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// Early Next Morning: Spike 
// Story: Queens to Check, Dragon to Mate 
// by dracone 
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Spike woke up with Chrysalis next him and smiled, like he had every time he woke up like this for the past five years when he saw her nearby. He realized his crush on Rarity had been a bit more than childish, attempts to substitute her with ponies like Sweetie Bell had only proved how shallow his concept of a romantic partner was at the time. That surprising accident had been just what he needed to shake everything in the right ways, and practicing Twilight’s policies of listening and understanding didn’t hurt in the situation either. Chrysalis had become a conduit with which to view Changeling culture, a culture that was so alien to ponies that all the speculations were only partially accurate and woefully lacking in progress.

    Spike would admit, after their first three hatched the likelihood of seeing Chrysalis dancing naked in the kitchen with an apron had gone down due to her desire to be more presentable when guests arrived. Spike had decided that seeing his wife, a thought that took some adjusting to, dancing in the kitchen would always be the sexiest thing he ever saw, no matter what. The absolute sexiest sight he would be Chrysalis dancing in the kitchen in nothing more than an apron with several of their daughters joining in the dance, a sight he was likely to not see at any time and would likely put him into cardiac arrest.

    Spike was surprised that after her heat had died down, during which he experienced a kind of sexual intimacy he thought only possible in the pages of books for mature audiences. However, her genuine romantic aspects were the real surprise to him, even more so when he learned he was basically the source for most of the psychological changes. A surprise that was beyond pleasant, for more than just him.

    Chrysalis’s maternal behaviors weren’t just an amusingly fun mix of dragon and pony early parental tendencies, which had as much do with Spike’s unique nurture as it did his biological heritage, but had actually used his ideal mother figure as a foundation. Chrysalis was the loving mother to their children that he had always envisioned his own maternal figures during his very early years. That all combined with her near draconic protective tendencies in regards to their offspring made her the kind of mother it would be best to not aggravate, which some ponies felt the need to do during her early times with him and his family. After the family managed to get their hostilities towards her out, some members taking a bit longer than others, it felt like she had always been a good fit for the family to begin with.

    Chrys’s academic tendencies were compatible and comparable to those of Twilight. While her fashion sense wasn’t quite as comprehensive as Rarity’s it was actually surprisingly compatible. She had a more subdued approach to social interactions, which made her a delightfully fun contrast to Pinkie Pie. After taking on some of Spike’s tendencies, a few of which acted as foundations or baselines for her own new tendencies, she had the kind of loyalty and devotion that was almost complementary to that of Rainbow Dash. Her willingness to take any punishment unrestricted but within reason mirrored the values of the Apple family, especially those of Applejack herself. And on top of all that, she had a kindness to her that was quite similar to that of Fluttershy. In short, Spike had some managed to distill core aspects of all the element bearers into their base components and somehow pass on something that awakened similar tendencies in Chrysalis herself.

The biggest surprise, to him at least, was when Ember had dropped in just a year prior to say hi and learn what was new around Equestria. One look at Chrysalis and she felt a need to challenge the former changeling queen. That thankfully stopped when she met the girls, who were just barely four years old at the time. Fire Lord Ember, as she preferred to be called, liked the idea of playing ‘aunt’ with the trio. She found it especially fun and amusing when it came to Dusk Sentinel, she even made a comment about how dragon Dusk’s mindset seemed to be. Ember was willing to sit through and listen to all the events that had been going on since her last visit almost seven years prior. Ember’s visits had a tendency to be less planned beyond will be occurring during this time or that time, which actually infuriated Twilight to a small degree.

