Chrysalis examined the photo silently for long moments, then snorted and glanced at her daughter. "I suppose congratulations are in order," she said. "You've finally managed to be equal to a chicken."
"So I was right," Spinnerette breathed, ignoring this. "It's an egg."
"Yes, and one well past its laying day, if I'm any judge."
The examination room was a bit crowded at this point - it hadn't been built with two queens in mind, let alone a zebra and a drone as well - but none of them seemed to mind much. All eyes were focused on the ultrascry photograph on the illuminator, where a translucent lumpy ovoid object (perhaps two hooflengths from end to end, given the scale) rested just above the hips. There was something within the ovoid, dark and curled in on itself, though it was impossible to make out much more than that.
"But... why? How did this happen?"
Zakeem and Mandible exchanged glances. "She's being sincere and she isn't a tease? She never was taught of the birds and the bees?"
"No mother figure to guide her," said Mandible sadly, though with mischief in his eyes. "Tragic, really."
"Oh, knock it off! I know about sex! You don't live as an attractive mare in this city for seven decades without receiving a few..." Spinnerette blushed. "...advances."
Chrysalis raised an eyebrow. "And did you ever accept any?"
Her daughter looked away. "...w-we're getting off topic."
"Are we, though?" Her malicious smile told the world that the elder queen was thoroughly enjoying her progeny's embarrassment.
"I am not talking to my mother about my sex life!" Spinnerette snapped. "It hasn't been for a very long time, and anyway I'm pretty sure that ponies don't count!" The younger queen hesitated. "...do they?"
Mandible rubbed his chin. "I mean, what other options are there?"
"Some insectoid species are nothing but clones," Zakeem responded conversationally. "Their queen's impregnation is done by her-"
"Whoah! Hey! Do not finish that rhyme. You can leave me out of this. She's my broodmate."
Chrysalis just shook her head. "Oh, my poor, naive, foolish daughter. You don't even know what's going on with your own body."
"And you do?" the younger queen challenged.
"Of course. There's only one creature responsible for your current situation." She lifted a hoof and prodded Spinnerette in the chest. "You."
"Me?!"
"If you had just settled down and started your own hive like you were supposed to, you wouldn't be in this situation."
Mandible frowned. "Is this really the right time to be assigning blame, Mom?"
"As a matter of fact, it is, for I speak only the truth." She looked around at their confused gazes and sighed, though Mandible could tell that she enjoyed being the only creature in the room who knew something. "Very well. Listen closely, for I'll only explain this once." She paused, savoring the attention, before continuing.
"The process that creates a changeling egg has absolutely nothing to do with biology. Not with a pony, and not with a drone, and I don't know which possibility sickens me more. It is entirely - almost entirely - an act of will. The queen chooses to lay an egg, and she lays an egg. It's as simple as that. And if Spinnerette had started her own swarm in Manehattan and taken full advantage of the rich feeding ground I had given her for that express purpose," she added pointedly, "she would have soon needed to expand, at which point she would realize that the simple act of wanting a new drone would be instantly rewarded. But instead she squandered that opportunity, and look where it's gotten her."
Her daughter still seemed puzzled. "So, you're saying that I wanted this egg? But... I don't. I've never even thought about laying one."
"Ah, that is where the 'almost entirely' comes in," Chrysalis explained smugly. "When a queen's body is ready to produce eggs, but for some reason she never chooses to do so for an extended period - say, a decade or two - sometimes her body becomes particularly sensitive to her mood. Even unfocused desires for companionship are interpreted as a request for an egg, if they're strong enough. It can come as a surprise, but an experienced queen knows what it feels like to carry an egg and will react accordingly. You, however, have just been merrily going about your business with your first spawn within you, oblivious to the signs."
Spinnerette shook her head. "No, that still doesn't make sense. It's not like I'm hungry for company these days; I've got you, I've got Dib, I've got all of my friends as..." She glanced at Zakeem. "...my disguised form... I'm pretty well satisfied in the social arena."
Chrysalis frowned slightly. "...that is odd," she admitted. "And it's true that it's generally only happened to those who have isolated themselves. You're certain?"
"Pretty sure, yeah. I've definitely never felt like I needed a swarm of my own."
Her mother rolled her eyes. "Ugh. You're always so stubborn about this. You're just like your Aunt Maxilla! Treasuring your precious independence to your last breath."
