Gah!” Chrysalis exclaimed when Twilight used her magic to help her push the much larger changeling onto the bed.
“I can feel your hunger,” the pony queen stated as she climbed up over Chrysalis. “I didn’t mean to starve you, Chrysy. Please,” she lowered her face to the dark changeling’s, “help yourself.”
In spite of Twilight’s words and the presence of Fluttershy – who was sitting at the table and drinking tea – it was not Chrysalis but rather Twilight herself who started the kiss.
The morning had been bright enough but the closed curtains of the inn room and the lack of the clammy outside air meant that no discomfort or prying eyes disturbed the pony-changeling kiss. It may have been the first time in recorded history that a pony had romantically kissed a changeling knowing that they were, in fact, a changeling. If it was not the first overall then it was certainly the first involving a former hive queen. And none saw it.
Except for Fluttershy, who was still there.
Watching.
Blushing behind her teacup.
Chrysalis enjoyed the warm feeling of her queen’s lips on hers. Then she wanted more and Twilight delivered with a soft tongue against her lips. Their tongues met, making even Twilight hard-pressed to consider anything else but the exhilerating sensation. Chrysalis might have done something in addition, but her horn was already glowing bright and taking in the magical form of love. The fact that Chrysalis wasn’t transformed and was still in her original changeling form only made the collection that much more potent.
No meal in her life came close to comparing to this. Not even the stolen love from Shining Armor. This was pure love directed at her. Chrysalis. She remained limp on the bed below her queen and just tried to make sense of the sensation. She had lived for hundreds of years now and, though not as old as Celestia, she had believed no creature and certainly no pony younger than herself could possibly show her something new.
Something amazing.
A magical fire ignited in her very core and her glowing horn began to pulsate as well with a blue-green beat. She began to feel more than satiated. On top of the bloated feeling of having consumed a meal larger than her stomach, she also felt a sharpness to her mind and body. It was as if she could run a million hooves and not get tired or solve all of the world’s hardest equations in a heartbeat.
Perhaps that last feeling was just Twilight’s own feelings bleeding over the hivemind into hers. Chrysalis didn’t care about sorting her feelings from her queen’s though. This was the best feeling she ever had and, in that moment, her world was perfect.
Fluttershy failed to stifle an “eep” of surprise when Chrysalis finally took action and flipped Twilight around so that she was the one below on the bed. The changeling slithered her long snake-like tongue into Twilight's mouth to continue the deep kiss. The surprised expression on Twilight’s face faded quickly and she simply enjoyed it and wrapped her hooves around the larger being’s neck.
Tea forgotten, Fluttershy tried futilely to get her wings back down from their raised position all while keeping focused on the scene. She couldn’t look away. Why had she asked to stay anyways? She knew why. It was because she loved all of them. Twilight, Chrysalis, and Rainbow. That and she was intrigued by the idea of their small group having intimate moments together.
Twilight lightly pushed on Chrysalis’ chest to break the kiss. The changeling though was so obsessed at that point that her long tongue was stubborn to leave and still hung out of her mouth like a puppy dog’s when Twilight removed the end from her own mouth with her magic.
“Gee, Chrysy,” Twilight licked her lips and giggled. “Is this like third base for changelings?”
“I thid-” Chrysalis garbled her words with her tongue out. She slithered it back in her mouth before continuing. “I didn’t know you were into pony sports, my queen.”
Twilight shrugged beneath her changeling. “Not really. I was just conveying Dashie’s thoughts. I let her in on it.”
Yo, the pegasus greeted over the hivemind. Rainbow currently had a hayburger in her mouth and was enjoying it within one of Las Pegasus’ best unknown restaurants. Her own hunger for a hayburger had overpowered her desire to see how long a changeling tongue was. Although, she was able to see as much over their mutual mind.
