“As amusing as all this is,” said Culicidae, “I fail to see what we are even doing here. I don’t see any morsels wandering about, I doubt you could clear the area so thoroughly as to that end.”
“Let’s just say it was a team effort and leave it at that,” said Chrysalis.
“I did enjoy the display of power earlier,” said Nymph, “but I fail to see the purpose of this meeting in any meaningful capacity.”
“As things stand,” said Chrysalis, “I, and by extension, my offspring, are limited to the boundaries of Equestria. This meeting is to take care of a few things, and the fact you said all that means you weren’t really paying attention during the opening speech about the purpose of this meeting.”
“I was listening, I just don’t care about any of the emphasized points,” said Nymph.
“Besides, why should we care about something so far down the line? It has nothing to do with us,” said Culicidae, “our current system is amicable enough.”
“But lacks any real sense of stability,” said Chrysalis, “any queen could assert herself over another hive so long as someone has managed to remove that hive’s standing queen. This system is terrible! It encourages hostile behaviors while simultaneously discouraging other types of behavior. The Accords are basically adhered to solely because of how well they encourage the changeling definition of competition. These behavioral tendencies will eventually lead to the extinction of changelings as a whole. My current arrangements with Equestria encourage more constructive approaches that are as beneficial to my hive as they are to its neighboring nation. In short, it’s a model for Changeling approaches in the future, why take advantage of a culture when you can integrate into it? In short, the traditional changeling approach is best described as parasitic while my hive’s current approach is more akin to symbiotic.”
“I have heard these terms before,” said Arachne, “but I never bothered to learn their meaning, it was of little interest to me before now to learn what they are defined as.”
“A parasitic relationship is a reference to a type of entity known as a parasite,” said Chrysalis, “a parasite is a creature that takes on a host entity and takes what it needs from the host without offering anything in return. This sort of one-way relationship is known as a parasitic relationship.”
“As all hives should be,” said Culicidae, “why should we give anything to anyone.”
Chrysalis took a deep sigh and continued, “A symbiotic relationship is one where the entity that chooses a host and the host itself have a mutual relationship. That is to say, they provide assistance to each other in some capacity. For Equestria and myself, the nation provides me with a safe environment to mostly move about freely and feed without fear of being a target of aggression while I and my hive provide new means of protection from within and without. In the process, we’ve both gained something without having to put any real energy into combatting each other, which allows both parties to pursue other objectives.”
“An interesting approach,” said Arachne with a vested interest.
“Yes, but energy has to go into the forming of the relationship,” said Twilight, “Chrysalis put a large amount of energy and effort into the forming of our current relationship in the hopes that it would pay off. From what I understand about changelings, which mostly thanks to input from Chrysalis, most changeling queens are not willing to try for putting a lot of energy into a nonmilitary venture in hopes it will pay off in the long run. From what Chrysalis has shared changeling queens tend to focus on short-term objectives rather than long-term goals.”
“And it paid off more than I ever hoped,” said Chrysalis, “since I don’t have to put any energy into managing a facade, unless explicitly asked, I’m able to conserve far more energy than if I had been going about it the ‘traditional’ way. I might not have a hive that’s self-sufficient, yet, but it was a conscious decision based a number of factors, the two biggest being natural maturation cycles and a desire to not have my neighbors get the impression I’m trying for another invasion.”
“It also gives us time to prepare accordingly,” said Rarity, “Twilight’s excited about the possibility of educating new generations, along with the fact Chrysalis’s primes managed to integrate so well into the education system without having to resort to using their disguising ability, there is a time and place for everything.”
“Like Nightmare Night and hide-and-seek,” said Pinkie, “not to mention the kinds of pranks you can pull with an ability like that.”
“Please don’t tell me you’ve been pulling the girls into the pranks you and Rainbow like to pull,” said Chrysalis.
“Only the little ones,” said Pinkie, “the kind that are harmless fun.”
“It’s also fun playing which-one-is-the-real-one,” said Rainbow, “where we ask your girls to all actively pick the same pony to imitate then have everypony in town try to guess which isn’t the fake.”
Twilight facepalmed before saying, “That’s why every few weeks we see four of any given foal around town, you need to run activities by me or the city legislature so as to not potentially cause a panic.”
“But we did, a good three days before the first time it happened we dropped in on you and asked if it was okay,” said Rainbow.
“Was she busy at the time?” Said Chrysalis.
The cyan and pink mares gave nervous laughs before Pinkie said, “Oh, um, yeah. I guess we should have waited until she wasn’t preoccupied to drop something in on her like that.”
“A little extra warning wouldn’t have hurt either,” said Twilight.
“These sorts of interactions are rather amusing,” said Arachne, “but I’m having trouble seeing how most of this pertains to why we’re here.”
