"Should they be eating anything? We can get some some grubs or something, I'll mash them up if they need it. Or we can get them something soupy so they won't have to worry about hard stuff. Aren't babies supposed to eat every couple of hours?" you rambled, only able to spare an occasional glance to Chrysalis as the larvae held your attention.
"Perhaps human infants need such, but Changelings are bred with the intention that their next true meal may come some time away. Besides, you've essentially been feeding them this entire time. I've never seen such a content brood," Chrysalis stated happily, reaching out to caress Mandible's head, the red-eyed larva giving a pleased hiss at his mother's attention.
At your request, as well as the realization that Chrysalis' hole-free legs would no longer serve as mini-hotels for the larvae, a special basket was quickly weaved so that you could carry the group around. While you had been informed that a newborn brood was usually left in the nursery for several days before the expectations that they would undergo metamorphosis into a prepubescent Changeling, Chrysalis had noted that your overwhelming affection for the brood would do wonders, as well as potentially serve as proof for what the hive under your influence would be able to become.
Humming with uncertainty, you reached out to pick up the brown-eyed Flea, rolling him around in your palms in such a way that the little larva squealed in delight. "I get that, I understand horseland logic means you can literally feed on magic and be fine, but there's so much shit that went into taking care of a baby, one single baby, in my world. Now I've got more than I do fingers on my hand," you admitted, setting Flea back down.
"To be fair, that was something of a smaller brood than I usually produce. When it took longer than a week to get you to mate with me, I willed most of my eggs back so that they wouldn't go to waste if it took much longer," Chrysalis pointed out, earning a surprised look from you.
"You can just... into storage?" you asked.
Giggling a little as she moved her hoof from Mandible's head to the grey-eyed Molt's chin, stroking it there, Chrysalis said "Oh sweet Anon, of course I can. Would it really be any surprise that a shapeshifter, the queen of shapeshifters even, can alter her body so that she can control how many eggs she has active at a given time?"
"Ah, the ultimate contraceptive. I bet you guys never use condoms," you chuckled as you rolled a finger over Flea's head.
"What's a condom?" Vespa asked, lifting her brow curiously as she watched you from the opposite side of the table. Before her, Vespidae sat, staring up at her fellow yellow-eyed Changeling, making little chomping motions at her blind eye.
"No condoms?... I fucking love this world," you laughed, setting Flea back down, then turning your attention to Pupa. Your little princess was hissing loudly, sitting atop the orange-eyed Hopper and blue-eyed El Presidente. "Should we be worried how quickly she's taking command of the others? Especially since they're all supposed to be fairly strong willed?" you asked, even though you were reaching out, letting Pupa take the tip of your finger into her mouth and nibble on it.
"Not at all. She's still young, and by the time I would expect her to be a potential threat to my rule, we'll have already conquered Equestria. At that point, we'll have have so much land to rule over, to keep in line, that even if I didn't want to, I'd need more queens to help keep order," Chrysalis assured you, the words reaching you in more ways than you could have expected.
She'd need more queens? It made sense, since one queen was for this simple hive, so an empire that spanned across the entirety of Equestria, and probably beyond, well it'd likely crumble with only one ruler... two technically with you, but still. She'd need other queens the way your world needed governors, mayors, etc. Maybe it wasn't impossible for Ap and Chrysalis to coexist... although, then you remembered that in order for that to happen, Sunbutt and Moonpie would have to go under... yeah, that still wasn't an option.
"I'm thinking that once we expand that way, I'll elevate to Empress Chrysalis. Doesn't have quite the same alliteration ring to it, but I like the power behind it. Don't you, Emperor Anon?" Chrysalis asked, emphasizing the title to your name. That did sound rather good.
"Well... if it means that we don't have to worry about a family feud because our little girl matures to become a queen, I am not against being Emperor Anon," you accepted, trying to make it sound like it was a burden you had to take on.
"If they're as insolent as you can be at times, I imagine your brood and those to come will simply keep calling you father," Vespa stated, now with a hoof planted on the table, letting Vespidae worm her way in and out of the holes like it was a jungle gym. You found it adorable, not just because your child was playing, but because Vespa was willingly letting it happen, and had probably even initiated it. As much of a cold hearted bitch she pretended to be, and probably still was, she seemed to have some good maternal instincts.