That stopped Spinnerette in her tracks; despite everything else that was going on, this was a detail that begged for examination. "Wait. I have an Aunt Maxilla?" She looked at Mandible, who appeared equally surprised at the news.
"You have a great many aunts, or at least had." Chrysalis' gaze became unfocused as she stared into the past. "We were a brood of queens. This was back in the dawn of time, of course, before 'Equestria' was even an idea. Dozens of us, spreading across the land like a plague, taking love as we pleased from the unwitting ponies. Oh, it was glorious."
The broodmates exchanged another glance. As comfortable as their mother was in her new profession, it wouldn't do to let her wax nostalgic over thoughts of conquest. "So, where are they all these days?"
"Oh, who knows? Who cares? It's not in our nature to keep close company with other queens, as you well know. I believe I last spoke to Maxilla some three hundred years ago; the rest I've lost contact with completely. No doubt most of them were careless and were taken down by Celestia or Starswirl. At the time of my betrayal, there were no other hives in Equestria, of that I'm certain. And that's fine by me; fewer queens means less competition."
"I think we really are getting off topic now," Mandible interjected. "If Spin never wanted an egg, then how did this one show up?"
Chrysalis glanced at the photo again. "...I suppose it could be a dud," she admitted. "An inert egg produced simply because the body needs to do something. That happens occasionally. We won't know if it's viable until we get it out."
"Okay, so how?" Spinnerette winced and rubbed her abdomen. "The sooner the better, as far as I'm concerned."
"Unfortunately," her mother remarked slowly, as though an unpleasant memory had just breached the surface, "I suspect that's easier said than done."
"Oh, come on, mother. If this is still about me not starting a swarm, then fine, I admit it: I'm a disappointment to queenkind, okay? You can just talk me through the process and-"
"If you're feeling pain even in your queen form, then it's beyond simple laying." All traces of humor were gone from her voice. "I'm afraid, Spinnerette, you've gotten yourself completely glenched up."
The younger queen blinked. "Excuse me?"
"The time between egg creation and laying should normally only be a few minutes. You've been holding this egg for, what? Days? Weeks? And you've been prancing about in your pony form as well. Shapeshifting while carrying an egg can disrupt the process, stretch your internal muscles in the wrong way. You likely don't have the strength to lay it at this point." Her gaze became unfocused again. "Maxilla's first egg was like that. She was so opposed to having a swarm that she absolutely refused to lay it. She glenched so badly she couldn't walk for a week afterwards." Then she snorted. "And went on to resist her next egg as well, the idiot."
Spinnerette gave Chrysalis a long look. "Mother. If you knew this might happen, why didn't you ever tell me?"
To her surprise, the elder queen looked genuinely abashed. "I... forgot," she admitted.
Her daughter's sharp glare lost its edge. "And here I thought it was out of spite, to punish me for being so unqueenly."
"Yes, well..." Chrysalis let out something between a grunt and a cough. "It might have been, if I'd remembered."
"...well, at least you're honest about that part. So, what now? If I can't get it out the normal way, what do we do?" She looked nervously at Dr. Zakeem, who had been taking in Chrysalis' explanation with a fierce interest only slightly tempered by the fact that he could never, ever tell anypony else about it. "S-surgery?"
"Hopefully, it shouldn't come to that," her mother said with a frown. "However, glenching is one of the few conditions a queen's body cannot resolve on its own; you'll need help. I'm trying to recall how we managed it in the past, but it's been so long, and it only happened four times before we figured out what was causing it. Twice to Maxilla, once to Gena, who got lost easily, and once to Clypeus, who had funny ideas. I helped with Clypeus, but I needed Maxilla's assistance and I have no idea where she is, or if she's even still alive. And this needs to be taken care of now."
Spinnerette stared at her. "What... now? Like, now now? Here now?! I-I don't know if I'm ready for this. Shouldn't we at least get home first?"
Chrysalis shook her head. "The longer we wait, the worse it will get. Plus, unless you can keep up a change all the way back..."
Her daughter closed her eyes briefly, then shook her head. "No way. I can't even think about changing right now."
"...then you'd have to make the trip undisguised. And this is famously the City that Never Sleeps Standing Up; there are ponies about at all hours of the day and night. Even if you fly, some insomniac pegasus will undoubtedly spot you."