I’m surprised, Dashie, Chrysalis smirked. You always seemed more interested in our queen’s flanks than hayburgers. And to think you’d pass up the opportunity to find out if my tongue could reach your-
“Alright,” Twilight bopped her changeling on the nose. She noted Rainbow’s intense embarrassment. “You’ve bothered Dashie enough for now,” Twilight added with her tongue being the one to stick out this time.
“Perhaps another would enjoy a share of my meal,” Chrysalis looked back to Fluttershy, who ducked under the table in response.
“So you’re full then?” Twilight rose a brow. Chrysalis was not yet known to play with her food unless she was already stuffed.
The changeling looked back to Twilight and her smirk faltered before turning sly. “Hmmm,” she hummed and then her horn’s glow pulsed with expenditure. “Maybe it’s time for dessert!”
The prolonged “eep” was all Twilight needed to hear to know what the plan was – hivemind or not. Fluttershy was caught up in a green magical grasp and floated onto the bed in spite of the fact she was tossing and turning in the aura, confused about what to do.
“Fear not, little Shy,” Chrysalis cooed as the pegasus fell from her magical grasp and into her physical one. “I will be gentle.”
“Oh, I’m not afraid of you,” Fluttershy replied in a confident and calm tone that was quite opposite to her appeance of indecision. She then looked to Twilight beside her on the bed. “I’ve just...never...”
“Done something like this with two at once,” Twilight couldn’t help a sultry demeanor. She really had started to see Fluttershy in a way she hadn’t before. She had loved her for some time now but she had also discovered that love and sexual desire were not always the same. Now she experienced both at once.
Fluttershy looked around her, unsure what to do. “I wasn’t even sure for a time,” she decided to say and looked up to Chrysalis before settling her gaze on Twilight again. The pony had rolled over to lay alongside Fluttershy on the bed. “I love you, Twilight,” she said and got her soft smile back. “I love Dashie and Chrysy too. I think what you and Chrysy do...well, it looks...um...nice.”
Twilight could feel what the Element of Kindness was thinking and feeling but decided to say something anyways because it felt right to do so. “We don’t have to do anything like that, Shy. I love you but I don’t want you to feel like you have to do sexual favors for me.”
“No,” Fluttershy quickly objected and wiggled into a better posture to look at her special mare. “I mean, I know that. It’s just that this is something I would like as well. Chrysy needs love to survive but not...”
The sunny yellow mare seemed to have trouble actually saying the word “sex.”
“She wants it anyways because she loves you and it,” Fluttershy wound up saying instead.
This, however, prompted a frown of puzzlement on Twilight. Not for the pegasus before her but rather the shape-shifter. “I’m not aware of changeling rituals pertaining to sexual activity. As far as I’m aware, the process for reproduction in your species was functional more than pleasurable. Yet you obviously have some connection to the patterns and urges of pony sexuality.”
The scientific speak no longer had a bothersome effect upon the changeling. “Of course,” she shrugged as if it went without saying. “How could any hive hope to steal love without being trained in the ways of ponies? Desire is not just a reproductive necessity, my queen. Even changelings can have desire for mere pleasure or emotional bonding.”
Twilight was unknowingly losing her sexual moment to scientific inquiry. “I can’t believe I missed this. I was just so busy with everything,” she swept a hoof with the word. “Honestly, I wasn’t really sure what I was supposed to do after the kissing. I mean, I would know if you were a pony, of course.”
Fluttershy blushed all over again at the implication. Did that mean Twilight would do “that” to her?
“But I avoided prying into your memories of your private areas because,” Twilight left the explanation off, knowing it went without saying. “I’ve never really taken a good look myself. But you obviously can feel pleasure there since you’ve implied-”
Chrysalis put her hole-ridden hoof to her queen’s mouth. “Biology can wait. I’m full anyways and I think there is another who would enjoy some exploration.”
The pegasus stiffened and gave a “heh-heh” of nervous I-have-no-idea-what’s-coming.