"I'll leave it up to you whether you'll allow such a thing. Personally, I still have all my offspring refer to me as queen, but I can taste the love you feel for our children, I know asking you to budge on that wouldn't be fair," Chrysalis stated. Then, a devious look came over her face, the queen leaning in toward you as she whispered with a seductive melody into your ear "So long as that's what you want, daddy."
Something about that word, coming from Chrysalis' mouth, made your dick leap in your pants, striking the underside of the table with such force that it hurt. "Fuck, my dick!" you groaned, falling out of your chair and onto your side, your hands shooting to grab your injured penis.
Wincing at the clearly painful fall, Chrysalis hovered over you. "Ooooh, I'm so sorry dear, I wasn't planning for that," she apologized, stroking your head with a hoof.
"Fuck, my dick!" Pupa hissed as she looked over the edge of the table at you.
You gave a weak grin and shakily lifted your arm to present a thumbs up. "Th-that's my girl."
"Honestly, I'm getting a little tired at how often I find myself having to look at your penis, Anon. Whether it's you using the bathroom or requesting an examination because you want to make sure you don't have any of these STDs you keep speaking of," Chitin stated, shaking his head as he backed away, motioning for you to pull up your pants. "You do realize that your genitals are different than those I've seen before, so I couldn't even properly state whether or not they were healthy, outside of situations like this."
"A world with no condoms or STDs. This is a pervert's paradise," you muttered, thinking of how many people you knew that would run rampant here.
"Clearly so, seeing as a pervert like you continues to reign supreme time and again," Chitin stated, walking back over to a small cabinet, one of the few pieces of furniture that existed in the hive outside of those in your or Chrysalis' rooms, rummaging few one of the drawers.
"Yeah, that's true. And don't act like you don't like looking at my penis. Hell, you even get to touch it when inspecting me. You're the only Changeling that Chrysalis actually allows to touch it," you joked, giving him a teasing grin.
Chitin returned and dropped a small jar of ointment into your hand. "Rub that on the head whenever it feels painful and it'll stop some of the swelling... well, the excess swelling. I can't do anything about your persistent erections at this point, especially with that diet of yours," Chitin commented, giving you his ever dull expression.
"Yeah, well, I didn't even get to eat breakfast today. Chrysalis just teased me by calling me 'daddy' and apparently that's one of the better triggers for getting me horny. Never understood it when I watched porn where girls did that, but I guess I sorta get it now... really fucking weird," you admitted, shrugging at your own peculiar explanation for everything.
Chitin stared at you for a moment, then sighed. "I need to do an examination of you while we're at it, see if you're not exhausting yourself," he stated flatly.
"Why? I haven't had sex lately, and even if I did, Chrysalis is always the one to go down first," you pointed out.
"That's not what I meant," Chitin told you. "You've been giving out a lot of love lately. I'm talking more than I've personally ever seen in my life. You've been feeding a brood non-stop since yesterday, and while it's a small one, they're all exceptional larvae. I know, I was the one to check them for any abnormalities."
Hearing that, you almost lurched forward from your seat on Chitin's little examination table. "They're all alright, right? None of them have any illnesses or birth defects or anything, right?" you asked, grabbing him by the shoulders and looking him dead in the eye.
Chitin didn't seem at all bothered, although he did slowly shrug your hands off. "They're just fine, not a thing wrong with any of them... except the green-eyed one cursing at me. That was honestly concerning," Chitin informed you, his brow furrowing just slightly at the thought of Pupa's first words.
"She's a smart cookie is all," you said, sighing as you leaned back, falling over the rest of the examination table, your head hanging off the other side.
"Regardless, I need to make sure you're not overtaxing your love reserves. I've also seen what you've done to Chrysalis and between all of these Changelings, it has to be affecting you physically," Chitin said, a hint of worry creeping in his voice.
Groaning, you kicked your legs out, almost hitting Chitin in the process. "How many times do I have to tell you guys, love isn't some finite source that you can gobble all up. I don't know why it's so hard to understand for a bunch of magic bug-ponies and such to understand. I mean, if you have a princess that can enter ponies' dreams, then why can't love be an unlimited source?"
Chitin had already taking to inspecting you in greater detail, lifting your leg and letting it drop again. However, when he heard you referencing Luna, he paused. "... have you spoken with Princess Luna lately?" he asked, not looking at you as he simply continued on.