The younger queen tried to think of a counter-argument, but failed. "...all right, all right... let's get it over with. But this was not what I was expecting when I came in."
"That's just in the nature of clinics, I fear," Zakeem said sympathetically. "You often learn things that you'd rather not hear."
"I will still need assistance to do this, however." Chrysalis' gaze fell on the only two candidates.
Mandible looked embarrassed. "I'll do it if you want, but I get the feeling this is gonna be all kinds of awkward for everyone involved. Besides," he added, glancing to his left, "I'm pretty sure we all know the obvious choice here."
"True," his mother acknowledged, "this is no job for a drone." She stared at Zakeem, who tried to look dependable. "...of course, it's no job for a pony, either."
"Be nice, mother." Spinnerette smiled at Zakeem. "We would be grateful for your help, Doctor."
The zebra all but saluted. "I'm ready and willing to aid this proposal." He nodded to Chrysalis. "Give me a task; I am at your disposal."
"We will need room to work. Someplace larger than this cubbyhole."
He nodded again and bustled off, with Mandible following behind to help. After he'd gone, the elder queen scowled at her daughter, who looked puzzled. "What?"
"Try to control your urges," Chrysalis said sourly. "He's far too young for you. It's disgusting."
Spinnerette continued to seem confused for a moment, then clarity arrived, followed by a slow grin. "You know," she said slyly, "most mothers would be ecstatic at the idea of fixing their daughter up with a doctor. Besides, he just has to be good with his hooves, and as a songwriter I appreciate a stallion with a good sense of... rhythm." She laughed at the elder queen's expression. "Relax, mother. I'm not exactly looking for a partner right now. I'm what they call an 'independent up-and-coming young mare that don't need no stallion holding her back'.
"Besides, he seems like the type who'd want a long-term commitment, and that's not something a queen can give anypony, is it?" She smiled a bit sadly. "We live in a world of lies."
"And we're better off for it," Chrysalis snapped. "We don't need... liaisons with our prey."
"I'm just saying, don't knock it 'til you've tried it."
They stood waiting for a time, then: "What makes you think I haven't?"
Spinnerette's eyes went wide. "You didn't!"
"Purely as a strategic investigation," Chrysalis added quickly. "I wanted to see if it would enhance the harvest of love from the subject." She snorted. "And it did, but not nearly enough to be worth the trouble. Stay away from ponies, daughter. They are food, nothing more."
Silence reigned once more as the younger queen thought about this. "...and yet you tried it out yourself, rather than having a drone do it?"
He mother's sputtering response was mercifully cut off by Mandible's return. "We're ready."
The clinic, of course, did not have anything resembling a full operating room, but did have an examination room that was actually two rooms with the wall between them removed, established for the occasional yak patient. Those were rather infrequent, so the room was largely used for storage of some of the more specialty equipment, which Zakeem and Mandible had now relocated. The room was fully prepped, and so was the doctor, clad in mask and scrubs. With his help, Spinnerette was guided to the large central bed and climbed onto it. "Is this going to hurt a lot?" she asked, trying to hide her nervousness.
Chrysalis chortled wickedly. "Oh, it's..." She caught the gaze of Zakeem, who shook his head slowly. "...not going to be too bad," she said, relenting. "Just focus on breathing slowly and steadily. And for all our sakes, try to resist the urge to transform and escape. That's something none of us would enjoy."
"Shouldn't she have anesthetic or something?" Mandible asked.
Before the doctor could explain that small clinics generally left such matters to hospitals, the elder queen shook her head. "I may be willing to accept the help of this zebra out of necessity, but I refuse to risk the chance of ponies discovering how well their chemicals can work to subdue a queen. Now, shoo. This is no place for you now."
"I'll be fine, Dib," Spinnerette assured him weakly. "Just go keep an eye out, okay?"
He laid a hoof on hers briefly. "I'm on it. Good luck, Spin." The drone left the room and closed it behind him; within, he could barely hear his mother giving orders, but it was a good, thick door and revealed nothing else. Feeling rather helpless, he shifted into the form of a mouse and scurried into the clinic's waiting room, hiding deep in the shadows and watching the pedestrians outside wander past with nary a glance at the darkened building.
