natural method, honey, mine was artificially induced.”
“Can't you just willingly turn it off?”
“Tried a few times between when I noticed and now, no luck.”
“Well then, I'm off.” The sound of him leaving met her ears.
She was glad she could at least restrain herself somewhat. She headed back to the bedroom and tossed the nightgown on the bed, which was neatly made by Spike before he left, before heading to the washroom to clean herself up a bit. She had a few hours to herself and decided to do a little reading while waiting for Spike to return. It was during her waiting, in the bedroom with a tome on marital practices she remembered obtaining decades earlier (she thought about the fact that she needed an updated version, and blushed at the thought of Spike's formal attire from some of the past centuries) that she noticed it was still technically night out. She thanked her biology with gifting her a copy of the timekeeping ability that earth dragons seemed to have.
Chrysalis fell on the bed provocatively, on top of her nightgown and the covers, completely nude and began to dream.
It was another sexy dream, she and Spike were passionately kissing under the night sky in a secluded clearing completely nude with no discarded clothing to be found. Although this dream wasn't common for Chrysalis, it was by far one of her favorites. The dream didn't have her or Spike doing any kinky sex acts, which were things she rather preferred to not dream of, and certainly didn't involve dreams that were memories of her family, something she preferred to leave squarely in the past. It was just her, Spike, their true passion for each other and the night Sky.
Deep in the act of sensually kissing Chrysalis didn't notice a constellation that didn't exist flare into existence for a moment to become Princess Luna before its remnants fading to non-existence. The silver clad night blue princess watched as Chrysalis and her dream Spike kept going for a good half hour before stopping and Chrysalis finally noticed the visitor to her dreamscape and gave squeak of surprise, which in turn caused her dream, Spike, to fade out.
“Princess Luna,” said Chrysalis in surprise, then giving a quick look down at herself and saying with an embarrassed tone, “this is my dream, and I am sorry to say I am not presentable for royal visitors.”
“You hath changed greatly since your earlier days,” said Luna, “you would never think to don cloth so as to make yourself presentable twenty years ago. We much prefer ponies devoid of their outfits, helps keep them looking honest, even if they may find it a bit embarrassing. I came to view yon dream because it felt different than those witnessed before.”
“It's one of my favorites, I always have it a few times a month, usually when Spike and I have to be apart.”
“This seems and easy dream to make a reality. Why is it a favorite of yours?”
“It's one of the few dreams that isn't my past haunting me or my sex drive deciding how to 'spice up' my private time with Spike. This just us, everything out in the open enjoying the company of each other surrounded by the beauty of the world.”
“It seems you really do love him,” Chrysalis nodded, “to be fair Celestia and I had our doubts. At the very least you deserved some happiness after the nightmare inducing experience called your foalhood. The very notion of something like that being a common practice is something we find quite disturbing.”
“If I'd have been even half as ruthless as my sisters I might have been able to fight back, but instead, I merely hid and ran, both are valid changeling strategies, but only if you follow up with an aggressive maneuver.”
“Something the younger you just couldn't bring herself to do to her sisters.”
“I don't know why, but fighting them like that felt wrong, I could trounce them in games of strategy easily, but for some reason, I couldn't even execute a single attack spell on them until I was feeling like they were threatening my hive.”
“You possessed a self-less devotion, and more importantly respected your kin despite the fact they didn't seem to respect you often.”
Chrysalis chuckled and smiled, “Traits that seem to be resurfacing over my time with Spike. I don't want our time together to be nearly mindless sex, while I do enjoy it I do not want it to be a defining aspect of our relationship.”
“You seem more than a bit serious with your ambitious wedding plans, and a Fall event as well, not many try for a ceremony in such a time.”
“It is the season of change and hope for new life,” Chrysalis rubbed her abdomen, “I thought it appropriate,” the scenery flickered to the sight of an egg chamber with three egg sacks in the midst of hatching with Chrysalis, Spike, Twilight, Luna, and Twilight's friends all present as Chrysalis helped each of the pitch black newborns to the ground gently with a smile. The scene paused as Chrysalis reached for the second egg sack in preparation for the newborn, “This is the scene I anticipate when the first three are ready to hatch, I suppose we could make a ceremony of it, but I don't think that would be necessary with Pinkie's mannerisms,” her smile began to fade, “I'm worried about their maturation.”
“Because dragons and their eggs take a long time you fear your offspring will do the same.”
Chrysalis shook her head a bit and said, “Changelings, in particular, worker type changelings like all the egg sacks I will lay, have a very fast maturation cycle. It only takes a few months for a newly hatched changeling to reach physical maturity, and in roughly three years they reach full mental maturity. But with the slow maturation cycle dragons have mixing with them I believe the offspring I beget with Spike will have a maturation cycle measured in decades before they're ready to be born and if we're lucky they might mature at the same rate as Equestria's ponies once hatched.”
“You have put a lot of thought into such things, and this scares you?”
“Queens are the only ones with a slower maturation cycle that has to be measured in years as opposed to months,” said Chrysalis, “I'm worried about my hive not being able to defend itself in time, what if the bulk of my children are still in their egg sacks and those that have hatched aren't physically mature enough to protect our home when a legitimate danger finally presents itself to my hive?”
“You will have the support of Equestria when that happens.”
“I don't want you or sister or Twilight and her friends getting involved in a 'family matter', Princess. I'm sorry that Spike will be likely dragged into the conflict, but the coming matter will only concern you when they turn their attention to what comes after my hive is eliminated.”
“No, as far as we're all concerned you're well on your way to becoming family. Spike is just as much Celestia's son as he is child of the house Twilight hails from, and if that weren't the case we can not turn a blind eye to the potential loss of innocent lives. You want a better life for your children, even if you don't see yourself as worth or deserving of such,” Luna gave a knowing smile, “it is often those who see themselves as unworthy or undeserving that seem to be the most worthy and deserving, you aren't proud of many of the things in your past, but at least you're willing to do what you can to do your best at making amends for what you can however, you are able.”
“Thank you, Princess. Could you please leave my dreamscape now,” it faded back to the forest clearing at night, “I would very much like to enjoy what is fast becoming my most favorite dream.”
Luna nodded and rose into the sky before seeming to transform into a constellation that faded from existence. Chrysalis looked over to see her dream Spike, still very much nude, and returned to passionately kissing him.

