“Wake up!”
Those were the first words Chrysalis heard before she was kicked out of bed, landing on the floor in a heap.
“What in Tartarus!?” she hissed, getting to her hooves, snarling. Up on the bed she was a very livid Jason glaring at her. “Oh um... good morning.” she said, giving him a sheepish smile.
“Explain, now,” he commanded, narrowing his eyes at her.
“Calm down Jason, nothing happened between us,” she said, rolling her eyes. “I’m not one of those Queens.”
“Oh? Then why are we in bed together?”
“Well we both got rather drunk and since I didn’t want us to be passed out in the orchard, I had some drones take us back to the hive. I have the best bed here after all.” she said with a smile.
“And that’s it?” he asked, crossing his arms.
“Yes that’s it, if it wasn’t, do you think you’d still have your clothes on?”
“I suppose that’s true,” he admitted rubbing the back of his head. “Won’t AJ be pissed about this?” he asked, a frown on his face.
“Oh I already thought of that,” Chrysalis said, waving her hoof dismissively. “I ordered a drone to stay behind and explain everything to Applejack. In fact,” she said, closing her eyes, “let me check on that now.” She took a deep breath, opening her link to the hive mind. The flood of information, to any other being, would have sounded like a whole lot of noise. To Chrysalis however, it was a beautiful symphony, dozens of voices singing in harmony. She pushed through the many voices until she found the one she was looking for. She connected to them, the darkness of her eyelids slowly being replaced by the drones vision, which was filled with a very angry Applejack.
“So ya’ll are telling me that Chrysalis took Jay back to yer hive, drunk off his flank?” the irate farm pony asked, glaring at the drone.
“Yes, the queen was afraid of them passing out in the open so she took him to the hive, I assure you he is safe,” the drone assured, doing its best to calm her.
“He better be,” Applejack said, getting nose to nose to the drone. “If ah find out she did to him what she did to Shining Armor, ah’ll come down there mahself and shove an apple so far up her rear, there’ll be an orchard sprouting around inside of her.” she narrowed her eyes, glaring into the drones soul. “Now ya’ll get out of here before anypony sees ya,” she ordered pointing toward the Everfree. “Git!”
The drone gulped before taking off as fast as it could.
“That’s... unfortunate,” Chrysalis said with a frown, coming back to her senses. “You were correct, Applejack is very displeased with this,” she said getting to her hooves. “Well since you’re here, why don’t I show you around the hive?”
“I don’t see why not,” Jason agreed, stepping out of the bed cracking his back. “Oh, before we go anywhere... Omnitrix, Razor,” in a flash, he shifted into his changeling king form.
“Oh my,” Chrysalis said with a smile, looking him over.
“Don’t get any ideas, I just decided to go with the flow,” Jason said, rolling his eyes. “Ok... let’s see if I can remember the words... Omnitrix, form lock code 1010,” he said grinning with satisfaction as the Omnitrix did as he commanded.
“What was that?” Chrysalis inquired, tilting her head to the side.
“Basically, the Omnitrix won't turn me back to normal until I tell it to,” he said, adjusting his wings. “So how about that tour?” he asked, giving her a smile.
“Of course, right this way,” she said with a smile of her own. She led him out into the hallway, allowing him to get a better feel for the architecture. The walls were a hard black material with green lanterns lighting them. It vaguely reminded him of a Xenomorph hive. He gave a bit of a shudder and shook his head.
“Our first stop shall be the birthing chambers,” his guide spoke up, leading him into a rather spacious room. The center of the room had a hole leading down into the room below. “Here is where I would come to lay my eggs. I would grow an egg sac and the eggs would drop into the room below, where the caretakers place them into incubation pods,” she explained, giggling at the look on Jason’s face. “I take it your species reproduces quite differently?”
“Yes, very much so,” he said, trying to keep from blushing. “Not to offend but this is very reminiscent of bees or ants,”
“I can see that, though bees and ants mate with their drones which is just disgusting,” she said making a face. “Changeling drones are asexual. Though in some cases, such as the death of a queen, the strongest drone will become the next queen.”
“So they don’t have any gender?”
“Nope, none at all. We are currently the only sexed pair of changelings in the hive,” she said with a wink, making him blush.’
“How about we move onto something else?” he asked, ignoring the twitching of his stringer.
“Yes yes, come on. You must be hungry so why don’t we go get you some love shall we?” she asked, motioning for him to follow her again. The walk to the hive’s feeding area took several minutes. They passed by several drones that just ignored their presence, busy patching up some cracks in the wall.
“Whoa,” Jason said, looking around the cavernous room. Drones of various size and importance moved about the room, which was dominated by a glowing pillar.
“Come on, let’s get you your first taste of love,” she said with a smile, moving up to the pillar, gesturing for him to follow.
“So um, what do I do?” he asked, taking a spot next to her, looking at the pillar.
“Just touch your horn to it and draw the love into yourself.”