An egg, huh? He never really thought the subject would come up, at least not involving Spinnerette. If Chrysalis had decided to start a new swarm, that would be one thing, but his sibling had always rebelled against the idea. Admittedly, she'd tried to take over her mother's hive when she was ten, but apparently that was just an instinctive reaction; when she was exiled to Manehattan, she'd been very cautious not to attract attention - reasoning that the more mouths to feed, the greater the chance of discovery - and had remained droneless until he'd come to find her.
He didn't know when queens became 'ready to produce eggs', as their mother had put it, but it just had to have been a long time ago, didn't it? He felt sure that Chrysalis had expected that her daughter would start her own hive not too long after her banishment (in queen terms, at least). So if Spinnerette had been capable of making one for the past fifty or sixty years at least, why was this suddenly happening now? Had Chrysalis somehow influenced her - intentionally or not - into subconsciously wanting the swarm she'd avoided for so long? It seemed unlikely; Spinnerette was hardly impressed by her mother's swarm-related accomplishments. So what exactly was going on?
Mandible hoped he wouldn't have to end up telling Rarity about this. The fashionista was, as far as he knew, the only pony to have discovered Spinnerette's existence before now. The queen just adored her work and often consulted with her for stage apparel ideas. One unfortunate slip-up - wherein Spinnerette decided, after a three-hour fitting session, that it would be better to alter herself rather than withstand another accidental pin stick - had revealed the secret, and it took all of Mandible's persuasive skills to keep the unicorn from panicking and, more importantly, telling her good friend Twilight Sparkle about the unsuspected changeling queen. Spinnerette was as yet oblivious that her stage identity had been uncovered, and Mandible did his best to keep it that way. There was a lot of 'better off not knowing' to spread around, as far as he was concerned, and that went for everycreature up to and including all of the alicorns and King Thorax himself.
Thorax. He wasn't sure how the former drone would take the news about Spinnerette. Probably extremely well, which was its own problem. He'd like as not visit Manehattan himself with Twilight in tow, to try to reform his long lost sister. Unfortunately, this would be the exact wrong way to do it; she might be more 'domesticated' than Chrysalis, but Spinnerette was still a queen, with a queen's instincts. The harder you pushed her, the more she'd resist. Too hard, and she might well abandon Harmony Delight altogether, escaping with her mother to regions where not even Mandible could find them. But unless Rarity spilled the proverbial beans, this was unlikely to be an issue. The elder queen had never exactly advertised Spinnerette's existence, for fear of losing drones to desertion, and had only entrusted a select few with the secret. Thorax had never been one of the hive's top operatives, so unless the changeling assigned to keep tabs on Chrysalis' daughter decided to tell him about her, he probably wouldn't find out. And since that changeling was Mandible...
Still, an egg? Maybe followed by a swarm? What would Spinnerette do with a swarm, other than perhaps raise her own legion of backup singers?
But... what if she decided to follow in her mother's hoofsteps after all? Rule Manehattan from the shadows with an iron hoof and her own army, taking love the old fashioned way? He'd have no choice but to turn her in then... right?
He hoped it wouldn't come down to that. It wasn't a decision he wanted to have to make. He'd turned on Chrysalis because that had been what was best for the rest of the changelings, but to betray his own broodmate... he didn't like the feel of that, not one bit. When he'd found her, she was living out of a small, leaky apartment in the Pronx, only managing to scrape by because she didn't have to buy food. He'd seen her talent, nurtured it, allowed to to grow, and together they'd taken the Manehattan music scene by storm. That wasn't what was best for the changelings, who had no need for a queen anymore, even one in exile, but it was best for her. He was sure the old Chrysalis would have berated him for such sentimental garbage, but the old Chrysalis didn't have a say in the matter anymore. He felt like he had a responsibility to look after Spin, and he was going to do just that.
He heard the examination door open, and Chrysalis' voice roused him from his musings. "Mandible." He quickly scampered back toward the room, turning back into an unreformed drone along the way.
"You did very well," Chrysalis crooned, patting her daughter's forehead with a towel.
Lying on the examination bed, Spinnerette watched her a bit nervously, too tired to push her away either physically or magically. "You're being motherly. It's weird. Stop it."
"And why shouldn't I be? You've finally managed what I wanted you to do all those decades ago." She beamed. "Just look at you. At last, you've taken your first step toward becoming a true queen."