***********************

A few hours later Chrysalis awakened to Spike lying next to her, holding her in his embrace, while not placing his rod inside her. She decided she liked this feeling more, but her sex drive was still screaming at her to 'ride' Spike. It didn't matter to her though, she felt her will be stronger just from the simple act of being near Spike. Chrysalis hummed a purr of happiness for a moment before slipping away from Spike, throwing on her pink nightgown in the process.
She made her way to the colony library and settled down with some of the books in her collection, choosing to start with a book on traditional bridal customs. She didn't know how long she had been reading when a hand that felt much not like Spike's came down on her shoulder and squeezed it for attention. Looking up she saw Twilight with a big grin on her face. “Did you find what you were after? I hope it helps,” said Chrysalis.
“I was practically expecting to hear the sounds of you and Spike in the throws of intercourse,” said Twilight with her very sense of tact, Chrysalis gave a little blush and Twilight giggled, “While I was doing the research you recommend I was interrupted by Princess Luna.”
“Probably a good thing,” said Chrysalis, “you probably spent the bulk of your night on research.”
“Yes, well, that's pretty accurate,” said Twilight, “she told me about that one dream you enjoy most.”
“We're just kissing under the stars,” said Chrysalis with a now visibly scarlet blush that extended t the tip of her horn, “it doesn't matter if we're exposing ourselves to each other.”
“Of all the kinds of dreams you have in regards to Spike, my little brother, the one that you get the most enjoyment out of is just kissing.”
“Well, there's also the one where we have a bunch children running around and the two of us are just enjoying the way tha... I'm going to stop talking now.”
Twilight giggled, “I admit, there have been times where I was doubting your sincerity to Spike, but learning about these dreams of yours that are mostly innocent, and in no way involve you performing any sexual acts, does put some relief on my mind. I also dropped by my parents' place and told them what Princess Luna told me, it actually went a long way towards dad accepting the new you, and mom was ecstatic that you have such a,” she gave a polite cough, “the term she used was 'cute dream that gives plenty of practice for the wedding', honestly I have no...” she noticed Chrysalis's blush had gone from scarlet to a furious crimson.
“Please don't tell your parents about any more of my dreams, yet,” Chrysalis began to return to her normal shade as she said the words to Twilight, “I'll share my dreams with them when I'm ready. Did Princess Luna tell...”
“Me about concerns you have for your offspring, yes,” said Twilight with a smirk, “do you really think they'll age at a similar rate to ponies?”
“Hard to say, dragons mature slowly and changelings mature quickly, once a changeling reaches a certain maturity their aging process slows to a crawl. It helps perpetuate a longer lifespan, as a queen I naturally have a long lifespan, but now that my longevity has combined with that of Spike's things are a little different.”
“I see, and you're worried for your offspring, it's a valid concern. I just have to know, why would you be so concerned about their aging process?”
“As a general rule of thumb changelings are very aggressive, and often will fight with each other which...”
“Is why they have short maturation times as both egg sacks and post-birth, physically maturing in a matter of months means the young can be ready for a fight if another hive moves in on their territory.”
Chrysalis nodded and said, “To be honest, it's my fear of another hive finding me any week now, but at the same time I'm excited at the prospect of their maturation level being closer to pony offspring.”
“Why would you be excited about that? All the books I've read on foal rearing say that the first seven years of a foals life are critical for development, from what I understand for changelings it's been dropped basically to seven months. So, I have to reiterate, why would be excited about your offspring maturing slowly.”
“It might sound strange, especially since it's me saying it, but I'm excited about the prospect of my young maturing at the same rate yours do because the one thing that excites me more than Spike,” Twilight cringed at the potential implications of the statement, “is the thought of being the kind of nurturing mother I observed ponies be in my youth, I want more than anything to be the parent that is there to watch them grow over the years. With changelings it's more of a 'you blink and and you miss it' type of development. I rescued Spell Cocoon when he was barely hatched and tossed aside by Culicidae because she decided something about his properties was undesirable and in what felt like the blink of an eye he was already the most informed mind on magic my hive had access to.”
“Spell Cocoon, he's the one...”
“That performed the ritual that brought me and Spike together, if you're thinking of visiting my memories to learn more I'm going to have to disappoint you.”
“Why? You were there when the spell was cast!”
“And my energy was so low that I had to have the spell's ritual circle drawn around me and lost just enough energy in my argument with Spell Cocoon in regards to the initial target male for the ritual that when he finally got to it's chanting I didn't have enough energy to make out a distinguishable language, it'll all sound like some kind of fuzzy gibberish when you visit that memory, you won't be able to make out words, only basic sounds. I'm sorry Twilight, but all the help I could give on how things started to get here has been given already. You're a prodigy in the domain of magic, you might just have what it takes to figure it all out on your own, and if not you have the two oldest known magic spell users in the known world to ask for assistance.”
“Truth be told, what you've given us on...well, everything is more than we could have possibly hoped. So now I have to ask, why aren't you 'riding' Spike right now?”
Chrysalis gave light pink blush as she said, “It sounds strange, but being near him seems to strengthen my will against my artificial heat cycle.”
“Maybe it's the genuine romantic feelings you have for Spike, you said so yourself that changeling queens do their best to avoid anything resembling positive emotions. Maybe, just maybe, whatever your mother did to make you the way you were made it so that you were more receptive to emotions, maybe that's why the level of power you drew from my brother at the wedding surprised you, and why you're now feeling genuine emotional attachment to everypony here.”
“I think it's more than that, I think that my soul was calling for its mate, and somehow the spell was guided by that and brought the two of us together.”
“That's really corny sounding, but incredibly sweet,” Twilight said with a smile.
“Yeah, it is,” came Spike's voice, “you'd be surprised how well sound carries in this place, I'm in the throne room right now.”
“I think that's your cue to leave Twilight,” said Chrysalis, “don't want to be ruining your sleep or thoughts.”
“We'll talk later,” said Twilight as she gathered a few research materials, “just remember my promise as to what happens when you hurt Spike,” with that she disappeared in a flash of light.
“That's one promise I'll never take light of,” said Chrysalis to herself as she made her way to the throne room, leaving her nightgown by the door in the waiting room.
When she walked in she saw Spike sitting on the throne with a mischievous grin, he only said, “Hey,” and nothing more.
“It's considered one of the highest offenses to sit upon a queens throne,” said Chrysalis in mock admonishment.
“Then I suppose you should punish me,” Spike growled playfully.
Chrysalis licked her lips seductively as she said, “No normal punishment by changeling standards will be enough to deal with a dragon,” she came in close an playfully nibbled his head fin, before provocatively saying, “I guess I'll have to get creative.”
Using her magic she made made some chains, which were actually very comfortable (and more than a little kinky in their design), hold his wrists up and drag him with his toes a few inches from the ground. Once he was in front of Chrysalis, with his front facing her, Chrysalis jumped on him and wrapped her legs and arms around him as his rod slid always into her, both moaned in pleasure as his member slid locked fully into place.
“Are you sure this is punishment, because it...” the rest of what he tried to say was cut off by Chrysalis's deep kiss that resulted in her releasing the magic and him falling onto his back in the middle of the room. The kiss lasted for a good twenty minutes, much longer than any she made with him before, and was filled with so much passion he could swear she probably found a way to put the feeling of love into the kiss itself.
As she began to straddle Spike's waste, thorough her erotic moans Chrysalis said, “My body is saying what it needs inside me, but when my mind is clear all I really want is special time together while not having a need for this.”
“Twilight's working on it,” said Spike with a grunt, “you two have gone from being despising enemies too pretty good...oh, Sweet Celestia, I'm cumming,” he let loose an ejaculation that sent a wave of pleasure through both of them, “friends.”
“We are,” she gave a grunt as she leaned over to bring her face to Spikes, “more similar than most would be willing to notice,” she licked Spike's cheek seductively, “I guess that's part of the reason you like me so much. She's part sister figure and part maternal figure to you,” she gave another deep kiss to Spike.
When they came out of it Spike said, “Then wouldn't this be robbing from the cradle for you?”
“Silly little dragon,” said Chrysalis, “I wasn't raised with such a cultural sensitivity, age difference means nothing when you find the right mate.”
“I remind her highness,” said Spike as he lifted them both up and moved to sit in the throne again, causing her to moan in pleasure again, “that she isn't a typical changeling queen, and her mother,” he forcefully sat back in the throne causing her cry out in ecstasy for a moment, “is the kind of monster my 'sister' is often called in to deal with.” Chrysalis was still facing him and her only response was another deep kiss, as their tongues wrestled yet again Spike started to make his erotic purring for a few minutes. His right hand moved up to squeeze Chrysalis's right breast as his left hand moved and stroked her left flank cheek. Her sounds of pleasure intensified as she removed her arms from his back and began to pet his crest at the base, a place Spike hadn't yet learned himself could sexually excite him when another caressed that point. 
After caressing Spike's new excitement point for a few minutes Chrysalis used her magic to remove Spike's grip from her bosom and flank before quickly spinning to face the same direction as him, causing both to moan with pleasure, and using her magic to bring both his hands to her breasts. Spike got the hint and slowly started massaging her chest, which quickly became a furious kneading of her bosom. Both once again cried out in ecstasy. Chrysalis could feel every millimeter of Spike's penis inside her stimulating her the way her body wanted it too.
In between erotic moans she sexily whispered in his ear as she sensually leaned back from where she was on his waist to bring her mouth next his ear, “I'm the only that can have you inside me, I'm yours only, your only allowed to mate me.”
Spike gave a shiver of excitement as Chrysalis pulled out of her lean back to her prior position, “I promise to take no other mares without your permission, my queen,” the last part was more of sexy tease he said with a playfully erotic tone, “even if we keep this up it will get to a point where your egg sacks are in trouble.”
That seemed to break Chrysalis out of her sex partner trance that her body had induced earlier, in a much more controlled voice she said, “Which is why I asked Twilight to look into at least providing us with a temporary reprieve from...this,” she gestured to her position on Spike's waist, “I know neither of us is complaining, but the egg sacks will eventually grow to the point we need to place them in their chamber.”
“And after that months of just hanging out before hatching?”
“Oh heavens, no! They'll spend a few months growing and maturing with the larva inside, the three that grow the fastest to grow and develop are the hive's primes, the first of the hive that signify the emphasis of my hive. I discussed this all with Twilight, as you can imagine she's ecstatic at the possibilities of what our new hive will be like.”
“Yeah, I guess tha...did you say our?” Chrysalis nodded as she removed herself from Spike's member and headed out of the room, “You're counting me as core member of the hive?”
“Yes, honey,” said Chrysalis with a sense of importance to her words, “as far as I'm concerned you already are part of the new hive I'm building,” she brought her hand to her abdomen as he turned around to address him, “they're going to be as much your offspring as they are mine,” she lifted her nightgown in her magic and floated over her, “and no matter what I want you to be part of their upbringing. I finally came to realize something, I was jealous of the pony families I observed when I was young, I was jealous of the simple lives they had with caring parents. And now that I think about it, I might have been envious of the special connection Shining Armor and Cadance had, like an expected changeling I played the part of pretending to be someone he loved, but during it all I felt a bit envious that special connection they had, on some level I knew their true combined power would somehow lead to my defeat, and I guess on some level...I wanted it to happen more than my own victory.”
“Why do you say that?”
Chrysalis gave sigh and said, “There's an old saying that says 'the greatest threat to a plan is the one who makes it', I could have patched up several of the glaring holes present in the Canterlot invasion plan, I saw many of them soon enough, but I chose not to, in fact I willingly opened up new ones. My messing with Twilight to get everyone to go against her was mostly improvised, yes I wanted to divert attention from what was really going on, but if I was really after victory I would have placed her on an opposing side of the cave as I taunted her under the guise of Cadance, not dropped her in an adjoining room to taunt her, that was one of my intentional acts of self-sabotage.”
“You weren't sure of your victory at the wedding?”
“I still had some more pieces to put in place, I was a meticulous as a strategist, I knew that Twilight would eventually make it back, I just needed to make the situation paint things badly for her. I hadn't counted on her freeing Cadance, which is an oversight I'm glad I made despite the outcome.”
Chrysalis sauntered out away in her nightgown, she went over the preparations for when the eggs developed enough for laying, she also went over her wedding plan checklist. Over the course of doing so she came to a sudden realization, Even if you take out the energy my heat cycle puts on pressuring me to mate Spike, which is a very enjoyable experience, the energy and preparation I'm dedicating to a wedding for myself in just a few months is more than I have for planning before, including the the Canterlot invasion...why am I feeling so excited about being Domestic? It's the complete opposite of what changelings and dragons want! Just what is really happening to me? And why am I liking it so much?...I guess deep down I've always wa...Chrysalis furiously blushed as she made her way to the bathing area.
> Preparing for Things to Come
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chrysalis's sixth week of official pregnancy had arrived, and as expected she had a 'baby bump' to show for it. They had made it through their first month together, and it was another two months until Fall officially started. Chrysalis was excited for that approaching time because she had scheduled her wedding with Spike, the event was only a few days before the Running of the Leaves, a time where all the leaves were still on the trees while also being colors they normally weren't.
Chrysalis was now going about in some of the maternity wear Rarity had made her, a sky blue dress with dark pink highlights at the edges and a little green dragon flame over the tummy region. She was once again in Ponyville, this time with Pinkie Pie. After two weeks of the pink party mare begging her Chrysalis finally allowed the party, it had some very mixed results that partially had Chrysalis avoiding guests that her changeling emotion-sensing ability told her were still a little hostile toward her.
It was at the party that Chrysalis had met Zecora, the zebra mare was the closest her hive got a nearby neighbor. Thankfully for Spike and the girls, Chrysalis and Zecora hit it off well, they had even started talking about sharing observation notes. While admittedly Zecora's rhyming quirk could put some off Chrysalis found the mannerism rather refreshing, in light of the less than enjoyable quirks the changeling queen had dealt with in the past it was understandable.
None of her plans for the wedding were being derailed, something she was very thankful for, so instead, she was working out the plans with Pinkie and her husband, Cheese Sandwich, had for their new abode, with said pink mare. Pinkie and Cheese wanted the very sight of the building to scream 'party' the moment it was seen. Which was why they decided to take a page from Sugarcube Corner model the building after a confection. The two themselves were in the classic two-story building Cheese Sandwich had bought when he permanently moved to Ponyville, which also acted as Pinkie's home and base of operations once the two had married.
“What about a cupcake?” Said Pinkie holding up the real confection as an example.
“Someone might get the wrong idea seeing it,” said Chrysalis, they had gone through what desserts not to use and why for the past half hour, “why not just model it after a cake? You seem to throw a lot of parties that have cakes.”
“Yeah, but there are so many different kinds of cakes it would be hard to decide because they're all super-rific for different reasons.”
“A tiered cake seems your best bet, that way you can tell how many floors you have. Also, most ponies associate birthdays with parties, so having it in the style of a birthday cake makes the most sense.”
“But there's no one universal kind of birthday cake,” pouted Pinkie. A little filly with a pinkish brown coat and cherry red mane that was some how fluffed in the same style as Cheese Sandwich had (her tail was very much in the styling of her mother), with eyes the same color as Pinkie toddled in. The four-year-old filly didn't seem to know that what was going on was important.
“Cherri Pie, you silly filly,” said Pinkie with a giggle as she scooped up the toddler, “you're supposed to be dreamy leemy land, not here.”
Chrysalis smiled at the sight before her and suddenly saw the image herself with three young changeling foals roughly the same age Pinkie's little filly and grinned even more. Her daydream of watching her offspring explore the chambers around them was interrupted by Pinkie's filly booping her nose.
The sight of a giggling Pinkie was nice to see, “Sorry,” said Chrysalis, “seeing you two made me imagine what it probably be like when I finally have my little darlings,” she massaged her abdomen, “the only thing that excites me more than my coming wedding is the prospect of being a real mother at long last.”
“It's one of the best feelings in the world,” said Pinkie as she rocked the infant in her arms, “the months of pregnancy and pain of foal birth are completely worth it. Also, it's harder than it looks, you never know when they're going to need you.”
“Pinkie, if the development stage is along the lines of a typical changeling pregnancy I'll end up laying egg sacks in about a few weeks, then we have to wait several more months for them to hatch, if we're lucky I'll lay the egg sacks before the wedding and have my first three in time for the wedding. Although, it probably would look better if my first three come after the wedding.”
Cherri just babbled a bit of foalish nonsense, causing the pair to giggle. While the filly was very capable of some words it seemed she was more interested in making cute noises that in no way could be confused for words.
“Anyway, you don't need a specific kind of cake to model the complex on, just a basic cake design. Now from what I've seen of birthday cakes, which is very limited mind you, there seem to be two basic common designs. The circular cake and the square cake. If if you decide to go for the square cake design it'll be easier for the construction crews, but the circular design would allow for more overall internal space within the same the area. Now regardless of what you decide on, I brought some basic internal layouts you might want to get familiar with.” Chrysalis reached into the hip pouch she was sporting, something not usually seen by most of Ponyville's residents, and brought up three carefully rolled pieces of napkin size drawing paper. She set the sheets down flat carefully in front of Pinkie. Each had rooms numbered and rooms labeled. “I recommend sheet number two, seeing as it seems to be the most efficient. As you can see the one I recommend has all the kitchens and storage positioned right next to the elevators for easy transfer of supplies between each other and the storage rooms. The top levels are intended as living spaces while everything below is for your discretion.”
“Why are the stairs not just one big piece? Why do you have to go through a bunch of rooms to get to the next set of stairs?”
“It's a safety issue, Twilight helped draw up the floor plans and she says that just having one big stairway for folks to climb is actually a bit more of a safety concern than most would think. Plus this way is better for when you give tours to show what the place is capable of.”
“Oh, that abso-toots-a-lootly a good point.
“Hwoo mwiss momma?” Said Cherri, both mares found her voice absolutely adorable.
“I'm a new friend of your mom,” said Chrysalis, “my first meeting with her wasn't the best first meeting, I actually made her pretty mad.”
“Just a little,” said Pinkie as she brought her hands close together, after setting Cherri on her knees, only for them to stop about seven inches apart, “but she's really sorry she ruined that party, and mommy just can't stay mad at somepony who's truly sorry for ruining a party.”
“You used your party cannon to shoot you're 'forgiveness dress' onto me,” deadpanned Chrysalis, “I think you might have still been a little aggressive towards me up 'til then.”
“Maybe,” said Pinkie, “I'm of the mindset forgive and forget when it comes to friends, so I honestly can't recall any of that.”
“That was...I'm not going to argue it,” said Chrysalis. She got up to leave, “I'll see you later.”
“Okie, Dokie,” said Pinkie, “thanks for the help.”
Chrysalis gave a friendly parting wave and left the building.
********************************