"What? No, of course not. Why would I-"
"I thought we were friends, Anon, so while it might sound particularly ridiculous coming from me, a Changeling, I'd appreciate it if you didn't lie to me," Chitin interrupted, his eyes now focused on your face.
Lifting your head so you could stare back, you let a pregnant silence carry through the room, close to a minute passing by before you answered. "I've spoken to her several times. The last time was the night before the brood hatched. Gave me a chance to talk to Ap at the same time," you admitted, letting your head hang once more.
"She can connect you to others dreaming? And that's what Apocrita is doing while in the cocoon? Fascinating... If I get the chance, I'd like to research this," Chitin stated, prodding your thigh as he moved up your body.
"Regardless, I didn't tell anyone. I didn't even tell Ap. She only learned cause Luna brought her into my dream. They became fast friends apparently, gave me a blowjob together... which makes me wonder, are all royalty in this land such freaks in bed? I mean seriously, Luna, Chrysalis, and Ap's technically about to be a queen. That or I have that effect on ponies," you considered, understanding why your dick would be so irresistible.
"So I'm taking it you've been colluding with them to plan your escape and now oust Chrysalis as the hive's queen to put Ap on the throne?" he asked, seemingly undisturbed by the idea as he traveled further up, poking your stomach in a few spots.
"I mean... yeah, but it's not like this was all planned out that way. Things just kept happening one after another. Hell, if it wasn't for Ap going into the cocoon, I'd have left with the Super-Ponies," you told him, hoping he wasn't expecting you to have been manipulating them all along.
"Of course you didn't plan for this. The most your planning seems to get you is rutting our queen into submission. Don't go expecting me to give you more credit than you deserve," Chitin stated, a ghost of a smile on his face, making you chuckle. "I just need you to understand that if you're going to drag your friends into this situation, you'd be better off letting them know what you were doing."
"Well right now, all I'm doing is... trying to be a dad, I guess... I mean, it's more than that. I'm trying to make it so that everyone can live through this crazy bullshit, but you guys are so fucking hardheaded, I think the only thing that would convince you to see things my way was if I died trying," you groaned, partly out of irritation with the circumstances and partly out of the fact Chitin was pressing down on your sternum.
"Well, if it's any condolence, you were right," Chitin stated, stepping away from you to let you get up on your own. "I know we've already addressed the whole magic thing with you and your lack of immunity to it, but you definitely don't work by our same standards. Love and magic, they come from the same sort of place for our world. It's part of our bodies, like the respiratory system or the nervous system. You however... there's no magic system in your body, you just... produce love. An unlimited, inexhaustible amount of love. There are no drawbacks, no side effects, nothing negative whatsoever about the love you're giving out."
"Awesome, bill of clean health!" you whoop, hopping to your feet with your arms up triumphantly. "Now I can get back to-"
"Be careful," Chitin suddenly warned, the swiftness with which he cut you off and the hard edge to his voice stopping you dead in your tracks. "Your love for your brood is strong, and that makes your love for Chrysalis even stronger. Even if you don't want to, you're going to keep feeding her, and she's only going to get stronger. If Apocrita doesn't emerge soon, Queen Chrysalis will be too strong for her to defeat," he declared, a slight tremble in his voice as the worst possibility went through his mind.
Despite the unease you felt, the dread of what Chrysalis would do when Ap would inevitably confront her... you couldn't help but smile still. "You're right. I love my kids without question, and I... I love Chrysalis for giving them to me... but I still love Ap, and it may be hard to see, but I'm pretty damn sure I'm still feeding her too. I'm giving her enough love that I'm confident she'll win. Just have some faith in us."
Chitin tilted his head, clearly confused, but then sighed "I feel like I'm going to regret it, but I believe you."
"No regrets! Now come on, I've got me some babies to get back to," you cheered, heading for the door. The moment you opened it though, you found Vespa standing there, staring right at you. You nearly jumped out of your skin, eyes going wide as she narrowed her good eye at you. "V-Vespa, what are you doing here? Couldn't you have w-waited further down the hall?"
The yellow eye of the elite looked at you, then shifted over to Chitin just over your shoulder. Then, with a low, cool tone that made your skin crawl, she asked "Where is Apocrita?"