Spike wasn’t the best at coming up with names, much to the amusement of his wife, and thus most of his ideas for names their offspring could have were shot down almost immediately. The only real exception to that at the moment was the very filly that was with them at this meeting, Violet Emerald. Spike had developed a habit of using the girls as a sort of comfort blanket when he was feeling uneasy, since Violet was the only one of their girls within any potential arm’s reach she became his go-to comfort teddy. Violet’s ability was more akin to Rarity’s talent for finding gems than anything else. Her looks and mannerisms almost seemed tailored to hit all the right buttons with Rarity, much to his and everyone else’s surprise. Emerald wasn’t just a new kind of changeling, as Chrysalis liked to point out quite a few times during the meeting earlier that day, and he knew the only reason that was said was because Chrysalis felt the need to be careful with her words. Violet Emerald, along with their eldest three, was the face of the future Chrysalis hoped for among the changelings.

Probably the most infuriating part of the entire meeting was when those two, who shall remain nameless for the sake of calm, “queens” actually attacked Chrysalis. Chrysalis herself barely reacted, a sign she was confident in her body’s ability to resist physical damage. Chrysalis had survived the assault but her dress hadn’t, she thankfully halted the following attack. Spike admitted that he had a bit of an outfit fetish, probably a result of his extended crush on Rarity from his early years, and Chrys’s swimsuit that had been under the dress the entire time had sort of hit the right buttons for him. However, what came off as even hotter, likely due to his draconic heritage, was the moment Chrysalis demonstrated that there would be no more free attacks on her.

But probably the biggest surprise of all was just how much of an impact Violet Emerald had on the visiting queens. All of the visiting queens actually showed an extreme vulnerability to Emerald’s cuteness, something none of the Equestrian representatives had expected. Spike suspected that Celestia, Luna, and Chrysalis had anticipated the reaction, chances were Celestia and Luna had more than anticipated the reactions when you considered their abilities.

Of all the ‘visitors’ Arachne seemed to be the most accommodating, that wasn’t saying much when considered how outright hostile the rest were. Spike had promised to be on his best behavior and let Chrysalis handle things that concerned her, had come very close to breaking that promise when Chrysalis had been assaulted the first time. Spike could almost sense Chrysalis’s response in regards to the second attempt on her life, something he wasn’t entirely sure how to describe. Spike found himself wanting to be able to hear voices of the “link” like he had gotten an experience in when he and Chrysalis had first mated. Spike wanted to experience that special way of communicating again, mostly so he could be that “little voice” in the heads of his daughters inspiring them to do the right thing. Chances are Chrys would probably not condone that sort of thing, or she would find great amusement in “seeing” him flounder around in regards to the link.

Spike always had this feeling that the link’s connection within him wasn’t entirely gone, Chrysalis’s statement about how its magic basically deteriorated after a few hours didn’t really help to ease the feeling. Spike kept on having this feeling that the link was still there, just not accessible for some reason. Twilight’s research, with some helpful input from Chrysalis, really didn’t find anything conclusive, of course, that could just be a byproduct of the naturally high magic resistance dragons possess. Ember had originally found the prospect fascinating, even going as far as to have some members of the Dragonlands do their own research into the matter. It wasn’t entirely clear how much of that resistance translated over to Chrysalis and their daughters.

Some of their daughters had some rather familiar feeling tendencies, especially when it came to using Twilight and her friends as a point of comparison. Light Novel and Focus Crystal both had tendencies that were reminiscent of Twilight, for slightly different reasons; Satin Care was starting to develop some similar tendencies to Pinkie and Fluttershy, much to Rarity’s amusement and dismay; and Dusk Sentinel was showing signs of having similar aspects to that of were similar Rainbow Dash, and Rarity to a lesser extent, granted with a bit less brashness and a bit more stoicism.

Spike was in agreement with Chrysalis, this meeting had to happen. He just wished it wasn’t so soon, most of their girls weren’t even a full year old yet. As per Chrysalis’s request, he was letting most of the insults of the visiting queens slide, he would stop doing that if they went too far. He said he was holding himself back when she was physically assaulted but that wasn’t entirely accurate, he could sense that she wasn’t in any serious danger and thus let it happen. If the attack had potentially endangered their daughter then he would have rushed in without hesitation, political ramifications be damned.