Her daughter snorted. "What happened to 'fewer queens means less competition'?"
"Under most circumstances, yes. But I'm certain my darling daughter and I could reach an accommodation."
"...as long as I agree to everything you want, I'm guessing."
"But of course," Chrysalis said, without shame. "I am your mother, after all."
She noticed Spinnerette wasn't paying much attention, and she followed her daughter's gaze to the glistening green ovoid sitting in a nest of towels nearby. The surface seemed less translucent now, but there was still clearly something within, moving occasionally.
Mandible regarded it curiously. He'd seen his fair share of eggs back in the hive, and this seemed a typical example. "Doesn't seem like a dud to me," he said.
Zakeem was all but hovering over the egg, examining it as thoroughly as he could for somepony with absolutely no basis of comparison to work with. "Heartbeat seems... stable," he said, letting the stethoscope fall and laying a hoof extremely gently on the egg's surface. "Temperature remains... fine?" He gave up and wrote in his notebook for a moment, then looked at Chrysalis. "I'll leave it to you to interpret the signs."
"No need to fret, doctor. A changeling egg is more sturdy than you'd think."
"Are you sure?" Spinnerette asked, her wings fluttering with anxiousness. "It wasn't damaged?"
Chrysalis just smiled at her. "Why, daughter. You're sounding positively maternal over this. Didn't you say you never wanted this egg?"
The younger queen's expression was decidedly awkward. "Well... I didn't say I hated the idea. It came as a surprise, sure, but... it's mine." Her words had a fierce possessive tone about them.
Her mother chuckled. "I quite understand." She noticed Zakeem standing pensively nearby, quite clearly having something on his mind. "What is it?"
He hesitated a moment longer before speaking. "This might seem quite rude, but I feel I must know." He glanced again at the egg, then at Spinnerette. "When a changeling transforms, where does it all go?"
She furrowed her brow. "All what?"
"When Spinnerette came, she was shaped like a cat," he explained, and turned to the egg. "But this thing is clearly far larger than that! I'm sorry if this sort of question seems crass, but where in the world do you put all that mass?"
"You mean... where do the extra bits of changeling go?" He nodded.
The three others looked at each other for a time, as though they had been just asked 'how big is a hole?' or 'where does the morning go?' It was... not quite a nonsensical question, but one that had never occurred to them to ask.
Finally they turned to him and said, in unison, "Sideways."
"S-sideways?"
"Yeah," said Mandible. "If you get smaller, it goes to the left. And if you get bigger, more comes from the right."
"It's more of a clockwise/counterclockwise turning motion," Spinnerette disagreed.
"You're both wrong," Chrysalis insisted. "It's better described as a corkscrew, with a widdershins twist. And at any rate," she added with an air of finality that dashed the doctor's hopes for further enlightenment, "eggs aren't supposed to go that way, so I probably should check this one for any issues."
She approached the egg and inspected its surface with an expert's eye. "Hmm," she said finally. "Seems to be all right... A few external striations, but that's to be expected..." Her horn began to glow, and the egg was bathed in its light. "Now, let's have a peek at who-"
Chrysalis stopped suddenly, her eyes narrowing as if she'd suddenly been presented with a rather tricky puzzle. The other changelings looked at each other. "...everything all right?" Spinnerette asked.
The elder queen didn't respond at first, her attention wholly focused. "...tell me, daughter," she said, her expression unreadable, "what word would you use to describe your current lifestyle?"
"...uhh..." She turned to Mandible, who shrugged. "...well, I guess..." Her mind flicked back to the conversation she'd had with Heavy Foundation just two days ago. "...comfortable? Yeah. I like where I am right now, and things are going really well. Mother, what's this all about?"
"...I see," Chrysalis said, ignoring her daughter again and speaking softly to herself. "Yes, that all makes sense. Why didn't I notice earlier? This is no drone egg..."
"Mother, speak up! What are you muttering about?"
The elder queen stepped sharply back from the egg. "Is there time? It's hard to say, she was carrying it for so long. No, but I have to try. I have to!" She turned and sped out the door; even in her changeling form, Chrysalis could move at surprising speed when she wanted to, and she was gone before anyone could react.
"M-Mother?!" Spinnerette called. "Where are you going?!"
"To the store!"