Twilight looked back down to Fluttershy and gained what could only be described as a creepy leer. She was about to lean up to the mare’s ear and whisper something decidedly inappropriate when a loud banging on the room door drew her from it. With a groan she called out to the visitor. “Who is it?!”
Her hivemind came back at her at the same time with the information which she had filtered out before. The guards had been reluctant to bother her but did try upon the urgency of the message. This was obviously a matter too grave to put aside, so Twilight dropped her inner shields.
“Messenger,” the voice wheezed, out of breath. The pony fell against the door’s outside with a thud. “Flame Haze, acting scout under Captain Storm Sword, enemy position...”
Twilight hardly bothered with moving. She instantly teleported herself off the bed and also the exhausted mare into the room with some of the bed pillows beneath her to rest her spent body upon. This Royal Guard was one she only vaguely recognized as one of the Captain of the Guard’s immediate inferiors. She was haggard but able to look up to Twilight and give something more legible.
“We found Sombra, your highness,” the scout said, her forehead creased with the pain of her journey and her coat damp with sweat. “The changelings are with him. They discovered us-”
“Storm Sword?” Twilight asked with further concern.
“I was sent when the engagement was still underway. I don’t know what’s become of my unit or my captain.”
The pony queen could hear the suppressed emotions in the soldier’s words. Some parts of the Royal Guard were more like family to each other than temporary postings. This scout might have been under Storm’s direct command for years or even her entire enlisting within the Guard. So, after the spent mare gave the coordinates and time, Twilight had her taken to a medical facility to recover.
After additional guards had arrived and taken the scout away on a stretcher, Rainbow was the first to question their move over the hivemind.
“I have an idea...” Twilight mused aloud in response. She tapped her chin and looked curiously at her changeling still upon the bed. Dashie, you and Shy will have to be at the city announcement in my place. The trials are too important for us to be gone but I have no choice but to deal with Sombra directly.
Chrysalis, however, was reading some random book and looking bored, passing the time until she had some use again. Or food.
“Chrysalis?”
The dark chitinous being looked up from the book, her frown turning into a smile so fast it was as if she were a light that had just been turned on. “Twilight?” she responded in the same tone of voice.
“Do you know the dark magic Sombra uses to detect a disguised changeling?”
“You can see for yourself,” Chrysalis pursed her lips.
Twilight closed her eyes and concentrated on that part of their hivemind. The others were easier to dig into if she wished but Chrysalis was much older than any of them and had many more memories to sift through. The changeling helped, however, and offered it up to her queen.
Twilight's eyes opened again and her horn had a faint glow of green along its spiral lines. “This is going to take some practice, but we’ll have to do it on the train.”
“Don’t wish to waste time – or lives,” Chrysalis read her queen’s thought. “Very well. Are you sure you do not wish any others to go? I am more than a match for him but-”
The purple pony rolled her eyes and went to sip some of Fluttershy’s tea from earlier. It was still warm. In truth, she knew Chrysalis was not exaggerating by much. When she was fully powered as she was now, Chrysalis was at least a match for the stallion king. Perhaps she had been less so before their pony hive had caused alterations with their powers – due at least in part to the fact that the ponies themselves had already been the bearers of Harmony.
She swallowed a sip of tea and began gathering their things in the room into appropriate luggage bags before stopping. It came back to her that her maids might be upset if she did too much herself. So she called them in and gave Fluttershy a loving nuzzle before sending her out to meet Rainbow in the city.
“We might get there faster if we attempted a unified teleportation spell,” Twilight considered as she walked out of the inn room with her changeling and guards in tow. She weighed their options. “It would reduce the magical expenditure so we would not be so exhausted upon arrival. However, we would not have the time to practice the other spell on the way and the plan might fail.”
Chrysalis poked her queen’s consciousness in the hivemind and grumbled at it. She could see what the plan was but was not sold on this grand idea of hers. “Why is there a plan? Why not just let me break him?” she whined.