In fact, from what he and everyone else had been told beforehand his actions would be seen as par for the course in Changeling politics. But Chrys didn’t want that, she desired a shift in the cultural norm for the changelings that was quite far away from such actions. Even if for whatever reason all the queens in question were somehow killed by him, thus granting Chrysalis the changeling right of claim by conquest, Chrysalis would actually outright reject that, an act to her knowledge was unprecedented in changeling history, one of the lesser known queens would claim one of those hives.

Chrysalis had changed greatly from how she was when she was first made known to Equestria, with such a great change many still had trouble believing the Chrysalis of now was the Chrysalis of then back just a short number of years. If you had told Spike just twenty-nine years ago he would be married he would have made a comment about being married to Rarity and if it had been just seventeen years ago he would have scoffed at the idea of actually finding a significant other, mostly because he would be bitter over the fact that his crush on Rarity had actually crushed him more than anything else. Now he was married, quite happily, with twenty-four daughters. He still had trouble at times wrapping his mind around the fact they had that many and were actually planning on having more in a few years. Spike hadn’t thought himself as being the dad with the most children because his partner wanted it that way, but here he was being completely cool with it. At most, before all this started happening, the most he wanted was maybe six or seven. But here he was wondering if they could really come up with names for all of them, they’d barely been able to name the ones they have now. That was partially because he was mostly terrible at coming up with names and Chrysalis didn’t want to go the traditional changeling naming route, naming offspring in regards to bugs in some manner.

Spike agreed that naming convention needed to stop, or at least take a backseat to some other potential naming conventions for a while. Of course, almost the moment she told him this he realized that the entirety of her prior hive had been named in accordance to insects. The only one among the visiting queens that didn’t have an insect-inspired name was Arachne, her name was actually where the word arachnid originated. When he realized the truth of Arachne’s name, in addition to how long the word arachnid had been used by ponies, he came to the very realization that she was either far older than anyone he knew of, elder dragons included, or the name itself was passed on. If it was indeed the latter case then that meant that almost, if not, all changeling queen names were actually passed on to a new queen or potential queen when the prior holder of the name kicked the bucket.

That line of thinking got Spike wondering just how many changeling queens had carried the name Chrysalis, he took a look at the still sleeping form of his wife, an event that was surprisingly sparse in their time together, and smiled. He was glad she was able to find some sense of peace, that he was the main contributing factor was just a bonus to him. He honestly didn’t care if they only had twenty-four daughters or twenty-thousand daughters, he would still love them all with all he had. Although, the logistics of feeding that many mouths was a daunting prospect, thankfully changelings tended to primarily draw their energy and nutrients from the mystic properties of the emotional spectrum and in doing so didn’t have as many requirements in regards to needs as a result. That all said, Chrysalis and the girls were more than happy to go about feeding like any other creature, they seemed to have a preference towards it most of the time. Spike was led to believe it might have something to do with the contributions of a changeling’s mate, a theory he had bounced off both Twilight and Chrysalis. The two were actually excited at the prospect of such a theory, because that could mean changeling and mannerisms could actually be more greatly influenced by the biology of their sexual partners than initially believed. Spike did not take the conversation happening around him very well when that happened, made all the more uncomfortable by the fact this discussion started a full week before their first girls had hatched and continued up until about two days beforehand.

In short, Spike realized he had effectively married a version of Twilight with a healthy dose of Celestia’s tendencies and a hint of Rarity’s elegance. When he had come to that realization he had practically rushed to have an impromptu therapy session with Luna, much to the midnight mare’s amusement. The session itself had gone quite awkward, but quite to the level of talk regarding changeling sexual relations he had been caught in the middle of that had led him to be there in the first place. Luna still teased him about the session from time to time, especially when talking about how she was the one who officiated his wedding.