A few hours later she found herself once again sitting on the throne in the nude, she still preferred going around with no clothing on in her own home. Spike was nowhere to be found, presumably, he was off doing something for someone in Ponyville so he could better avoid the distinct mood swings of Chrysalis. Chrysalis herself had no intention of spending 'quality time' with any other male, Spike was her mate and she intended to remain with him until the end, hers or his.
After waiting for almost twenty minutes without any sound of the dragon moving through the tunnels Chrysalis moved into the library and pulled a few materials on childcare of the shelves, once again not as extensive as she would like and all of them seemed to have been published centuries ago. Chrysalis cursed her lack of an ability to keep her basic reading materials up to date, maybe her next visit with Twilight she could read pieces that were a bit more updated.
Chrysalis suddenly got a craving for topaz and spinach in a sort of pasta salad, not exactly typical for her. Chrysalis preferred sandwiches, they were much more easy to adjust when you felt like it, soups were the same way, but salads were rather tricky to properly adjust in her opinion. From feeding on 'changeling food' to only thinking of consuming foods more in line with ponies, with a bit of a dragon inspired twist, Chrysalis then came to just how much of a dramatic change her mannerisms had undergone. She found she rather liked the changes she had gone through, both physically and psychologically, mostly because she felt happy and content. Those were two things that changelings never seemed to experience, in fact from what she recalled about her life before all the changes changelings did seem to be happy and content, but only the drones (she always hated that term, she much preferred the expression worker because it felt less like her hive's members weren't quite as expendable), the queens on the other hand never seemed to be happy or content. Heck, most of the queens she recalled would usually be in one of two states, hungry for conquest or hungry for territory, sometimes both at the same time, Chrysalis herself had never felt as such, it just another reason they called her the 'failure of a queen' more than expressing some facade of respect.
Chrysalis didn't really care, mostly because she wanted to leave that part of her life behind, and she was really hungry. Chrysalis made her way to the castle through the tunnel, which she and Spike had now expanded to allow him to walk through with some measure of ease (the entrance at the castle had only been expanded enough so that an offspring heavy Chrysalis could fit through with ease, but it was still a bit of tight squeeze for Spike). Once at the castle she headed for the room Spike had helped set up for her and threw on a pink robe with black and green highlights, she might as well look some measure of presentable if the castle got a visitor at some point.
She made her way to the castle's kitchen and got out everything she needed to make the pasta salad she was craving. She was fortunate that there was some precooked pasta already there for her to use. Chrysalis found herself humming a wordless tune as she did a little kitchen dance while making her meal, during the entire time she had compulsions to eat the gems she was crushing and mixing into the salad before her snack was done. The bowl used was the same one being used hold the remains of the pasta. After gabbing a utensil to help her eat in a more civilized manner she headed back to the colony proper, eating some of her craved foodstuffs as she went. By the time she was back at the initial colony grounds she found that she had already eaten a full quarter of her bowl, it would have probably been more if she hadn't elected to savor her meal as she made her way home.
Once she was back, with salad in hand, she made her way to the study and looked over the six wedding dress designs Rarity had sent up. She had elected to forgo a classic white dress, for a number of reasons. Looking over her options Chrysalis decided against the black dress, as charming as it was the thought of wearing that color just had too many bad memories tied to it; the gray grown seemed to be more reasonable to her, and the accents of pink and green really were a nice image when she imagined herself in it; the lavender dress seemed like a nice choice, especially since it seemed like a reference for finally making amends with Twilight's family in addition to the green accents working together to form a blooming flower at the bosom; and the pink one was definitely an homage to Princess Cadance, it also had some lovely black accents, but to be honest Chrysalis thought dress would look better as something to wear at a gather for Spike's family.
The next time she saw Rarity she'd inform her of her decisions on four of the dresses, to be honest, the last two looked like they had been designed by someone who was not Rarity. Chrysalis had the sneaking suspicion that the dresses five and six were drawn up by someone else and added into the envelope the dress designs had come in. The real question on that front was just who it was that drew those up and added them to her little delivery. Chrysalis didn't really know, and frankly, she felt very honored that someone other than Rarity would put such effort into any of it. That all said, the last two really didn't strike her fancy.
She brought a hand down and gently massaged the bump in her abdomen and gently cooed, “I can hardly wait until you come, my little ones. I don't care if I have to wait a few months or few decades to see you, I just want to have you here to be with me and your father." Taking off the outfit she was wearing she made her way to an egg chamber and started humming a bizarre, yet strangely soothing wordless tune. 
Spike returned to find a fully naked Chrysalis humming her little tune to her abdomen and found it soothing himself. Chrysalis kept going with her tune, if she'd noticed him she had likely chosen to not show it. After she finished crooning to her abdomen a half hour after Spike had arrived she said, “I feel like having you plow me, but not in the usual way.”
“Still as inhibited as ever I see,” chuckled Spike, “to the usual place then?” She nodded and started making her way to the throne room, “Nice to see that place get some consistent use since the chances are it won't be a point of ruling anytime soon,” he said before following her.
Once they were in the in the throne room Chrysalis said, “The egg sacks are entering their first rapid growth period, there won't be enough room for your 'little dragon' in a few weeks, so I've decided it's time for you to stick in my plot.” Spike's eyes went wide.
“You haven't changed up our routine before, it's been pretty consistent, I pound your pussy and you scream in delight.”
“Which will be very difficult to pull off with dozens of egg sacks occupying my womb,” said Chrysalis, “so it's time for alternatives, to be honest, I've had a few fantasies of sucking your rod.”
“And I've had a few fantasies of fucking your plot,” said Spike, “let's do this,” his voice took on more dominant growl when he said the last two words. He positioned himself on the throne. Chrysalis drew close, but before she could position herself Spike forcefully picked her up and spun her to face the same direction he was before practically forcing his member into her plot with little regard for anything else. As with Chrysalis's transformation to her new look, her anal cavity began to restructure itself to accommodate the dragon's rod. The two both roared in an ecstasy that rattled the chambers and could be heard all throughout Ponyville, it was so fierce that the inhabitants took it as a sign that some kind of monsters were bearing down on the town and went through their monster attack protocols.
Spike growled in dominant voice, “I've held back my dominant side too long, and you as my mate get to experience all the pleasures of dominance,” Chrysalis gave a cry that was half moan in pleasure, “you really are the ideal mate for a dragon, when I undergo my next maturation change you'll be able to restructure yourself to suit my changes. Well, mate,” he seductively growled, “what do you have to say about it all.”
“You,” she gave an erotic yell of pure pleasure, “are..my perfection...incarnate. It matters not,” she gave an erotic moan, “what others say,” her next words were an erotic cry, “you are perfection.”
“A better answer than I hoped for,” said Spike as he forced his tongue into Chrysalis's mouth and gave her a deep erotic kiss, the changeling queen gave a moan that went beyond erotic and fluttered her eyes in ensuing pleasure. When he broke his kiss with her he said, “What do you call me when we make love?”
“My king,” said Chrysalis sensually, she floated up a black box when she flicked it open it had a pink collar with a dark green dragon flame dog tag, “but when I wear this it's master, shall I put it on...my king.”
“Yes,” said Spike, “and don't remove it until I command it of you.”
Chrysalis snapped the collar on and said, “As you wish, master.” Spike erupted with a massive ejaculation into her rectum. Chrysalis gave another cry of bliss. The two kept at it for five hours, at which point they both fainted from the extended ecstasy.

*********************************

After they came out of it 'dominant Spike' wasn't anywhere to be found. “So,” said Chrysalis, she still had Spike's rod inside her plot, “how did it feel to be the one in charge?”
“Pretty good,” said Spike, “but I'll keep it for special occasions, I guess you inviting me to enact some of my fantasies brought out my dominant side.”
“You did say that male dragons get dominant during mating when we started,” said Chrysalis as she climbed off of Spike, both gave a sharp cry of pleasure when she did, “so why did it take so long?”
“I think I'm used to females being dominant in my interactions, imagining you playing domme got me hard after all.”
“Well we got yet another premarital 'session' out of the way,” said Chrysalis, “we'll be officially tying the knot in a few months, did you remember to send off for possible tux designs? Since I won't be wearing the traditional white I figure you would like to try a bit of a change up from a traditional marital tuxedo.”
“Actually, I've been holding off on that for a while now,” said Spike with a sheepish grin.
Chrysalis's eyes narrowed as she said, “Go and get fitted for your wedding uniform and work out what you want it to be like,” her voice was very stern, “I've manged to narrow my dress design to a top four, the least you could do is be indecisive over a few designs for your tux.”
“Speaking of outfits, where did you get that,” he pointed to collar on Chrysalis's neck as she removed it and placed in location where it was obscured from view.
“This lovely little adult play shop I found in Canterlot about a week before I started impersonating Cadance, I didn't give it much thought at the time, but a few weeks ago I decided visit, incognito of course.”
“Is that safe? While you're carrying I mean.”
“If it wasn't changeling queens would be in trouble, although it does get harder to change our forms the further along our offspring get. Don't worry, all of our progeny are fine. Although I am working plans for a fabric that will work well those with transformative properties, it will also be good for developing drakes.” With that, she left Spike to think on everything she said.
“When you finally get it down,” he called after her, “I think I know what I'll be doing.”

******************************

It was a little under a month until the wedding, everything was in order. Chrysalis had decided on a dress that she felt was best for the event, Spike had finally decided on his tux, the flowers were ordered, the bride's mares dresses were done, the flower filly was found acceptable and had a darling dress of her own waiting, the cakes had all their ingredients stashed and would be baked the day before the event for the best possible freshness while having enough time for decoration, the ring bearer was found and had his own dashing outfit for the occasion, the wedding rings were made and placed in the care of somepony that would make sure nothing unfortunate happened to them, the groom's outfit was tailored and placed in storage within a place where it would be easily accessible, the bridal gown was tailored and hidden away in a secure place with it remaining on the mannequin in preparation for any last-minute alterations (given that Chrysalis now looked like she was almost ready to drop a foal that seemed a wise course of action).
Given how far along she was Chrysalis had elected to skip the bachelorette party and go straight for the foalshower party, Pinkie and the rest of the mares didn't seem to mind too much. They were all now chatting up about some of their more recent activities.
“You didn't endanger the foals, did you?” Said Twilight giving Chrysalis a worried look.
“Of course not,” said Chrysalis, “I made sure it didn't go where it usually does, besides putting in there now would be very ill-advised,” she massaged her swollen abdomen. All the mares gave a light blush.
“Your willingness to talk about your scandalous behavior behind closed doors is very unbecoming, darling,” said Rarity with an amused indignant tone.
“Sorry,” said Chrysalis with a bit of a blush, “but I'm still learning some of the cultural nuances, thankfully I only mentioned it behind closed doors with you girls.”
Twilight gave a polite cough before saying, “Yes, well, don't mention such escapades outside of an academic environment, I am writing a thesis on everything you've been providing.”
“I don't think that would work either, Twilight,” said Chrysalis, “such actions aren't condusive to procreation, merely other things. Although I did purchase an accessory in Canterlot a few weeks ago for some 'adult play' activities.”
“That must have been quite the sight,” laughed Rainbow Dash, “a dark purple changeling queen trotting into a sex shop and making an order,” the others shot Rainbow a look of disdain, they were thankful that Chrysalis still had some level of tact and discretion.
“Nopony recognized me,” said Chrysalis, “I was well disguised. While many businesses in Equestria's major cities now have changeling detection systems, the castle seems to have them in the most plentiful supply, it seems that 'adult play' stores are devoid of them, no matter how large they actually are. Makes perfect sense when I think about it a bit more.”
“Oh, because both like to operate on a measure of discretion,” said Twilight, “wait, you can still transform while carrying?”
“Same response I got from Spike after our love making session,” said Chrysalis, “and yes, Twilight, queens can do that, it gets harder the further along the young they're carrying get. If my calculations are right I'll be laying my egg sacks before the wedding even starts, it hardly looks good when the bride is pregnant in her wedding dress.”
“Yes, well you aren't going to be in white,” said Rarity, “so it should look fine regardless.”
“Which did you decide on?” Inquired Fluttershy.
“The gray one,” said Chrysalis, “although I insisted it have accents in colors for each of you girls, Cadance and have it all weave together into a lovely image.”
“Is she serious abou' tha'?” Said Applejack as she gave Rarity a look.
“Oh, yes indeed,” said Rarity, “she also insisted it be kept secret from Spike, she wants the dress she's in to be a surprise to him.”
“Keeps him from imagining how I'd look in my wedding dress, puts more of an oomph into the coming honeymoon events,” said Chrysalis with a smile.
“Makes sense ta me,” said Applejack.
“Spike's going to love his surprises when the wedding comes,” giggled Pinkie Pie.
“So, Twilight,” said Chrysalis, “how's the research I helped you look into coming along?”
“I think I've got it figured out, it's been mating season for some of the animals the past few months and with Flutteshy's okay and assistance I think we've managed to develop a spell to inhibit a heat cycle for a short period of time. This spell might prove useful during estrus cycles for pony populations, I'm actually thankful for the project.”
“How long did the animals not feel the need to breed?” Inquired Chrysalis.
“Nine days,” said Fluttershy, “we made sure the animals that we tried the spell on were okay with it, that way the results wouldn't be made hard to determine due to their displeasure.”
“Taking into account size differences and magical resistances,” said Twilight, “it could only affect something like a pony or changeling for a few minutes, maybe a handful of hours at best.”
“Then hit me with it when I leave,” said Chrysalis, “we're fortunate that earth dragons have such a wonderful natural time keeping ability, it's yet another thing I got from Spike,” she massaged her swollen abdomen again, “no matter what I know they'll be just what we hope, friendly, compassionate, and genuinely nice. Everything I wanted be when I was little, everything my mother did her best to weed from me, I find it a bit ironic that the very things I was raised to believe a changeling should never be are all the aspects I and my coming offspring gained from my mate.”
“It's fascinating how rapid changeling pregnancies progress,” said Twilight.
“If I had been a proper changeling,” Chrysalis said with a nervous laugh at herself, “this would be my week nine and by now I'd have laid my egg sacks at around week twelve, the slow maturation rate of dragons seems to be aggressive enough to lengthen the maturation rate of changeling offspring by a considerable amount. That all said, I'm actually happy the maturation rate has been slowed, I want more than anything to experience motherhood as long as I can. I want to play with my developing children, tuck them in bed, read them stories, scold them when they do something they were told to not do, have them be nervous on their first day of school, hear the laughter that comes from being with their friends,” she took a deep, slow breath, “in short, I want to experience what it's like to be a mother like all of you.”
“That has got to be the cheesiest, sweetest, most adorable confession of desiring to be a mother I have ever heard,” said Rainbow Dash.
“Lucky for you I really like my Cheese,” said Pinkie with a giggle.
“Is Rainboom giving Soarin any problems?” said Twilight.
“She takes after me,” said Rainbow, “we're good.”
Everyone else facepalmed.
“Rainbow, darling,” said Rarity, “you had a tendency to be a quite brash when you were younger.”
“Thankfully you got a bit more cautious as you got older,” said Fluttershy.
“Applejack,” said Chrysalis, “I heard you have another bundle of joy on the way, I heard you're you're just a little past the first month.”
“Eeyup,” said Applejack, “and I'm a little past month two now, gonna go an' see tha doctor next week,” she said with a smile. Now that Chrysalis got a good look at Applejack she did look a little more bulky than usual, on closer inspection so did Twilight. The two mares just hadn't developed as rapidly as Chrysalis.
“Looks like there's gonna be a lot of foals running around next year,” said Twilight, “Rarity, you probably are really frustrated over Chrysalis's seemingly dramatic changes.”
“A bit,” said Rarity, “but at least it's given me some better practice with making maternal wear, after all those of you with young children decided to just wear outfits that made your abdominal regions have nothing obstructing them, at least Chrysalis has a bit of class to her in that she wants to look nice.”
“Actually,” said Chrysalis, “I tend to walk around my home in the nude, and I only wear outfits when I'm certain I'll be entertaining guests or will have them showing up in short order, I just feel it's rude to not be presentable for others when out of my home or meeting them within.”
Twilight, Pinkie, Rainbow, and Applejack giggled, while Fluttershy silently blushed.
“Well, at least you have some sense of decorum,” said Rarity, she gave polite cough and said, “even if you are a bit too open with your...home activities and behaviors.”
The party went on for several more hours, and of course Pinkie insisted on Chrysalis opening her gifts. As was to be expected Rarity had provided a number of baby outfits of varying size for both colts and fillies, Twilight gave Chrysalis a small collection of parenting books, Pinkie gave a set of cribs (how she had managed to hide a dozen cribs that required some assembly without anyone noticing was a mystery to everyone, even Pinkie herself), Rainbow gave her three Wonderbolts mobiles, Fluttershy gave her a small collection of plush animals, and Applejack gave a set of apple themed foal blankets.