“Of course you do,” said Spike, “you’ve all either outright insulted Chrysalis or given her backhanded compliments. I’m going to put this as plainly as possible, you’re mocking my wife and while I would appreciate you stopping it I know that’s not going to happen. I was seeking retribution from friends and family after Chrys willingly allowed herself to be harmed as part of her atonement.” This caught the visiting queens off guard, no queen would willingly allow herself to be harmed without some sort of means of retaliation, “Of course she couldn’t have chosen a worse time, mostly on account she was still carrying. And while Chrys is more than capable of handling herself, especially in matters like this, if you continue to degrade her or make any attempts on lives of OUR girls I’ll be more than happy to show what passes for ‘diplomacy’ for most dragons.”
“Is that a threat?” said Culicidae.
“Spike stopped making threats ages ago,” said Chrysalis, “now when he says things like that it’s a promise.”
“I’ll put this in terms you can understand,” said Spike, “those blows that Chrysalis intentionally took will be the last she takes. Chrys insisted we be cordial with all of you, but if you’re preoccupied with seeing just how far you can push the hospitality we’ve extended then Cicada and Vespa got off light. And, for the record, I think what they got was a slap on the wrist. Of course, my opinion on the matter might be slanted a bit, on account they made an attempt on my mate’s life. This is the last you’ll hear of my words, next time I’ll just show my displeasure physically. And if any of you make a go at my daughter, I’ll be well within my rights to end you.” The word ‘end’ was given a strong emphasis.
Arachne just seemed to stare blankly. Yes, Cicada and Vespa were impulsive idiots, recent events proved that much. A dragon giving declarations, threat or not, was something to be wary of. Whether this offspring was genuinely his or not didn’t matter, what did was the paternal instincts that clearly stated that one wrong move would result in potentially fatal consequences regardless of who the offender was. Queens weren’t used to being fearful, some did enjoy being sources of fear, so much so that most had trouble even recognizing fear. To compound the issue, Chrysalis was being protective of her offspring.
“Coddling your drones will only lead to weakness,” stated Culicidae, who clearly tired of the display.
“I thought we covered this already,” Rainbow exclaimed with mild annoyance.
“We did,” said Chrysalis, “sometimes Queens like to loop conversations due to a desire to prevent things from progressing or intense disinterest in how things are going.”
“Wait, they actually actively make a go at hindering progress?” Rarity said with genuine surprise.
“Oh, indeed,” said Arachne, “most of us don’t really like to have things change beyond what fits a preconceived notion, I suppose Chrysalis told you about our arrangement before her failure.”
“Not in any real detail, for the most part,” said Rarity, “she probably shared the whole story, including the more minute aspects, with Twilight.”
“Guilty,” said Twilight, “it was around Hearth’s Warming that she did, I took quite a few notes during then, the rest of the family wasn't all too happy to hear how Changeling negotiations tend to go. She mentioned the negotiations taking days and going wildly off tangent a few times.”
“That is indeed accurate,” said Arachne, “and ever since her surrendering the secret to clothing production to me my hive has been doing far better than anticipated.”
“Pity you didn’t innovate,” said Rarity, “all the attire you produce is quite simplistic. Chrysalis moved everything in the right direction, with developing how to weave changeling silk into cloth and that cloth into clothing. But you, Arachne, seem to be content with things to take things to another step.” Rarity and the others in attendance were very well aware of the implications of calling a queen content in anything, Chrysalis was mostly an exception due mainly to Spike’s influence, and what it meant to call a queen out on anything.
Arachne blinked a few times in a mix of surprise and displeasure, “Well, I knew ponies could audacious, but to throw down a gauntlet at a meeting seems incredibly bold and stupid to me.”
Twilight wanted to keep things civil, so she stepped, “Rarity is the most fashionably conscious member among those in attendance here, she even operates her own fashion business.”
“Which is quite successful, I might add,” said Rarity, “the designs and colors of your attires are quite simplistic, so much so that something ‘plain’ would be an improvement over their bland aesthetic. Take a look around, everyone else is in an ensemble that has a bit of character to it, shows off a bit of who they are or their status in some way. While all of you have attire that barely deviates from any in your hive. Chrysalis told us about your choosing to wear attire to give a more impressive appearance, but the lack of any character to your attire just makes it look like you didn’t even want to put forth the effort to even play act any of it. No choice of a color palette to compliment your natural colors, no bold insignias to show just who you are, no cohesive attire throughout your entire realm, it all screams of your lack of anything resembling an understanding of basic aesthetics. At the very least you should have some understanding of that, considering you’re more than capable of altering your own physical aesthetic in a number of ways.”
Rarity hadn’t just thrown out a challenge, she’d effectively called out all the queens on something they lacked, another red flag Chrysalis had warned of before the whole meeting officially kicked off.
“And just to let you know,” said Spike, “you effectively threw down the gauntlet with me the moment you started mocking my family.”