And now, here he was, on the second day of such an aggravating meeting with several so-called leaders for what were effectively independent nations built on very different principles than he was used to seeing in a nation. Of course, if he had been told seven years ago he would have a hard time believing in anything similar to this situation he would have probably blown it all of, even if it had been his future self telling him all that. It was a rarity for him to be up before Chrysalis, she was usually the earlier riser among them. Spike didn’t mind that she was the one who was up before him, he usually preferred it, because it meant he got to see her in the kitchen enjoying her time with some of their daughters. The fact she was so good in the kitchen was a surprise for him at first, even when you took into account a changeling’s ability to take aspects and properties from their mate. Even more of a surprise was how she somehow managed to catch up then surpass him in terms of the kitchen, not that he was complaining. His favorite thing to see at home was Chrysalis in the kitchen, usually doing a dance.

Spike figured that was enough musing and got out of bed and headed to take an early morning shower and get dressed. After his shower, which seemed to have not woken Chrysalis, headed to the closet for the room and threw on some semi-formal attire before heading down the kitchen. A quick look at the clocks and windows confirmed it would still be a few hours before the sun was up. It had been a while since Spike had done any real work in the kitchen, especially the palace. As he made his way down to the kitchen he thought about what to make. Brewing some coffee and tea would be some good starts, he and everyone else could just warm the drinks up in time. Coming up with the dishes for breakfast would be hard, then it hit him that omelets would be a good choice since it would be easy to personalize each one and stick their names on it all, with each set made he placed them at the table with a plate and silverware. Starting with him, Chrysalis and Violet Emerald he made a citrine and sapphire omelet properly scaled for each and wrote their names on top with ketchup. After making sure the pan was clear of unwanted material he got to work on mushroom and spinach omelets for Twilight and Flash which he then topped with their names written in ketchup. Next were Cadance, Shining Armor, and Skyla, he decided on mushroom and lettuce omelets for them which he topped with their names in ketchup. After that, he made cabbage and orange-lime omelets for Celestia and her family which he then topped with barbecue spelling their names. He made a night bloom water lily and moonflower omelet for Luna which he then topped with a viscous night themed pizza sauce spelling her name.

After that is on to the visiting queens. For Nymph a shrimp omelet topped with shrimp sauce spelling her name, it figured might as well keep things simple. For Arachne, he made cricket omelet with her name topping the dish in ketchup, after setting the dish in her place he made a quick run to the nearest bathroom to help release the part of his stomach that was unsettled by what he did. After making sure to wash up in the restroom he got to making Culicidae’s omelet. Since he clearly couldn’t put blood in the omelet, which is just as gross as it sounds, he just decided to cut some of the bloodied manticore meat from the night before and throw that in the omelet with some crushed willow bark to help keep the blood from coagulating during the cooking process.

After getting all the omelets done, with the temptation of just diving right into his food being pushed from the back of his mind, he got to work brewing the coffee and the tea. Thinking back on everything now seemed a bit odd, but not unwelcome. It would be some time before everyone came to join, knowing that he placed serving tops that had been enchanted to keep food from spoiling while also keeping them at the optimal eating temperature. Granted, some of the dishes did turn his stomach thinking about them and would likely do the same for those who actually dined, Spike had his suspicions that one or more of their less than cordial guests would choose to take a morning meal in their rooms since the actual meeting portion wouldn’t start until a few hours to noon, this had more to do with a desire for everyone to not be groggy or sleepy during the proceedings than anything else.

Doing everything he was made Spike feel happy, it allowed him to reminisce on everything that had happened since he and Chrysalis had started their relationship, the most surprising part for him during those really early days was her willingness to go from being the dominant one in their relationship to the submissive one. He chuckled a bit to himself as he tasted the coffee he had brewed, the “visiting” queens were likely to be very uncivil with both of them if they were aware Chrys’s natural willingness to cede authority to him in some of the most intimate moments she shared with him.

