Chrysalis stood nervously in front of the gates of the palace, the guards around her looking nervous as well, but they were not moving to attack her. It had been several weeks since the Crystal Empire had returned, she and the changelings that were left had begun to feel stronger, the hunger that had long been plaguing them ebbing away as the empire slowly began to return to its full glory.
There was however still a problem, for even though their madness was finally gone, they were nowhere near as strong as they used to be…and what was worse, their last queen was now sterile.
“YOU!”
“Oh no…” thought Chrysalis, “please, let it not be her.”
But, much to the changeling Queens horror, she turned to see the enraged from of Cadance, stomping toward her, only to be stopped as the guards moved to stay her.
“Move asi…”
“I’m afraid I can’t do that princess, said one of the guards. “We are under orders by Princess Luna to keep watch over Queen Chrysalis until her sister summons her, and we are also under express orders to keep you from attacking her.”
Cadance was about to speak, when suddenly Luna appeared in a flash of light, her gaze falling upon Chrysalis as she spoke. “Our sister has granted you an audience, and expects you in the throne room at once.”
“Luna this is a…”
“Stay thy tongue Cadance,” said Luna harshly, “we know you have your grievances, but Chrysalis has brought to us information which concerns all of Equestira, so you must control yourself.”
Cadance stared at her second aunt for a long moment, and then sighed, “Fine, I’m coming with you though.”
“Very well,” said Luna, before turning to the changeling queen, “follow me.”
They moved into the palace, Chrysalis keeping herself from straying too close to Cadance as they walked, knowing the young mare was close to boiling rage. Luckily for her, it didn’t take long to reach the throne room, Luna leading them inside before moving to her sister’s side, though Chrysalis had only eyes for the other pony in the room.
“Twilight,” said Cadance behind her, “what the hay are you doing here?”
“I was asked to come here by Celestia,” said Twilight as her old foal sitter came over to nuzzle her, “she said it was very important that I do so.”
“It is,” said Chrysalis, causing everypony to turn in her direction.
“But why?”
“I have been wondering that myself my student,” said Celestia calmly, letting her gaze fall upon the lone queen as she managed to tear her eyes away from Twilight. “That and many other questions, which is why I now give the floor to you Chrysalis, I just hope this is not a waste of our time.”
Chrysalis gulped, “n…no, this will not be a waste of time, for it has to do with the ecology of our world. I…I know this may be of no concern to any of you, but as of this past month…my changelings are on the verge of extinction.”
The room grew deathly cold at this bit of information, nopony wanting to speak, but finally Cadance was the one to break the silence. “What, but you’re their queen aren’t you?”
“Y…yes.”
“Then you can’t be going extinct, I know your races biology from the text books Celestia leant me, as long as the changelings have a queen then they will never go extinct.”
A sad look dawned Chrysalis’s face at that comment, “you…you are correct Princess Cadance, and while normally I would agree with you on that fact…the spell which you and Shining Armor used to expel me and my changelings from Canterlot stripped me of the ability to…to bear young…”
There were gasps all around the room, but no reaction equaled to the one that coursed through Cadance, whose hooves had leapt to her mouth in horror. Cadance herself longed to be a mother, so the idea that one of her spells had resulted in another being losing their ability to be one, it was too horrifying to comprehend.
“I…I didn’t…”
“It is alright Princess Cadance, you had no way of knowing it would happen, and neither did I. However, that is not the only reason I came here, for I have recently discovered that the last hope for my race…is here in Canterlot.”
Again silenced filled the room, the implications of the statement sinking into all of them, till finally Twilight got the nerve to speak. “You…your highness, what do you mean your last hope is here?”
Chrysalis sighed, “As you no doubt know, changeling queens are made differently than a changeling drone, being gestated inside the womb of the former queen instead of being hatched from an egg. I was carrying such an embryo inside my own womb; however it seems that during my struggle with Princess Celestia, the embryo left my womb.”
“Left,” said Twilight skeptically, “I’m sorry your highness, but from everything I know things just don’t work like that when it comes to that kind of stuff.”
“Right again Princess Twilight, except we changelings do have one beneficial quirk when it comes to a queen’s anatomy. If at any time the queen carrying a queen embryo is threatened, the subconscious mind of said queen will use its magic to teleport the embryo into the strongest magical being for its safety, which happened during my battle with you Princess Celestia.”
Celestia raised an eyebrow at her, “if you are implying what I think your implying, you should know I would know if anything foreign were growing within my body.”
“I have no doubt of that,” said Chrysalis calmly, “but my embryo did not end up in you, nor in your niece Princess Cadance…which brings me to the reason I asked your newest princess to join us for this meeting.”
Everypony stared at her for a long moment, and then Twilight finally spoke, her voice shaking as she tried to come to terms with what she just said. “No…no you can’t mean…”
“Yes Twilight, you are carrying the last changeling queen inside your womb.”