Twilight put a hoof firmly to the changeling’s hard but warm chest after they exited the inn. “He’s after something. Immortality, right? If I’m not mistaken then he already knows a way but needs me to do something for him.”
Chrysalis frowned deeper than she had in quite some time. She could feel the hivemind closed to all but them and an invisible sound bubble around them prevented the guards and other ponies on the road from hearing. Her friends were not aware of what she was now planning. “You want to use him? He’s not naive, Twilight. You can’t hide this from him. Besides, you are already immortal.”
“This isn’t about me,” Twilight stopped them both again for a minute. “My friends – and those of you I love especially – are not. I can’t live with that. I know the Origins can be persuaded. Celestia did it and so can I. Sombra is just a stepping stone and he won’t be hurting anybody once we’re through with him.”
The steel confidence and icy resolve in her queen’s plan unsettled Chrysalis. It was clear how determined Twilight was to obtain immortality for those she loved. Was the promise of immortality something that ponies obsessed over more than other races did? She herself had, after all, never been too concerned with it. There had never been any assurance even in her younger years that ancient myths could be used to curb the starvation of changelings.
“What about the changelings?” Chrysalis had to ask once Twilight turned and started walking them to the train station again. She didn’t care about her old hive. At least not in the way she once did. Still, she knew all of those changelings and not all of them were traitors like that Princess Flux. Many were mere followers, as changelings were often grown to be. She might not care enough to save them but she certainly wouldn’t be the one to end them.
Twilight’s gaze trailed back to the cobblestone clacking beneath her purple hooves as she walked across it. The lines and cracks between the stones became a matter of fascination to her. All of those small details and each was a part of a much longer road. She neither started at the beginning or would stop at the end. She would get off at the point she needed to.
The story of Chrysalis’ old hive was as complex and the breadth of its own story was not something she had been a part of like Chrysalis had been. She could see Chrysalis’ memories and even her feelings but no matter how much she knew or sympathized, she had not lived it.
They were on the platform of the station and boarding the train to Vanhoover when she looked to Chrysalis again. She was conflicted with her decision but knew no better option.
“Deal with them however you see fit.”
Chrysalis felt that coming and had hoped that her queen would lessen the burden of closure upon her. Twilight’s plan was becoming clear to her though and even if the queen had some idea of what to do with the changelings it would not have mattered. She would be too busy with Sombra to act anything out. Truly unfortunate timing and alliances.
The changeling waited her turn and then stepped up into the train car behind Twilight. “I assume the nature of a foreign hive leaves you at a loss as to how to handle diplomacy with them?”
“They aren’t just a neutral party,” the mare responded. She walked down the clean and well-vacuumed car aisle before taking a window seat at the back and against a newly-polished window, which currently showed only the mud and bush-strewn fields outside Las Pegasus. “They’re combatants. Celestia’s pardon helped your acceptance in Equestria. I wouldn’t have been able to do that on my own. When word gets out about the depth of changeling involvement in the Cloudsdale incident, I’m not sure even this city would take my word on forging a treaty.”
Chrysalis had difficulty getting into the seat next to her queen because of her size and awkwardly non-pony-standard shape. So she morphed into a pony version of herself while keeping her colors and mane style. “What am I supposed to do? Take my old place as queen back? I won’t do that.”
Twilight had no intention of such a thing ever happening but she wondered at the idea and when she looked back from the window to Chrysalis she was surprised at the mare’s look. Chrysalis had the body of a mature but fit mare with a smooth near-black body and a greenish-blue mane and tail that lacked their usual holes. The hair was shiny and swept in an alluring curve like some mix of Fluttershy and Rarity’s styles.
“Not bad,” the queen gave her a wink. “Though I do prefer your raw form.”
“I thought the guard’s news was souring enough to discourage flirting,” Chrysalis got a tug of amusement at the corner of her lips.
At that, the train car lurched with forward movement and Twilight looked back to the window to see the wet grass and small shrubs move by. “I have to feel alive. Otherwise the troubles would drown me.”