"Well, what are we supposed to do with-"
There was a distant sound of a window being thrown open, a rush of flame, a flurry of pigeon wings, then silence.
"...the egg." They all looked at it in sudden uncertainty. "Okay, what the heck was that all about? Why did she just abandon us?"
"No idea," Mandible replied. "I couldn't make out what she was saying. But I get the feeling there's something special about this egg..."
"Well, that's all well and good, but what are we supposed to do about it? Do I have to... I dunno... sit on it? Keep it warm?"
"I doubt it. Mom kept the drones out of the hatching chamber for the most part, but I'm pretty sure they just hatch on their own within a day or two. Either way, though, we should probably get it home." With a burst of blue, he was replaced by a storm-grey pegasus outfitted with a large courier bag, a common sight in the city.
"Good call." She started to climb down from the bed and nodded to Zakeem. "Thank you for everything, doctor. You didn't have to-"
The moment her hoof touched the floor, her leg buckled beneath her and she stumbled to the ground with a surprised expression.
"Spin!" Mandible and Zakeem rushed to her side and helped her up. "You okay?"
"I'm fine, I'm just..." She wobbled dangerously. "...I guess this all just took a lot out of me."
Mandible frowned. "Don't want you walking home, then, let alone flying... can you change into something smaller, so I can carry you?"
Spinnerette hesitated, then became a small mouse... but only briefly, returning to her normal form with a gasp. "Still too sore," she reported, her voice strained. "Nothing smaller than pony sized, I think."
Her broodmate regarded her for a moment, wearing an expression of concentration. "...okay. New priority is getting you home first. The egg can wait."
"But-"
"I can't keep tabs on both of you the whole way, Spin. It's too risky. You might knock me over, and then what happens to the egg?"
"Well, can't I just rest here until I feel better?" she asked, a bit desperately. "I'm sure I'll be better by morning, lunchtime at most."
"I'm sorry, but that's an idea that's not right," Zakeem told her. "This clinic does not care for patients all night."
Mandible nodded. "Yeah, it's no hospital. Ponies are supposed to just show up, get checked, and leave. When the staff shows up in the morning and finds you, there's gonna be a lot of questions, and you'll be in no state to make your getaway. It's okay; I'll come right back and pick it up, I promise." Her expression was still one of intense worry, so he reached out and lifted her chin. "Hey. I'm not gonna let anything happen to either of you, okay?"
She looked... forlorn was the best word he could think of. "I just feel like I haven't gotten to make a lot of choices for myself today."
"I'm sure that this evening has left you distressed," Zakeem told her, "but all things considered, the drone's plan is best." He gave her a kind smile. "The smart thing to do is to go home and rest."
She couldn't help but let out a small giggle at that. "Ooo, a triple. All right, all right. Doctor's orders, I get it." She returned his smile. "You know, if I had to be revealed to anypony... I'm glad it was you, doctor."
"Come see me next week, and I'll check you once more." There was a glint of mirth in his eye. "Perhaps you might even come through the front door."
Spinnerette laughed. "I'll do my best."
Her broodmate briefly took the form of a dragon, the better to carry the egg, and followed Zakeem back to his office, setting it carefully down on a couch. The egg wasn't round enough to roll unexpectedly, and it throbbed gently as cushions were piled around it. Zakeem fussed over it for a moment until he was satisfied. Then a thought clearly occurred, and Mandible could easily guess it from his expression: what if it hatches? What if it hatches?!
"Don't worry," the drone assured him. "If it hatches, it's just gonna be a harmless, helpless grub. Just shove it in a box or a desk drawer or something. I'll only be gone an hour or so."
"I hope, for my own sake, you do hurry back," the zebra said nervously, glancing at the egg again. "I'd like this resolved before things start to crack."
After Mandible had helped his sibling out the window and then to the street to hail a carriage, Zakeem returned to the examination room to give it a thorough cleaning, and not just for hygiene's sake. He knew without being told that it would be best to scrub all traces of changeling presence from the premises.
The door was thick, and the labor intensive, so he couldn't hear it when a key was inserted into the clinic's front door. Didn't know it when somepony made their way deliberately down the hallway, not thinking much of the fact that the lights had been left on.
And in the darkness of Zakeem's office, where Spinnerette's egg gently twitched in its nest, a soft amber glow enveloped the cheap doorknob and carefully manipulated the lock.