*************************************

Even after the foalshower there seemed to be no complications that were problematic. For once Chrysalis really felt like everything was falling into place the way it should. It was a week before the wedding and she felt a strong need to be in one of the egg chambers. She felt a strong urge and blasted twenty-four areas on the wall, making sure to leave room for growth, with the distinct adhesive goo that changelings usually used for holding eggs to chamber walls or caught targets in place.
It was time, for her lay her egg sacks and place them on the walls, Queens and nurses always instinctively seem to know exactly how many eggs will be laid. Instead of being painful like she thought it might be it felt rather pleasureful, she thanked her 'extracurricular' activities with Spike for that. Within twenty minutes all the egg sacks were laid and on the wall. Chrysalis was quite surprised at the sight of her offspring in their personal development chambers. Instead of the typical black support braces with a green translucent liquid containing the black infant forms of her offspring, her egg sacks were a jade green with a translucent lavender liquid suspending them. She suddenly flashed back to when she was first born, a time most have trouble recalling, and smiled as she remembered the ocean blue goo that she had been covered in upon hatching, she later discovered that her sisters had the typical green goop that changelings were born in, that was her first big clue that she wasn't quite like other changelings or queens. In the past, the memory had been painful, but now it felt warm and comforting, especially as she began to hum her maternal tune to the twenty-four developing changelings in lavender solution.
Spike came in to see what why she was making such noise about and smiled at the site before him.
“Keep them safe,” said Chrysalis with an affectionate nuzzle to the dragon's neck, “I have to take care of some things before we finally tie the knot next week.”
“Dragon parents will protect their young, egg or no, without fail,” said Spike with kiss to the base of her horn, “go take care of what you need to, this papa dragon will make any that disturb the chamber uninvited regret their decision.”

***********************************************

After throwing on a blue skirt and pink blouse, with appropriate lingerie this time, Chrysalis went to see Rarity. The travel to Carrousel Boutique was rather short when she compared to her usual trips from the colony grounds to the shot. She smiled at the thought of Rarity's face as she made her way to the fashion store.
The bell over the door gave a little jingle as she pushed open the door, this time she didn't hear Rarity's usual greeting and and instead heard the white mare, who was right in front of her in a yellow sun dress (despite it being Fall) looking her up and down before saying, “You lose foal fat quickly, this will be a pleasant dress resizing. How did it happen?” She gestured for Chrysalis to get on the platform and strip. Chrysalis took off her skirt and blouse before giving a little blush at the fact she was in the slightly suggestive white undergarments before Rarity.
“I laid my egg sacks today, and for some reason the act of laying and placing them made me feel it was best to throw on some undergarments.”
“Well, you'll definitely excite Spike,” said Rarity, “is your no undergarments rule still in place for the colony grounds?”
“Oh no, I talked with Spike about that last week, we decided to make undergarments optional in our territory, although you still have to wear event appropriate over-garments, we're not so uncivilized as to allow just any outfit pass. That said, the colony proper is a 'clothing optional' area, I'm not going to stop anyone from walking around in a manner they're comfortable in. I walk around the colony grounds nude, Spike tends to walk around the tunnels shirtless, and I must say that I prefer it that way, most shirts just seem to do him a disservice. Speaking of outfits, I'm going to send him down tomorrow to make sure his uniform is good to go, after that I'll spend some quality time with my soon-to-be-born children, which reminds me, with the egg sacks are laid and secured we're going to have to change our venue to the colony grounds.”
“You want to stay close to the children I see,” said Rarity, “you did officially declare the former Castle of the Two Sisters an official part of your colony grounds, that should work as the new venue for the event, now hold still. You're deciding to wear undergarments is a bit of a blessing, it'll make these adjustments go a bit more smoothly. Now, prepare yourself for one the greatest gown adjustments of my career, when we're done saying your glowing...”

******************************************************

Three and a half hours for a dress resizing, that was something Chrysalis hadn't expected, she thought it would go just shy of an hour at most. She was heading to tell Twilight the news, on both the wedding and her coming family life. The trot to Twilight's castle was surprisingly pleasant, not once did she get an odd look or catch the sound of others whispering something demeaning about her when she passed them.
She knocked on the door to the palace once she arrived, only to have the very mare she was looking for greet her. “Oh hi, Chrysalis,” said Twilight, she noticed the changeling's abdomen, “getting some practice of making yourself look more lithe for the wedding?”
“Actually, Twilight,” Chrysalis said bringing a hand to the back of her head and rubbing it a little uncomfortably, “I laid my egg sacks earlier today,” Twilight gave her a giddy look, “twenty-four in total, Spike's watching them while I'm out. I just got here from getting a resizing of my wedding dress at Rarity's, since you insisted on managing the bulk of the wedding's logistics I thought it would be important to tell you I think it would be best to change venue to the castle in the forest, I declared it part of the colony grounds and want keep close to my young.”
“Oh, that's actually really good for us,” said Twilight with a big smile, “there's more space for everypony who comes to attend, also I think my parents would feel better if the festivities weren't in Ponyville or Canterlot. The whole family, plus Celestia and Luna are going to be in attendance. I'm so glad you insisted on triple checking the invites before they were sent off, we almost had the wrong date for the wedding, that would have been really embarrassing. I think we have plenty of time to let everyone know about the change of venue, I kept a copy of everypony on the invite list, I'll start getting the notice of venue change sent out right away. Oh, and thanks for letting me know about my nieces, when will they hatch?”
“If they were following typical changeling rules all my egg sacks would be hatched already,” said Chrysalis with a sigh, “I honestly can't tell you for certain, but when the date is drawing near I'll know and send out the notices with Spike, although I think it's safe to say none will be hatching before the wedding.”
“Good, I don't think my parents could handle that bit of shocking news.” The Two gave a pair of nervous giggles before Chrysalis bid Twilight a good day and headed back to the colony grounds, she had offspring to watch over.
> The Wedding, and Holiday Surprises
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The day had finally arrived, thankfully none of the egg sacks was getting ready to hatch. Chrysalis was in the bridal chamber wearing her charcoal gray bridal gown, which was adorned with accents that reflected Twilight and her friends in addition to Cadance. She and Rarity had agreed that the train and veil were overkill, and Chrysalis honestly said she preferred to have her head unadorned for an event like this. Despite her excitement leading up to the day she was now showing a bit of nervousness, the biggest sign being her eating decorative pebbles that had been painted to look like gemstones sitting in a glass bowl on the makeup cabinet (she'd made it through an eighth of pebbles before realizing it). The girls selected to act as her bride's mares, Rarity as the Mare of Honor, all had to talk her into a state of calm and kept reminding her of everything she had done to make the day exactly as she wanted.
The cakes were baked and decorated, the bouquet (jeweled lilacs from the Crystal Empire, that was one impressive special order) was in excellent condition, all the food was prepared and ready to go in the hours leading up to the event, her dress was just the way she wanted it, those that had seen Spike's attire assured her he was the very image of her ideal, the musicians for it all were all present and doing a few warmups while looking over the songs selected the for the event, and the one chosen to preside over the ceremony had been prepared in the hours since arrival. After some debate, it was decided that Princess Luna would be the one to preside over the event, when Celestia had been the one to insist on it Twilight and Chrysalis were both quick to point out that legally speaking Spike was technically part of her immediate family. Princess Luna had the fewest close associations to either of them, and Chrysalis had thought at the very least Luna would like to take part in such a monumental event. Cadance had offered to preside over the event, but Twilight had reasoned she might unintentionally sabotage the ceremony due to the fact that Chrysalis did almost ruin the pink alicorn's wedding.
Twilight and Cadance were in the main area that was selected for the ceremony making sure everything was in order, this was an event that needed to be commemorated. They had arranged for some of the best record keepers and photographers in Equestria for the event, but to ensure they weren't obstructive they were made to sign a legally binding document that they would not be intrusive, in other words, they signed a mandatory agreement stating they would do exactly what those with authority over the event told them what they were permitted to do.
Twilight's research paid off, she found that Chrysalis's artificial heat cycle was due to end a week after the wedding, also it turned out the spell she devised for hindering heat cycles proved effective for thirteen hours on Chrysalis, when the wedding ended the spell would have only five hours left in it, everything seemed to be having its timing perfect.

______________________________________________

Spike's pre-wedding jitters weren't much better, especially since he ended up eating half a bowl of wax fruit out of nervousness, all the guys that were supposed to be helping him weren't keeping their act together since half were furthering his tizzy for their own amusement and the other half were doing what they thought was their job description. That was all put to rest quickly when Shining Armor came to check on the lucky dragon and overheard the complete nonsense that was going on in the groom's suite. To be honest, Spike didn't have much choice since his whole assortment of supporting cast had to be single like him, and all the guys that would prove reliable were all married by that point, traditions being what they were.
Instead of the classic black tuxedo, Spike was sporting a stylish magenta one, complete with blue tie and pink undershirt. While most guys couldn't hope to come close to making the look marginally satisfactory Spike seemed to own the look for all intents and purposes.
“I know the look is little non-traditional, but since my future wife opted for a non-traditional wedding dress she insisted I go for a look that wasn't quite traditional as well. Still, don't know what her wedding dress looks like, and just about everypony knows I begged her for hints about its look before today.”
Shining Armor gave chuckle with is dress uniform adorning him before saying, “Well, she insisted on not knowing what you're outfit looks like either, and to be honest I think she had the right idea. I realize how weird it is for me to be saying that Chrysalis is right about something, she even opted to drop her title as queen for the ceremony.”
“I heard,” said Spike with a big grin, and a quick gesture for the other guys to leave the room for a bit so that he and Shining could have a private chat, “she wants to be addressed as 'Lady Chrysalis' during the entire wedding day. I take it since you're here Twilight wanted to convey something to me.” His background group left the room.
“Well yes,” said Shining armor, “but Cadance also wanted me to convey something to you,” he shuffled uneasily, “Twilight says you're wanted at the alter in forty minutes and would like to extend her thanks for making this all possible. Cadance says she would like to extend her deepest thanks for helping to reform Chrysalis, even if it was done in a rather...unexpected way.”
“To be honest,” responded Spike, “she was remorseful when we ended up alone together.”
“Was it over the loss of her hive or what she'd done at my wedding?”
“Both, and more,” said Spike, “Twilight told you how she explained she was the best case scenario?”
“Did more than that, showed us,” said Shining, “I had a lot of pent up rage towards her, still have a little now, but what Twilight showed us about her past made me realize sometimes what we think is well-directed aggressions is only because we were probably looking at the wrong puzzle the whole time. Twilight's been through Chrysalis's memories a few times with that spell, so has Cadance, and they've seen things that no other being should have to. I hate saying it, but Chrysalis's change in several mannerisms is something that has helped make things better for us. We have a more detailed understanding of the Changelings now, a spell we didn't even know was lost to us has been returned, and your union with her will seal a diplomatic alliance we all thought impossible just a few years ago. Spike, your being with her just a few months has enriched the nation in ways we didn't even think we could dream of considering.”
“And her bed action isn't bad either,” said Spike with a sly grin.
“How about we save that sort of talk for after your honeymoon,” said Shining, “I suggest you get to the alter now, Twily and Cadance probably will want to spend a half hour making sure everything is perfect in regards to you, they already did that to Chrysalis almost as soon as she got here.”