Chrys had claimed to be progressive by changeling standards, but even she had been unsure of dramatically changing one of the existing chambers into a kitchen. She was perfectly on board with turning a room, preferably one near her small library, into a mailing room of sorts. To her knowledge, no colony had a kitchen within itself, upon or near the grounds it was likely the inhabitants had a few, but inside the colony itself, she didn’t rightfully know if it was practiced. What had made it even more amusing was how Celestia and Luna had insisted on assisting with that. The facilities at Castle of the Two Sisters at the time were still a bit too dated to just move into the changeling chambers and meet the needs of Spike, Chrysalis and their growing family. Luna assisted the the shopping portion, even going as far as to make an offer of splitting the costs with a few dips into her personal funds, because both she and Celestia agreed Luna had a much better eye for aesthetics, not to mention she had been to visit the colony grounds more than Celestia before the girls had even been hatched. Celestia, with her better logistical knowledge, had looked into appliance stores and individual appliances that were likely to more easily meet the demands of Spike’s little family in the foreseeable future.

The looks of surprised store patrons to a cordial Chrysalis who was more than willing to defer to those more knowledgeable about such things was one of Spike’s best shopping experience, which he had a lot of from being the near-default one Twilight and/or her friends needed a shopping assistant in the early days. Of course, Chrysalis still got a lot of mean and/or dirty looks. Celestia and Luna decided to cut out the issue of the two just shopping around after a few excursions to appliance stores. They decided it would be best just commission the creation of the appliances from somepony very technologically inclined and just asked the couple what they required then just had the appliances custom made for the two and then just personally deliver the items themselves.

Celestia was more than happy with the arrangement, mostly because she got to see Chrysalis and the girls in their home environment. Luna was happy with the arrangement because she got to spend quality time with multiple foals, all of whom were just as happy to spend time with her as she was with them.

For Spike, it just meant more family time in those early days, back when they were expecting the eggs to hatch and later just their first three girls. Times were easier, but not simpler, back then. To Spike the very fact he was was spending family time was enough, those intimate family moments would always be among his most treasured memory. The whole family just out and enjoying their time together, Chrysalis’s seemingly paranoid anticipations even seemed to diminish during family outings and get-togethers. Of course, now that paranoia was well founded.

The worst part about all this, Chrysalis was putting genuine effort the proceedings while the “guests” were going about in various states of disinterest or lack of care. From what Spike could tell, they all expected the worst and were always anticipating some sort of deception  on all sides, even their own. From what he could see, Changeling society was so thoroughly infected with distrust that they were actually unwilling to accept facts or take a chance on faith about something beyond the will of the queen. To make matters worse, queens saw it as a tradition to keep their workforce as something automatons and condition all queens to only see other queens born from the same queen as their siblings despite the fact the bulk of the hive usually was begot by the queen herself. Chrysalis had outright admitted as much when explaining changeling dynamics. As far as any of them really knew, Chrysalis was the only changeling queen to not have that mindset, mostly due to aspects of herself. At the time it was a mindset that had been very much influenced by her upbringing and surroundings, after she was mated with Spike that mindset had tweaked to the point it was similar but still very different with her now believing all members of every hive are their own individuals at the core.

Part of the reasoning for this meeting was to show there was a better way for everyone, not just those in power. Generations of cultural stagnation and philosophy were extremely difficult to overcome without an immensely powerful force behind it. Chrysalis explained and showed that biology can inform on psychology, for changelings the greatest force for actual change was the very set of adaptations that allowed for quick adaptation to new environments. Chrys and Twilight had both come to a consensus, along with the princesses and of Equestria’s top minds in the fields of genetics and biology, that the particular ability to become genetically compatible with other species while taking on physical and mental traits was likely a means of developing a way to accelerate adaptations to new environments. Also, queen production was likely designed in such a way it would allow for bypassing genetic dilution.

The fact that Chrysalis has some traits similar to those of Twilight is something Spike found himself thinking both adorable and terrifying. Or as Pinkie would likely say, ‘adorifying.’ The fact Chrysalis was in a genuine relationship still surprised him, especially since his opinion of committed relationships at the time was at an all-time low. Ember had explained to him that while some dragons mated for life others did not. She had also gone on to explain harems weren’t all that uncommon, especially among male Dragonlords. The fact Chrysalis seemed to have mid-point between the extremes mentally regarding relationships didn’t help matters, she had even gone record stating she didn’t even know where that line of thinking came from when Spike told her it wasn’t part of his psychology.