_________________________________________________

“Twilight,” said Rarity, “what are you doing back here? I thought we already did all the pre-wedding checks.”
“Including checking to see that all changelings that are supposed to be here are,” said Chrysalis.
“I'm sorry, but I just had to get one more look at Chrysalis in in her wedding dress before the event,” said Twilight, “considering who's getting married I think your non-traditional approach to most of the event is brilliant, although I think you might have gone a little too far with having a cake that everypony can eat and one that only you and Spike can enjoy.”
“To be honest with you, Twilight,” Chrysalis said with serious face, which for some reason was nearly ruined by the dress she was in, “the main reason for the secondary cake that's intended only for me and my very special dragon,” the mares all giggled at Chrysalis's wording, “was because I think some of the attendees might not like the idea of sharing cake with a changeling.”
Chrysalis's dress was lovely charcoal gray with accents in the coat colors of Twilight's friends, Twilight and Cadance, all the colors came together at the abdominal region to form a flame pattern with the silhouettes of Chrysalis and Spike as the space between falling leaves before the accents shot up to her bosom to show more leaves falling.
“Darling,” said Rarity, “Celestia gave a formal statement to the whole country, every major newspaper in the country printed  acopy of it, and she even made sure many of the most influential ponies in the nation knew about your reformation personally and spread the word.”
“Is that why week five of my pregnancy had me practically assaulted when Celestia called for a personal chat about how things were expected to go down?” Responded Chrysalis, “I thought it was a little too crowded that day.”
“Yes, well you were so courteous that everypony who thought were putting on an act actually had no rebuttal for a few days,” said Twilight, “and your offer to serve any time that Celestia deemed fit for your crimes against the nation was a nice touch.”
“I was being sincere,” said Chrysalis, “I genuinely believed I needed to pay back the debt I owed everypony.”
“And that's what tipped the scales in your favor,” said Rarity, “your sincerity and the fact the new found trust in you Celestia showed has not been misplaced.”
“And your genuine offer to let us name some of your foals went a long way showing how much you trust us and can be trusted,” said Twilight, “and the fact that you're committed to your relationship with Spike.”
“The first few days together I couldn't tell if it was genuine love or some kind of lust induced by the spell that ended up dropping us in the same place,” said Chrysalis.
“At least you had enough sense about you to try and make sense of your situation, and Applejack would like to one again thank you for making sure it wasn't her brother you ended up with.”
“No,” said Chrysalis, “it was your adoptive brother, which honestly speaking made everything better and worse at the same time. I was fortunate he didn't have a mate.”
“And was still trying to make sense of his feelings,” said Rarity, “he pined for me for years, but when he finally up with having that long awaited date with me it turned out neither of us felt the romantic spark we were hoping to find in a partner.”
“His heart wasn't broken,” said Chrysalis, “I know feel of that within my magic, it was just sore while his head was confused. Mine was falling to apart due to the loss of the closest thing to what felt like a real family I had, I somehow managed to soothe his heart and he somehow managed to put all the pieces back together.”
“That's a beautiful sentiment,” said Twilight.
“And he'll hear it too, well part of it anyway, when I say my vows.”
“But wedding vows become a matter of public record,” said Rarity, “especially ones as high profile as this one has become.”
“I never expected it to be low profile,” said Chrysalis, “but at the very least I figured it wouldn't be the circus it seems to be turning into out there. You remembered to forward my request, right?”
“For the twenty-third time this month, yes, everyone is to refer to you as 'Lady Chrysalis' for the day,” said Twilight, “I made extra sure the media and observing nobles were clear on this fact. I also think it was a good idea to make that move.”
“I'm not much of a queen anymore,” said Chrysalis, “and I certainly don't plan on being one anytime in the coming decade. A queen has hundreds of subjects, I'm just going to have two dozen children, maybe I'll take it up to around a hundred in the coming years, but for now I think I'll just stick with having under thirty offspring, I don't want to overwhelm their father or the rest of the family. No matter what happens today, Twilight, it is my belief that as of the moment I truly saw Spike as my mate your family became mine.”
Twilight left the room with little tears of joy in her eyes, after giving Chrysalis a reminder of when she was supposed to enter for the ceremony.
“Alright girls,” said Chrysalis, “is everyone ready for this? We have a little under an hour until the ceremony.”
All the bride's mares nodded and made their way to the grounds where the ceremony would be held just behind Chrysalis. Rarity stopped her at the door to make sure the dress didn't have any curves or creases that didn't belong and gave curt nod after a minute of inspection (and while doing so gave her approval to Chrysalis for what she said to Twilight), the two left to take their positions.
The opening music, a classical remix of a rock song that Spike particularly liked started playing, this was the opening bit he decided to announce that the event was starting (granted it was highly unusual, but Chrysalis had insisted that they do a few unconventional things while sticking to some of the classic traditions). Rarity just shook her head with silent disapproval. Since Chrysalis obviously didn't have a father to give her away at the ceremony, and it would be seen as somewhat problematic if Twilight's performed the task they just decided to have the Mare of Honor have the distinction (something that surprised and flattered Rarity greatly).
They waited for the flower filly to play her part before going. Applejack's four-year-old daughter, Fortune Sweet (a delightfully orange-brown coat and golden blond hair adorned the filly, she also was born at the most prosperous time Sweet Apple Acres had seen in its history) would have been an excellent choice if she had been just a little older; so they had to settle for Rainbow's five-year-old daughter, Rainboom Dash (everyone could see Dash's ego in the filly's name, Soarin didn't seem to mind too much, Rainboom looked like a near clone of her mom, the most differences were she had her father's eyes, her mother's prismatic mane, and a dusk orange tail), while the filly was impulsive like her mother she was also very eager to please others (she was also her own level of adorable in the flower filly outfit Rarity made for her, which was actually modeled on Rainbow's first Gala dress, although far more subdued than its template), and a good flower filly was much more subdued in her behavior than the filly usually was, they got her to play the part right by explaining that she'd been given the honor of being known as the flower filly for the wedding, that got the filly to be a near model of what was intended (mostly so she could rub it all in the faces of other foals that dared to look down on her), not many foals could claim they played a part in the wedding of a dragon and (reformed) changeling queen.
Once Rainboom had tossed around the flower petals, which were composed entirely of pink roses and lavender, around from her basket Chrysalis's song entrance song started up, an instrumental version of Every Time We Touch by Cascada . She made her way slowly, and carefully, down the aisle, which was basically the old throne room revamped. She made sure to time her steps so she came up next to Spike once the song reached its last three seconds, could feel some disapproving gazes follow her and heard the sounds a few cameras going off (she even could hear the low hum of a few video cameras rolling in the background). Luna smiled and gave a curt nod when Chrysalis reached the alter. There were several hundred ponies in attendance that were clearly there for the wedding itself, although it was easy to see some nobles and social ladder climbers were there because they saw it as a major social event that would to enhance their status (Chrysalis gave a quick mental comment on how those same ponies probably thought changelings were callous, if those that were there just to treat as another event were changelings she doubted they'd have very little trouble fitting in amongst the personal circle of the queens).
After clearing her throat Luna began the marital speech, “Dearly loved ones and good friends, we gathered here today in the court of these witnesses to join together in sacred matrimony Spike the Dragon and Lady Chrysalis,” a murmur went out among the crowd, “since all concerns have been laid to rest by this point,” she sent a critical eye throughout the crowd, “if anypony has a legitimate reason why these two should not be wed you are granted permission to speak your piece, if not then hold to the silence among you,” the complex was so quiet you could hear a pin drop on the edge of its boundaries, “since there are no valid objections you may now say your vows.” The ring bearer, Apple Log (the six-year-old son of Cheerilee and Big Macintosh, a colt with his mother's coat and father's mane in addition to apple green eyes), came up next to the couple. The colt was dressed in a standard formal outfit with an apple bola tie.
“Chrysalis,” said Spike with a smile, “when this all started we all saw you as a villain, but now your genuine beauty and good nature are shining through. While I didn't like the idea of forming a relationship with you at first I've come to consider you my greatest love, the you that you were when we met those months ago was just who I needed to sooth my aching heart. It is that heart I now swear unto you, and you alone.”
Luna smiled and gestured to Chrysalis, Chrysalis took her cue, “Spike, when we met each other all those months ago the great loss I incurred had made my heart, my genuine heart, falling apart and breaking as it went. You managed to pick up what pieces you could find and put them where you felt they needed to go, the pieces you didn't find you managed to craft with such intimate care that it put the original pieces to shame. You already earned my heart, so I swear unto you before all here that my soul and future are yours to do with as you please. I have a boundlessly absolute trust in you to do the right thing with all that I have given unto you.”
The sound of a few tears and some noses blowing at the beauty of the vows uttered by the two could be heard, Luna wiped away some happy tears of her own and said, “Now, by the power vested in me by the nation of Equestria, I pronounce you husband and wife. You may now kiss the bride!”
During their vows, they slid the rings onto each other's fingers.
Spike took Chrysalis in his arms and gave her a deep kiss that forced her towards the ground, Chrysalis pushed back and forced him the other way halfway through their three-minute kiss. When the two came out of their embrace they declared together it was time for the after-party, which got Pinkie really excited. Everyone headed for a more open venue at the castle for the party, the moment they were outside an upbeat music like the kind you could find at a club started pumping from all around them at the right level to be heard without making it hard to hear others.
First Twilight's parents came up to the two and offered their official welcome to the family, Twilight Velvet even giving Chrysalis a big hug and asking about how she managed to stop being pregnant.
“I laid the egg sacks a few months ago,” said Chrysalis, “some of the little darlings should be all hatched and ready for family time in a few months, although I don't expect it to be anytime this year.”
“Probably for the best," said Twilight's father, “we nearly had an altercation with Spike when he mentioned you were pregnant before even having wedding plans.”
“He grabbed a frying pan and kitchen knife with expressed intent on harming you,” whispered Spike, “I didn't take it well.”
“He ruined half the kitchen and broke both Night Light's arms and one of his legs as well as putting a few minor cracks in his horn,” said Velvet with amusement, “honestly it could have been worse, considering what we read about dragons and their mates. He really should have known better, lucky for him he was only in the hospital for a few days, couldn't do any magic until the following week after getting out of the hospital, though.”
“Well then,” said Chrysalis, “I'm fortunate he wasn't there when I dropped in on Twilight the first time, and didn't get up until a few hours to noon the following day.”
“Why's that?” Inquired Spike.
“I let your sister's brother, her sister-in-law, friends and Twilight herself exact their aggressions towards me,” Chrysalis, “I also had to spend a week on Sweet Apple Acres to work off the debt they felt I owed them.”
“Did they hurt you,” Spike's anger seething through his words, “because if they did then I will...”
“It's alright, sweetie,” she said cutting him off, “I told them they could if any needed to get some resolution.”
“Still didn't make it right!” Retorted Spike.
“Better they get their disapproval of me out of the way soon as possible instead of holding it in,” said Chrysalis, “that's unhealthy, and I would know about unhealthy practices, I was forced to perform a few when I was younger.”
“Okay, I won't attack Twilight or her friends, just the first one to deck you.”
“That would be Shining Armor,” said Chrysalis, “be sure to fight him civilly, that means no assaulting him the way a dragon would. Maybe an arm wrestling match, or athletic challenge of some kind, we don't want anyone getting hurt too badly. It is OUR wedding day! And I know you wouldn't want to do anything to displease me, or your family.”
“Fine,” huffed Spike, “I'll think of some physical challenge for Shining, I know it will be difficult considering his career choice.”
“Then you better start now before Celestia decides it's high time the sun goes down,” said Chrysalis with a smirk.
Spike said nothing and dashed off.
“Told him about our little therapy moments,” said Twilight coming up with Flash, now clearly five months pregnant, “I could tell he didn't look happy, didn't sound it either when we could finally make out his voice.”
“Yep, convinced him to not assault all you, and go about his attack in a socially acceptable way,” said Chrysalis, “oh, and no matter what there's going to be confrontation between Shining Armor and Spike, since he's quite insistent on at least fighting the one who threw the first punch.”
“Shiny,” said Twilight, “oh joy, that probably won't end well.”
“I hope you instructed him to tone it down,” said Flash.
“I told him to keep it civil for the day,” said Chrysalis, “don't want to ruin our wedding day.”
“True,” said Twilight.
“Of course we're still being tracked by the media, and chances are they could blow an act of reasonable draconic reaction into some kind of story about how either volatile dragons are or how having a changeling around makes some folks more dangerous, or both,” said Chrysalis, “as much as I hate it, we're in the public eye, thankfully they aren't allowed in the hive without permission, and any 'new' equipment we find in the colony or on its grounds will be subject confiscation, it's one of the few things that the princesses and I are in full agreement over,” she heard a series of audible gulps, “and since Princess Celestia and Princess Luna have officially recognized the castle as colony grounds the moment the festivities end anything left is ours by right.”
After the sound of equipment moving on Chrysalis chuckled and Twilight said, “It's almost time.”
Chrysalis nodded and hollered, “Spike, put a hold on your brooding, we have one more event duty to perform.”
A grumbling Spike came over to the cakes with Chrysalis, the two performed the cake cutting ceremony on the cake intended for everyone. After that was done Chrysalis went over to the other cake and cut a slice and held it up for Spike to see, Spike grumbled the words, “I'm just going to get that, am I?”
“You'll get the chance for your slices after you get that aggression out of your system in a socially acceptable way,” sang Chrysalis. Spike started grumbling again and went back to the corner he was in prior to brood. Chrysalis picked up a fork with a satisfied smile and placed it on her plate before cutting slices for all the guests in the primary cake.
“Oh my,” said Fluttershy as she came up with her husband, Bulk Biceps (who easily towered over his wife and daughter), and daughter, Forest Flower (the little pegasus filly was five years old and had her mother's mane and tail while having a forest green coat and her father's eyes), they were all dressed up in animal pattern themed outfits, per usual Fluttershy's pet was sitting on her head (while Angel had passed away about two years before her daughter had been born a little black otter Fluttershy had taken to calling Spirit had found a niche with her that helped fill the void of her darling rabbit's loss), “I hope things aren't too bad.”
“No, Spike just found out that some our friends and family weren't exactly accommodating before the wedding, sorry that Flower couldn't be the flower filly, Spike and I agreed we needed one, but Rainbow Dash was still feeling a little hostile towards me, so I figured the best way to ease that out was have her little filly play a role in the wedding.”
“That's alright,” said Forest Flower in a voice almost as soft as her mother, “I would have been a little too scared of everypony looking at me...” she cut off the rest and hid behind her mother.
“She's a bit more outgoing than I was at that age,” said Fluttershy, “but she's still quite shy.”
“She'll grow out of it,” said Bulk in his usual voice, “and demonstrate her awesome might, YEAH!”
“Honey, you really need to tone it down,” said Fluttershy, “we keep talking about this, your loudness woke up Flower quite a few times when she was an infant. I don't know why I have to keep reminding you of that, but apparently, I do.”
“Oh, sorry,” said Bulk in a much more subdued voice.
“Better,” said Fluttershy as Chrysalis floated a piece of cake to each of them in her magic, complete with the necessary accessories. Fluttershy and Bulk thanked her, Flower just dove right into eating the cake with only her face.
“That's my girl,” said Bulk, “show that cake you mean business.”
“Oh no, not again,” said Fluttershy in a worried voice, then in a more stern voice, “Manners, young mare, you shouldn't dive into the cake before the bride or groom at a wedding, it's very rude.”
“Sorry,” said Flower with a sheepish look, and cake covered face. The three made their way to mingle with the rest of the crowd.
“Great party,” said Rainbow Dash as she, Sorain and Rainbooom came up with Rainboom on Soarin's shoulders, the two were wearing their Wonderbolts dress uniforms. “Rainboom looked amazing as your flower filly, was there a reason for that?”
“To help alleviate any lingering animosity you had towards me,” said Chrysalis as she took a bite of her gem cake and floated some plates of the cake intended for everyone to the three alongside forks for each plate.
Rainboom took a few whiffs of the cake and looked to her mother expectantly. “What? It's safe,” said Rainbow, “I saw Flutters' little filly smash her face into the into her piece, don't imitate. While I admire the enthusiasm, it doesn't look cool in the least.”
“Not to mention mention some ponies consider it offensive,” said Soarin, “what kind of cake is it?”
“Gingered apple with a touch of honey,” said Chrysalis, “we decided that the Apples needed to contribute a bit to the cake, and Pinkie didn't mind since she and Cheese were the ones making the wedding cakes.”
“Well, I do like apples,” said Soarin.
“A lot,” said Rainbow with a mischievous smile, “he tried dating AJ for a couple of months just so he could get more apples for less effort, none of the Apples minded it that much.”
“But we just didn't have the right chemistry,” finished Soarin, “Rainboom seems to have some of my traits, but we just recently found that one fruit she likes more than any other.”
“And that would be?” Inquired Chrysalis.
“Mangoes,” shouted Rainboom with excitement, “My love mangoes.” Chrysalis gave an amused chuckle.
Rainbow smirked and led the two away.
Applejack and Troubleshoes came up with their daughter, Fortune Apple, and as expected they were all in apple themed attire (Applejack even had a fancy apple pin in her trademark stetson). Since forming a relationship with Applejack Trouble's 'bad luck' seemed to leave him alone, no one had any explanation for why that was.
“How are you three doing?” Said Chrysalis as she floated them all slices of the cake, complete with the forks.
“Pretty good,” said Applejack, “Fortune was a little put off she couldn't be the Flower filly, though.”
“Maybe next time,” said Chrysalis, “Rarity still hasn't found the right one for her yet, but when she does this sweet little thing would be a nice addition to the procession,” she gave Fortune's mane a light tousle, the filly didn't seem to mind. Fortune gave her a smile and was off with her parents.
“You know,” said Cheerilee as she, Big Mac and their six-year-old son, Apple Log, came up to meet Chrysalis, “it was nice seeing our colt be part of something like this, he was just as courteous as his father.”
“Eeyup,” said Mac as Chrysalis floated the three their first share of the cake.
“Glad to be able to help,” said Chrysalis, “I just wanted to make sure we were all on good terms, and having your colt as part of the festivities seemed a likely choice to help smooth some the edges out a bit.”
“Well, ya did 'elp us wid tha harvest a while back,” said Mac, “Et's a mite embarrasin' that we fergot ta allow tha right critters on ta tha farm when we shoulda.”
“Mistakes happen,” said Chrysalis with a smile and wave as the three left to mingle.
After a few minutes Pinkie (in a cotton candy blue dress), Cheese sandwich (in a carnival pink tuxedo) and Cherri (who was on her mother's shoulders while also in a matching dress to her mother) came up to Chrysalis.
“Here for some cake,” said Chrysalis.
“Yepperoni,” said Pinkie and Cherri in unison.
“It's both adorable and freaky how they always seem to do that,” said Cheese as Chrysalis floated their slices to them.
“I suppose I should try something other than cake,” said Chrysalis, “but I need to guard it until Spike's worked his aggression out.”
“Oh, he's doing that already,” said Cheese with a point towards the out region of the castle grounds, following his point Chrysalis saw Spike and Shining Armor, both stripped down their pants in a wrestling match while Twilight and Cadance watched with annoyed looks on their faces.
“Oh, thank the ancestors,” said Chrysalis, she floated three new pieces and forks on to some of the plates and went over to be next to the other mares. “Getting the bad blood out I see,” said Chrysalis when she arrived and floated the plates to the two mares, and Skyla. She also noted that it was only Twilight who had the disapproving look, Cadance had one of amusement. Cadance's blue-clad pink coated eleven-year-old daughter, Skyla, just had a look of confusion on her face and gladly took her plate to start eating without a word.
“Yes,” said Cadance as she took the plate, “and I must say it's the best male bonding moment at a wedding I've seen, Celestia agrees by the way,” all three looked over to the wedding cake to see Celestia taking three slices on her plate before dashing off with an amused Discord taking a slice of the gem cake and turning his piece into a grape and lime cheesecake slice before following his wife. Their seven year old daughter, Pseudo Lucent (she looked mostly like her mother being a white mare with white pegasus like wings, but had a pair of mismatched horns on the sides of her head and a black griffon like talon where her right forehoof should have been along with a blue tail that resembled her father's, although her three toned mane of orange, green and indigo did have a matching tuft at the end of the tail), tried to do something similar to what her father did with a piece of her own from the cake her mother had pilfered, only to have the frosting go from wedding white to huckleberry blue before chasing after her parents. This was followed shortly by Luna taking a few looks around before taking two slices of the cake and doing her best to trot off discreetly.
“We all saw that one coming,” said Twilight as she took the slice being offered her, “I also foresaw Spike and Shiny confronting each other, just not in such an open display on the ceremony grounds.”
“Don't like seeing my husband and your brother in a shirtless display of masculinity,” teased Chrysalis, “I know I said shirts almost never do Spike justice, but I must say the same goes true for Shining armor,” Twilight's face went scarlet mid-consumption of her piece of cake.
“Why do you think I make it mandatory for him to only wear pants back home,” said Cadance, this caused Twilight to shift to crimson and get away from the two as fast as possible.
“She probably wouldn't mind seeing her husband go around their home without a shirt,” said Chrysalis.
“Assuming she has her nose out of a book long enough to admire it,” said Cadance, they both laughed. “It seems you like to tease Twilight a bit.”
“Preferable to the 'show of affection' my sisters gave me,” said Chrysalis flatly.
“I'm surprised you managed to stay so sweet for as long as you did.”
“Husbands wrestling now, talk later,” said Chrysalis with a smirk. They both returned to their wrestling, and slightly sweating, mates fighting each other in the ring.
“I noticed Shining and Spike in this brutish display,” came Rarity's voice next to Chrysalis.
“It's just a typical male bonding ritual,” said Chrysalis, “nothing to fret about. Enjoying the party?”
“I suppose,” said Rarity, this is one of the biggest social events of the year, “and it's a great display for my career, you're just fabulous in that dress, darling. Cadance's wedding dress was a work of art, but yours almost seems a masterpiece.”
“Well, you did have a bit more time to work on mine than hers,” said Chrysalis, “besides when you finally do get married your dress will your greatest crowning achievement.” With that, she took one last look at the display of masculinity before her and headed to the refreshments table.

***************************************

It was two hours later, Spike and Shining had been at it for roughly forty minutes before being satisfied with their confrontation. And they were all sitting in the dining hall to enjoy the post-wedding luncheon. Everyone gave their congratulatory speeches, and after all, those were done the meal was begun. None of the speeches particularly stood out, aside from the speech that Pinkie and Cheese gave about how unexpected combinations could result in some of the best surprises, but that was sort of thing was expected of them, and Discord's speech about how reformations can happen in the most unlikely of ways, it was so sweet that Celestia surprised everyone by nearly tackling him to the ground in a very aggressive kiss (which he didn't mind in the least, their daughter predictably gave the 'I can not take you anywhere' look to her parents during the whole display).
After the meal was the opening of wedding gifts. Twilight's parents gave them a deluxe foalcare kit, the gift itself was almost the size of Chrysalis. Twilight and Flash, as expected, gave the happy couple a massive collection of books on foalcare. The Apples all gave varying kinds of apple foalfood. Pinkie and Cheese gave a variety of foaltoys, that were tested and rated safe for use by infants. Rarity gave even more foal clothes to the two. Rainbow and Soarin gave the two a set of flight assistance blocks, the blocks were winged and had an enchantment on them that enabled them to fly (the idea was simple, to use the blocks you need to catch the blocks). Fluttershy gave them a small collection of early reading books that talked about different kinds of common pets.
The rest of their gifts were pretty standard, although Discord and Celestia did give them a foal monitoring system with enchantments that would immediately alert them to their infants if they were in potential danger regardless of the levels of noise they got from them, and Zecora gave them a special mix for weaning (when they received the mix they pointed how neither changelings or dragons developed on mother's milk and that part Chrysalis's anatomy was more of an aesthetic than anything else). After thanking them for their gifts, and wondering how they would get them all to the colony proper the newlyweds decided to take only some of the small things with them through the tunnel and take them to their usual abode and stashed them in a chamber near where the egg sacks were. The rest would be stored in the castle until later. After a quick check on the developing offspring, which were all found to be quite healthy and in no immediate danger the two headed for their usual make out place.
Once in the throne room, Chrysalis gestured for Spike to sit on the throne again. “You know,” Spike said jokingly as he sat in the throne, “you seem to be giving this up to me an awful lot la...” Chrysalis started licking his balls causing him just start purring with sexual content. After she managed to make his mast reach the full upright position she started she wrapped her tongue around it and slowly brought her mouth over it and gently started sucking on his rod. Within her first minute, Spike let loose his first load in her mouth, which she just gulped down and kept going for another half hour.
“So,” said Spike with a grin, “how was the after ceremony snack?”
“Better than the main course,” said Chrysalis teasingly as she licked the rest of his semen from her face with her tongue, “tastes like amethyst and emeralds with a hint of star sapphire and opal. But I'm guessing that it's only, female thing when it comes to something like that.”
“That's actually a theory I don't want to test,” said Spike, “you seem a bit spunkier since we tied the knot.”
“I guess it's just the post-wedding euphoria,” said Chrysalis, “want to know something about changeling queens I haven't told Twilight yet?”
Spike's eyes shot up in surprise, “Oh, what's that?”
“We can actually control the likelihood of conception, and it can be completely zero if we so choose.”
“I'm guessing that's when you're not running on a heat cycle,” said Spike.
“Actually if the designations are chosen when not in heat then those selections override the fertility levels of active heat,” said Chrysalis with a sly grin, “Twilight cast a spell on me to alleviate the effects of the artificial heat cycle, it'll wear off in few hours, I already set my offspring production to zero. I think we'll have enough on our hands with twenty-four children, don't want to push our limits just yet.”
“Then put on that collar and start calling me 'master' because I have some kinky post-wedding games I just thought of,” said Spike.

***************************************

The post-wedding activities Chrysalis and Spike went through after she threw on her collar that no one is to utter what was done. It was now a few days to Nightmare Night and Chrysalis had invited Twilight's friends, Twilight, Princess Luna, and Princess Cadance to the egg chamber her offspring were growing, she had extended an invite to Celestia but the Solar alicorn had elected remain in Canterlot dealing with issues instead (she trusted her sister to spill it all later anyway). The reason they were all there was because the first three were about to hatch, Chrysalis had sensed it the week before and sent the notices out to everyone immediately. In her messages to Twilight, Rarity, and Luna she had also instructed them to bring towels. Twilight and Rarity were both excited about the event, as were Pinkie and Cadance, the rest of the those there had mixed feelings on the matter.
The first of the egg sacks began to burst, the one Chrysalis was standing next to, and she slowly helped the 'newborn' out. She smiled at the newly hatched infant, who was looking at her with eyes the color of Spike's and covered in fuchsia colored goo, and said, “She's a Knowledge Keeper,” she placed the infant in Twilight's blanket, which bore the lavender mare's mark and colors, “you have just enough time to give her the name you thought of for her before the next one is hatched.”
Twilight smiled as she rubbed the goo off with the towel and said, “I think Light Novel suits her fine.” The infant giggled with happiness.
“I think she likes it,” said Chrysalis, “Novel it is then,” she positioned her arms up and to the left in preparation for the next one, once again one of the fuchsia goo covered infants slid out and she smiled as she said, “she's a Hive Guard,” she placed the infant in Luna's night themed towel.
As she wiped the infant down Luna said, “Dusk Sentinel seems appropriate.” Once again the infant giggled with approval.
“Dusk it is then,” said Chrysalis, she positioned her arms to catch the infant that slid from the egg sack two to the right of the first. Once again a fuchsia goo covered infant came out and she placed it in the towel Rarity was holding as she said, “She's a Nurse type worker.”
“Well then,” said Rarity as she delicately cleaned the infant with her white gem themed towel, “Satin Care seems the most appropriate, seeing as she'll have a need to care for others.” The infant cooed and giggled in delight at the sound of her name, “And it seems she agrees with me on her name.”
“They're all good names,” said Chrysalis, “Spike wanted to give them all gem themed names, but they all sounded a little too rough for my liking.”
“Okay, I concede that,” said Spike, “I was just throwing out name ideas since I hadn't put much thought into it until you told me the first three were going to hatch.”
“You just had your wedding two months ago,” said Twilight.
“And in three months we'll be visiting your family for Hearth's Warming Eve,” said Chrysalis, “I'm sure having more grandchildren to spoil will really make your mom happy.”
“And triplets to boot,” said Cadance with with a smile, “they're cute.”
“All foals are cute,” said Twilight, “it's a defense mechanism.”
“They'll be even cuter next time you see them,” said Chrysalis. The three mares gave Chrysalis and Spike their little bundles of joy and everyone thanked the two for letting them be present for the event, Twilight was even writing down notes in a pocket notebook she brought.

*******************************************

It was the week before Hearth's Warming Eve and Spike brought Chrysalis and the 'triplets' to Canterlot early for some time at the Sparkle household. The two were standing at the door, Chrysalis and their three girls were wrapped up so snugly that Spike couldn't resist joking that they were some kind of Hearth's Warming gifts. Spike rang the doorbell while Chrysalis held the slightly squirming infants in her arms.
Velvet opened the door to see Spike and an overly dressed Chrysalis with overly dressed infants in the doorway. “Oooh, grandfoals for Hearth's Warming,” cooed Velvet, “what a wonderful Hearth's warming gift.”
“And they're wrapped too,” said Spike jokingly, “do you and Night Light want the honor of 'unwrapping' them, or should that be me and Chrysalis?”
“Come in, the poor things must be sweltering,” said Velvet remembering her manners as she ushered them in.
“Changelings usually don't like the cold,” said Chrysalis, “to tell the truth at the wedding reception I was fighting an urge to pull on some kind of winter wear.”
“And you figured better safe than sorry,” said Velvet as she led them into the family room, where Twilight and Flash already were (Twilight was now ten months pregnant, Velvet was hoping they were off by a month so that the foal would be an additional Hearth's Warming surprise), were sitting in the room with Night Light.
“Well I see we have a few more family additions,” said Night Light from his place in his favorite chair.
“Care to help me 'unwrap' these gifts early,” said Velvet as Chrysalis and Spike began removing all their attire, Chrysalis taking a good three minutes while Spike took less than one to remove his outer winter attire. When they were finished Spike was wearing a violet sweater with Twilight's mark on it and dark green sweatpants with blue flame marks on their pockets and seat. Chrysalis was in a dark pink sweater that had Twilight's six pointed star, with Cadance's crystal heart within it and a dark blue winter skirt with a green dragon fire emblem on it.
Velvet and Night Light got to work undressing the girls, Skyla came in from sneaking a snack from kitchen to the sight and decided peel off the outer layers one of her new cousins. Since Velvet started first she finished undressing the changeling foal before her first, what sat before her was a changeling foal in a dark lavender shade wearing a cyan winter outfit adorned with books and scrolls with her mittens emblazoned with tablets. “That's Light Novel,” said Chrysalis, “she's the oldest of the three, Twilight's also the one who gave her the name.”
“She's beautiful,” cooed Velvet as she slid the foal's mittens off and picked her up and started bouncing her.
“Careful,” said Spike, “they're just barely three months old.”
Night Light was next, revealing a dusk purple filly in winter wear modeled after royal guard armor with a big shield emblem on the front, “Well, someone has high hopes for this little filly,” chuckled Night Light as he lifted her up and started tickling her belly, and was rewarded with joyful laughter from the filly.
“That would be Dusk Sentinel,” said Chrysalis, “Princess Luna gave her the name.”
“And it's a lovely name, her name even goes well with Twilight's,” said Night Light. Twilight just blushed a little.
Skyla was the last to 'unwrap' one of her little cousins, revealing a pinkish purple filly in white winter wear modeled after medical staff. “That's Satin Care,” said Chrysalis.
“Rarity gave her that name,” said Spike, “and they're all dressed the way they are for a reason.”
“You're going to have explain that one,” said Velvet.
“Well you see mom...” started Twilight.

******************************************

An hour and a half later, Twilight was very thorough in her explaining things, they all were just sitting around the living room enjoying the sight of Skyla playing with her new cousins. She really seemed to like young children, much like her mother, and ever since the 'triplets' showed up she hadn't said a word and only made a series of noises that seemed to excite the three-month-old foals.
“Skyla kept on complaining how boring this Hearth's Warming was going be,” chuckled Shining Armor, “I think you just made her holiday by bringing those three here.”
“Happy to help,” said Chrysalis, “you can take them out caroling if you want, Spike and I will just stay here for a bit, I'm not as used to the cold as he is just yet and the girls do seem to get more from him than me at times.”
“So Spike's going to be watching you to see how you did on your trip through the cold here,” said Velvet with a knowing smile.
“He's the one that knows me best out of everypony here, and he complained a bit about the snow being deeper around the station than he expected, had to clear more than he wanted to make sure I didn't drop our 'precious cargo' in the snow.”
Twilight gave a knowing a smile before saying in a cheery voice, “I've been working on the changeling information you gave us to compile a basic profile of what a typical changeling is, you said it takes roughly twelve weeks for standard changeling queen to develop and lay her egg sacks, right?”
“Yes,” said Chrysalis, who had no idea where this was going.
“So how long do they usually take to hatch?” Inquired Twilight, “I need that information to run my calculations.”
“Ever since Chrysalis reformed she's been on this sort of kick,” said Flash, “it's cute, but her drive to further knowledge can be a bit...”
“Overwhelming,” said Shining with a knowing nod, “that's Twily for ya.”
“You know I'm quite a bit the same way,” said Chrysalis.
“No foolin',” said Spike, “her entire library was so out of date that she practically read all the books Twilight gave us before we even got home, they're so old I doubt you could even find a copy of them in the Canterlot Archives.”
Twilight's ear twitched, Chrysalis said, “Two weeks, it usually takes changeling egg sacks two weeks to hatch, mine took over a month for my primes, those are usually hatched and ready to go within five days of being laid.”
“I see,” said Twilight as she took mental notes, “I checked Spike's theory out, and he's correct. Chrysalis's initial library is so old that it's effectively a literature museum,” she practically squealed with glee at the last set of words.
“Night Light,” said Velvet, “get the fillies some proper caroling attire, if we don't leave now Twilight and Chrysalis might get into an academic discussion that eats up the whole night.”
“Yes dear,” said Night Light, “come along girls,” the four fillies chased after their grandfather as he led them away.

**************************************

After Shining showed Spike and Chrysalis to the room they'd be sharing the left to join everyone else for caroling. Once the sound of the door closing and locking along with the crunching of snow as Shining made his way to catch up with the rest of the family Spike said, “I thought they'd never leave, we haven't had a good 'wrestling match' since the girls hatched.”
“You know how it is with small foals,” said Chrysalis as she shut the door, mostly out of a courteous habit than anything else, “they take up your time and attention.” She started to undress. Once she was fully naked she noticed Spike was still in his pants, “care to explain that?”
“Helps with the dramatic effect,” said Spike as he slipped them off to reveal a second pair of balls and second penis, both equal in size and form to the prior ones. “Happy Hearth's Warming, dear. Shall we?”
“Has anyone told you you're cute when you ask questions with obvious answers,” said Chrysalis as she slid the rods into her vagina and plot.
“No,” said Spike with a massive moan of pleasure, “but I could...stand to hear it be more often... It really turns me on.”
“Good,” moaned Chrysalis, “because the caroling... isn't the only thing just starting tonight.”
> Bonus Chapter: Hearth's Warming in Canterlot
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

For the first time since the girls had hatched Chrysalis and Spike were awoken by three bouncing bundles of energy repeatedly, and a little rapidly, babbling about it being Hearth's Warming Eve. It also had turned out Velvet's hopes had come true, Twilight ended up in the hospital to give birth three days prior and recently returned to her parents' house with her husband and newborn daughter. Spike had apparently gotten used to the kind of treatment the girls were giving because after about five seconds of the girls' excitement he went back to sleep, Chrysalis, on the other hand, was more than happy help quell the unbridled excitement and joy of her daughters (until she saw that the clock said it was three in the morning). Since Chrysalis was now up, and would take some time to go back to sleep, she decided to get her daughters to understand a few things. Getting out of bed she revealed her lavender and pink accented blue nightgown adorned with with green dragon flames on the chest and upper back as she motioned for her daughters to follow her.
Since she couldn't take them into the family room, since that was where the Hearth's Warming gifts were, and some had yet be placed 'by Santa' she had to think of an alternative place to explain things, she chose the kitchen. After taking the girls to the kitchen, in a way that made sure they didn't see the family room, Chrysalis set them down near the counter and got some things out of the fridge she knew that would help make her offspring drowsy.
While making them a 'sleepy time' snack she started humming the same wordless, soothing tune she had when she had been carrying their egg sacks in her short pregnancy, she also started doing a little kitchen dance as she prepped the snacks. The girls started dancing along with their mother in their cute, yet awkward way as they awaited the early morning snacks their mother was preparing for them.
Even after she finishing the simple sandwiches she had decided to make, and while putting the ingredients away, Chrysalis continued her tune and dance. She, and the girls, only stopped after she noticed Twilight Velvet in the kitchen doorway watching the scene, the girls were dancing as they ate the snacks their mother had made for them. Chrysalis had an embarrassed look the moment she saw Velvet, which only intensified when she saw Cadance and Skyla.
“What time is it?” Was all Chrysalis could muster to say, the embarrassment quite present in her voice.
“Four-thirty,” said Skyla with amusement on her face and a giddy tone to her voice.
Chrysalis sighed and said, “The girls woke me up an hour and a half ago, I didn't expect to be up this long. I thought we'd all be up twenty minutes as I made their snack, it would take another ten minutes for them to down them, then I'd tuck them into bed and that would be it.”
“Don't feel too bad,” said Cadance, “Skyla always wakes me up this early, I just didn't expect your new additions to beat her to the punch their first year.”
“It really was a lovely sight, dear,” said Velvet, “I've never heard that melody before.”
“Same here,” said Cadance, “and I've heard a wide variety of musics over the years.”
“It's the tune I would hum when I was carrying the girls,” said Chrysalis, still a little embarrassed, “I never heard it before I first started humming it, even though it surprised me it also felt right. It's just a simple tune to sooth and relax.”
“A perfect Hearth's Warming melody,” said Skyla, “I want to join my cute, little cousins in that adorable dance they were doing, it also gave me an idea for just what to give them.”
Chrysalis looked back at her daughters in their overly large nightgowns, which were themed similarly to the winter outfits they had sported on their arrival day to the house, and gave a smile. Gesturing for the three to come closer, which they did eagerly (while still trying to eat their sandwiches), she said, “Girls, your big cousin, Skyla, wants to spend Hearth's Warming morning dancing with you, do you want to dance with her?”
While still trying to consume their food Dusk and Satin nodded vigorously while Novel shook her head gently. Smiling Cadance said, “Looks like you have two takers, I wonder what Novel wants to do.”
“What do you want to do while your sisters and cousin dance?” Said Chrysalis in her gentle maternal voice to Light Novel. The changeling foal kept munching on her snack while pointing to Cadance with one of her hands. “You want another Hearth's Warming tale from your auntie Cadance?” Novel nodded vigorously, while still trying to consume her snack with fervor. “Velvet, could you go setup the dining room for the girls? Cadance, maybe it would be best if you carried Novel somewhere that won't cause her to 'accidentally see Santa' and settle in for a comfortable story session.”
“Kly chwan't vwee shwee Zanka?” Said Light Novel with her sandwich still in her mouth.
“It's not polite to talk with food in your mouth dear,” said Velvet, “especially when you're filling your mouth with said food, no matter your age manners are always important.”
Novel looked like she was thinking it over, which was made all the more adorable by her stopping her eating the sandwich mid-chew, before giving Velvet a curt nod and toddling over to Cadance.
****************************************************

A few minutes later half the dining room was a cleared space with Chrysalis and Velvet acting as the gatekeepers for the side with furniture, a line of chairs made a makeshift 'wall' with the two mares occupying two of the chairs. Chrysalis started humming her tune again and the girls started their early morning dance. Velvet moved her hands back and forth like she was trying to keep the tempo as she listened to the tune with a smile.
Night Light, Shining Armor and Spike were up and out of bed a few hours later, at almost seven in the morning (mostly to play the part of 'Santa' while the rest of the house was occupied, they knew very well that Velvet and Cadance were up with Skyla). On their way to the 'hidden caches' of gifts they found Cadance in full sitter mode telling the tale of the first Hearth's Warming to an overjoyed Light Novel, Spike took a mental note of this because if one of his girls was up this early then the others were too and that meant their mother was as well. That's when they heard Chrysalis's soothing tune, Spike recognized it instantly as the one she hummed to the eggs before the girls had hatched, when they entered the dining room they found the rest of the girls dancing with Chrysalis humming the tune with her eyes closed in bliss. When Velvet noticed the stallions she reached behind her and held up a sign that read 

 After you place the gifts get the home recording equipment, this is top priority


The three silently nodded and left the two mares to what they were doing. Twilight, with her daughter in her arms, entered to the sound and sight a few minutes later. “How did everyone sleep?” Asked Velvet as Chrysalis continued her tune.
“Pretty well,” Twilight whispered back after she seated herself next to her mother, her little orange unicorn filly with a mane of indigo with pink and dark blue stripes at the edges of her mane, held close, “Luminous Seeker hasn't made all that many sounds since she was born, she'll make noise when she wants to be fed, but other than she's a quiet little angel.” She turned to the sight of her nieces doing their own little improvised dance maneuvers before them, “We should start every Hearth's Warming this way, the girls dancing to a soothing melody I mean, have you discussed it with Chrysalis yet?”
“No,” Velvet whispered back, “she's the one providing the music, and I just don't have the heart to end the tune, I'm afraid as soon as the music ends the girls will stop dancing. Cadance and I caught her humming the tune and doing a little kitchen dance as she made her girls a snack, it was so precious I'm sorry she stopped when she noticed us.”
Twilight nodded and whispered something to her half-awake daughter, the filly came fully awake and babbled something in her foalish language, Twilight seemed to understand and brought her daughter to suckle, the filly eagerly ate her morning meal. The only thing that almost ruined it was Flash entering the room half asleep, fortunately, Velvet stopped him with her magic before it got that far. Twilight looked at her husband with her suckling daughter still to her chest and gave him a look that silently asked the question as to what he wanted.
Flash gestured for Twilight to join him outside the room, she nodded and tapped their daughter on the crown of her head (it was something she had discovered by accident, it seemed Luminous Seeker would stop what she was doing when she was tapped on the crown of her head, Twilight hoped the filly would grow out of that). With the filly having forcibly finished her morning meal Twilight passed her daughter to Velvet and left the room in such a way to not disturb Chrysalis or her dancing nieces. Once they were in the family room Twilight said, “This better be important, Flash, it's a holiday, and I was enjoying a wonderful new family moment for said holiday.”
“Twilight,” said Flash, “you asked me to remind you that Princess Celestia and Princess Luna would be dropping by for a 'surprise' visit the moment I got up, mostly because you would be getting caught up in early morning family activities, I would also like to remind you that you didn't give a specific time for the visit, but I would assume it would be some point after sunrise.”
Twilight looked at the clock and gasped, “It's almost eight in the morning, we're usually making holiday cookies in the kitchen by now, but the girls are having a fun time dancing to Chrysalis's soothing melody,” she gave an exasperated groan, “mom probably wants to make it a new tradition now, and I just can't say no to her and three very young fillies. If it were just her maybe, but throwing foals into the mix means they might start a crying contest if they're upset, and I don't want to be known as the pony who almost ruined the holiday, and to top it off sunrise is in a half-hour, and I can't send either of them a message saying to keep away from the house for a few hours, that would ruin the apparent spontaneity of their visit.”
“Not to mention Discord could just poof everyone here in an instant, no need to be at the door when you can be in the house on a whim,” said Flash.
“You're right,” said Twilight, “Discord and Celestia have been married for the past decade now, I almost forgot about that.”
A bright flash in the room heralded The arrival of Celestia, Luna, Discord, and Lucent. “Hi everyone,” said Lucent in a subdued cheery voice, then noticed the lack of occupants in the room, “where is everypony?” She looked around a bit as she asked the question.
“Cadance is telling Light Novel Hearth's Warming stories in the hall,” said Twilight with a tone that indicated she was annoyed their arrival was before sunrise, “the rest of the girls are dancing in the dining room."
“Ooh, mommy, can I join the other girls in dancing?”
“Of course sweetie,” said Celestia, “just be sure you aren't disruptive.”
The young hybrid nodded with excitement and dashed off. Everyone looked at Discord expectantly, “What, you think I'd encourage her to ruin something I've been trying get her to go for all month? Shame on you, she's had absolutely no interest in dancing 'til just a moment ago.”
“It's true,” said Celestia, “she's a little hard to predict, like her father,” she gave a sly grin.
Twilight gave another groan before saying, “Alright, let's see what the damage is.” They all made their way to the dining room.
When they got their Luna burst out laughing, which surprisingly didn't interrupt anything. The side of the dining room that had to be turned into an impromptu dance hall now looked like a real dance floor with all four fillies dancing in the most awkward, yet adorably amusing, manners. While all the adults (including Discord, surprisingly), Skyla and Lucent were all dressed for the holiday it could be seen that Dusk and Satin were not really dressed for the holiday seeing as they were still dancing in their nightgowns.
“This is very precious,” said Celestia, an overjoyed Luna was having her own moment next to Celestia, “and it seems my sister agrees. Discord, if you aren't recording this you should.”
“Way ahead of you,” said Discord, Twilight and Flash turned their heads to notice Discord in a red and green beret sitting in a director's chair, turning their attention back to the dancing fillies they noticed a series of self-operating 1940s style movie cameras moving along the wall recording the dancing fillies from six different angles, “this will be our greatest masterpiece of home cinema, I believe I will call it, 'A Hearth's Young Dance', yes that seems to be good.” Celestia held back a snicker as the fan he conjured up turned into a massive candy cane fan.
“What's the air in director's chair smell like,” inquired Celestia as she hid a snickering smile with her wing.
“Pine, as always,” said Discord seeming to have not noticed his hand fan, “with a... rather large hint of cinnamon and spearmint?” He turned his attention to the fan in his talon before saying, “Well, apparently the wood and paper fan I was going for got swapped for... something a bit more festive, I suppose I have our daughter to thank for that one.”
“She's still getting a handle on the kind of magic you use, honey,” said Celestia, “she's barely gotten a handle on the pony magic side of things, she has two different kinds of magic to work with and needs to find the happy medium herself.”

****************************

After another hour of dancing fillies, and Chrysalis's soothing humming, it was all brought to an end, much to Velvet's dismay the guys had returned with non-functional audio recording equipment, which Discord promptly turned into foal friendly gifts for the girls. Cadance also returned to the rest of the family holding a very happy, and much less energetic, Light Novel. Skyla got a pair of ballet shoes, much to her amused annoyance; Satin Care got a plushy version of Discord, much to his own amusement (seemed he wanted to be as surprised as everyone else); Dusk Sentinel got a toy shield and new armor inspired pajamas, the sight of which started giving Shining Armor a few ideas of what to do with his niece; and Light Novel got a small collection of pocket notebooks, which she promptly started hugging (much to the amusement of everyone, the sight also brought a larger smile to Twilight's face). Lucent asked her father where her gift was, he responded by saying that those gifts were only intended for the Sparkle family. Lucent almost pouted, but was stopped by the three-month-old Dusk wanting to be picked up.
“Alright little Dusk, what do you want?” Said Lucent, the changeling foal just responded with a boop on Lucent's nose and a giggle, “I see, you raise a good point,” responded Lucent before blowing a raspberry into the infant's belly, which in turn earned her more giggles of delight. After that display of cuteness, everyone made their way into the kitchen, after making Discord and Lucent promise to not do anything to anything made in the kitchen.
While Twilight's parents, Cadance, Shining Armor and Skyla got busy on the holiday confections Chrysalis got started on the preparations for the coming evening meal, she started humming a sort of relaxing kitchen tune and once again started doing a kitchen dance as she went about working, her three daughters once again started their little dance in the kitchen. Celestia elected to help Chrysalis, doing her own sort of kitchen dance, along with Lucent after giving Discord the 'very important job' of getting as much of the dancing fillies on record as possible without interrupting the happenings in the kitchen. Before long all the mares, and Skyla, were humming Chrysalis's little kitchen tune while Discord did his best to capture as much of the precious moment of three small changeling foals dancing in the kitchen, while surprisingly keeping out of the way (it was almost as if they knew where they needed to be in order to not cause anyone problems).
After looking over the dinner preparations and nodding to each other Chrysalis and Celestia moved their work into the fridge to keep it from going to waste before turning to their work stations and starting on everyone's breakfast. A simple breakfast of pancakes made like gingerbread with a hint of peppermint, had its scents fill the kitchen in almost no time. The two got to work making holiday images out of the cooking batter, and before long four plates of the delectable treats were stacked and on the table of the dining room (after said room was back in order and all the furniture was where it was supposed to be).
Each of Chrysalis's girls got stacks of four hotcakes, piled from largest to smallest, Skyla and Lucent got six, stacked the exact same way. They all thanked Chrysalis for serving the overly sweet breakfast. The adults had to serve themselves, much to Discord's dismay (he was partially hoping Chrysalis would drop a few of the dark brown holiday hotcakes on his plate, so he just had the foodstuffs do it for him and Celestia).

********************************

After breakfast came the official gift giving, much to the joy of everyone under the age fifteen (in other words, all the kids). Skyla was the first to open a gift, she surprised everyone by choosing the gift Chrysalis had chosen to give her (the surprise was quite evident on her face when she read the giver's name). Carefully pealing away the wrapping paper she was treated to a little pink book that said “Holiday Observations, Practices that need more Exploring” Skyla gave Chrysalis a confused look.
“It's a copy of the holiday notes I made when I was your age,” said Chrysalis, “I thought you might want to see what the impressions of the holidays are like to an outside observer,” she started rubbing her left arm like she was uncomfortable, “I know it's not much and you probably won't read it, it seems more like something Twilight would be interested in, but I already gave her a copy before the girls hatched.”
“No, it's perfect,” said Skyla with a smile, “it'll help me understand and give a better understanding of perspectives, mom says we need to understand perspectives more in order to better represent ponies, this is just the kind of reading I need to help with that. I was actually wondering how I could better understand things from a non-Equestrian view, this is beyond ideal for everything. Why is the cover pink?”
“I thought you might like it, since its the color of your mother's coat, and yours,” said Chrysalis.
The sound of paper getting torn and squeals of delight soon reach everyone's ears, “Sounds like Chrys's brood just finished finding out what they got,” said Twilight, “normally I wouldn't trust any pony under the age of three to open their own gifts, but Chrysalis's girls just seem to be fine with it.
Looking over Chrysalis saw her girls with what looked like a small collection of plush versions of the family, she then started floating the ribbons and wrapping paper away from the infants when she noticed them going to chew on the gift coverings. “So long as what the gifts are wrapped in are removed from their reach shortly after,” said Chrysalis. They all shared a merry laugh.
Lucent found that her aunt Luna thought it would be funny to give her a small collection of mane and tail brushes, Celestia was treated to a book of cakes from Discord (that was enchanted with his magic to bring any cake she touched on certain days, mainly Hearth's Warming Day and her birthday, into physical existence next to her, she then just tackle-kissed him [much to the disgust of their daughter, and amusement of everyone else that was older than five]).
Twilight, surprisingly, didn't give Flash a book, but instead a special armor polish she had developed and tested for an extended period of time in secret from him all for the expressed purpose of surprising him when she finished her first genuinely successful batch. Flash presented Twilight with a book on foalcare he had found on the way to the hospital, which was a little ironic. Luna opened a gift from Chrysalis that was a book of popular foal games that spanned the last thousand years (that Chrysalis had compiled it from the time she was growing up to the time she started planning her failed invasion), Chrysalis was clued on how her gift was also a subtle joke when she was in the middle of wrapping it.
After they all opened many more presents, mostly undergarments for some bizarre reason (even if it was stated to be a tradition by that point Chrysalis still felt the need to point out the bulk of gifts being socks and underwear was a bit odd). Chrysalis's girls, being the interested little scamps they were, actually tried climbing all over Discord and Celestia (this caused their daughter to laugh with merriment, mostly because she got to see her parents seeming to be overwhelmed by three curious foals). It proved to be a most amusing, and enjoyable, morning. While all the girls decided to have collective afternoon nap Velvet popped the question she'd been holding since she first saw the girls dancing.
“It was so precious seeing the girls dance around like that, do you think you could start our Hearth's Warming mornings off like that every year.”
“Two and a half hours,” said Chrysalis, “stop it at two and a half hours, no matter how precious or how much of a crime you think it would be to end it all. We ended up getting behind in your holiday traditions this morning, I'm going to go get lunch started,” she rose and headed for the kitchen.
“I'll help,” said Velvet, “we can hammer out the details for the coming years as we work. So, what you want to make for this holiday lunch?”
“Let's keep it simple,” said Chrysalis, “make dinner look all that more impressive, I'm thinking a nice vegetable stew and some winter flower sandwiches.”
“Simple, yet elegant,” said Velvet as they stepped into the kitchen and could no longer be heard by everypony else, except maybe Discord.
“Should we be worried? Something tells me we should,” said Twilight as she did her little ritual to keep her daughter asleep with her cousins.
“Honestly,” said Spike, “Chrys is a decent cook, she somehow manages to make leftovers exciting and when she makes things herself they're pretty good.”
“I'm still trying to figure out how she managed to make those tasty gingerbread pancakes for breakfast,” said Flash, “maybe we should make that a Hearth's warming tradition, the making and eating gingerbread pancakes I mean.”
“Well,” said Cadance, “she'll probably share the recipe with us before heading home, it's pretty impressive how fast she integrated into the family.”
“I'm to blame for that,” said Spike with an embarrassed look, “she's taken quite a few of my traits, but she also seems to have developed new habits around them. Yeah, I liked working in the kitchen from time to time, but I never sang or danced in the kitchen all that often.”
“And she's far more graceful than you when she dances in the kitchen,” Twilight teased, “last time I saw you dance in the kitchen you tripped over your own foot and felt like having your face meet the oven door.”
Spike gave a polite cough, “Yes, well no matter the reason for it all, the girls are our pride and joy,” he gave the three sleeping changeling fillies a smile of joy, "and to think there are twenty-one more waiting to hatch back home.”
Nightlight looked at Spike with surprise, especially since the dragon had said it very casually, “We have twenty-one grandfoals waiting to hatch? I know Velvet wanted a lot of grandfoals, but that's pushing it a bit.”
“They might have a few more than that in the coming years,” said Twilight as she held her sleeping in daughter in her lap.

***********************

Lunch was turned into a far more entertaining affair with the children, all of the children, playing games around their food, this was exasperated further with the aid of Discord's chaos magic making it so that every time one of them took a bite of their stew it made them take on a persona tied to how their spoon was held. Twilight, Flash, Shining and Velvet were all very unamused. Spike, Chrysalis ad Night Light (much to the displeasure of his wife, daughter, son and son-in-law), and Cadance (much to the lack of amusement shown by the majority of her adult family) were actually trying different holding methods with the stew for the kids in order to see what they'd get next. Celestia and Luna just sat there with looks of amusement while doing their best to hide it, and Discord did a failed job of feigning innocence in the matter.

****************************

After some more play time after lunch, they soon found the time was passing quicker than anticipated. Velvet, Cadance, and Chrysalis got started on making dinner (a full two hours earlier than usual in household when came time for the holiday) while the rest of the adults did their best to keep the kids occupied, Twilight was a little put off by the fact she had an infant that demanded her attention so much she couldn't help in the kitchen (the making of the holiday dinner with her mom had always been one of her favorite activities of Hearth's Warming). At a half hour to dinner, after Celestia had lowered the sun and Luna raised the moon, it was time for the holiday's final meal.
The girls seemed to get enjoyment out of treating the bread sticks that Velvet put a great deal of effort into like dueling accessories, much to the amusement of everyone who wasn't Velvet. The spread at the table was enough for a seven-course meal, more if Discord decided to do an 'endless buffet' contingent, which he did. After the girls had overstuffed their tummies they fell asleep and were carried by their parents to their rooms, after they were tucked in and given a goodnight kiss the parents retired to the family room for some conversation before retiring to bed.