“Ok... here goes nothing,” Jason said,touching the tip of his horn to it. He shuddered as he felt the energy surge down his horn. It felt odd, like a warm current running through him. After a few moments, he pulled away, panting. “Ok, that was weird.”
“Oh you’re so adorable, like a larva really,” she said, nuzzling him. She was about to say more when one of the guards flew over to them.
“My Queen,” it said with a bow, panting slightly.” Princess Celestia is here to see you.”
“Ah, I had almost forgotten about our meeting. You may return to your post,” she said with a smile. She watched the drone fly off before sending an order through the hive mind. “Come Jason, we shouldn’t keep Celestia waiting.”
Jason just sighed, following after her.
***
As it turned out, the meeting was being held in the hive’s throne room. He hadn’t seen Canterlot’s throne room for comparison, but the hive’s throne appeared to be made out of obsidian. Chrysalis took her place upon it, the sickly green light of the lanterns making her appear rather foreboding. He took a spot next to her throne, gulping as Celestia was lead inside by a pair of drones.
“Chrysalis,I have done as you asked, I am here by myself with no guards,” Celestia said, coming to a stop. She caught sight of Jason, raising an eyebrow. “I did not know Jason was here,”
“I thank you for your trust Celestia,” Chrysalis began, looking at her. “As for Jason, I was giving him a tour of the hive.”
“I see,” Celestia said with a nod, sitting on her haunches. “Now shall we begin negotiations?”
“Of course,” Chrysalis said with a smile. “First off, I would like the ability to move my hive somewhere closer to Equestria,”
“How close?” Celestia asked, her voice staying even making it hard to gauge her reaction.
“I was thinking that castle in the Everfree, as I understand, no one is using it,” Chrysalis said, keeping eye contact with Celestia.
“What will you give in exchange for this land?”
“I will willingly submit myself to your rule,” Chrysalis said taking a deep breath, though Jason could tell she didn’t like this at all.
“You would willingly surrender yourself and your hive to me? Why would you do such a thing?” Celestia asked, surprise managing to leak through her mask.
“Celestia, like you I am a ruler, I must do what is best for my subjects, even if that means I must prostrate myself at your hooves to ensure their survival.” Chrysalis said, managing to keep her proud exterior up.
“Very well, I accept your terms Chrysalis,” Celestia said, slipping back into her neutral expression.
“Not to interrupt but I’m going to head home. I had a nice time Chrysalis, I wouldn’t mind going on another date some time soon,” Jason spoke up, catching both monarchs’ attention. “Omnitrix, disengage form lock code 1010.” He returned to normal and let out a sigh of relief.
“I would like that,” Chrysalis smiled, that little tidbit brightening her mood greatly.
“Allow me to save you the trip Jason,” Celestia said. Her horn was surrounded in a golden light, the look on her face screaming “we’ll talk about this later.” Before he could respond, he was consumed in the same golden light and appeared in the library with a loud pop.
“Gah!” Twilight shouted, jumping up in fright, scattering papers everywhere. “Jason!? Where did you come from!?”
“Um...” the human started, leaning on a wall, holding his stomach. “A changeling hive...”
“You were in a hive?!” Twilight shouted, her eyes sparkling. “Oh my gosh! Tell me all about it!” she squealed, jumping up and down.
Jason just groaned, resigning himself to the alicorn’s interrogation.
***
It was about two hours later when Jason returned to the farm, hands in his pockets. He had managed to distract Twilight long enough to escape her hooves, something he was eternally grateful for.
“Hey Applejack I’m... back...” Jason trailed off as he walked into the barn, staring at the sight in front of him. There was Rarity and Applejack, dressed up in the most ridiculous way possible. Rarity was dressed like a hick, straw hat, overalls, the whole nine yards. Applejack was the exact opposite, wearing a dress fit for a Disney princess, her hair all done up.
“Oh hello Jason,” Applejack said with a strange, well-to-do accent.
“No,” he said shaking his head. “I’m done. I’ll be inside, have fun in the Twilight Zone!” Jason said, stepping back outside and closing the barn doors.
“Excuse me,” a voice spoke up catching his attention. A brown, glasses wearing, stallion stood before him, giving him a cautious look. “Do you know where Applejack is?”
Jason just stared at him for a minute before walking off, grumbling about ponies and their insane world, leaving the poor, rather confused, stallion behind.
***
“So why do you hate this ‘Trenderhoof’? Didn’t you say you only met him for a for a moment.” Slash asked. He sat at a table with Jason toward the edge of the festival which apparently no one bothered to tell him about.
“That guy is such a hipster, it’s not even funny,” Jason said, taking a bit of jerky and watching said stallion dance with Granny Smith. “Plus, theres something... off about that guy, I just don’t know what...”
“You’re just being paranoid,” Slash said rolling his eyes. “Believe me, if he was a threat, I’d have dealt with him.”
“Like you dealt with that manticore that wandered into town?”
“That was a freak accident and you know it!”
“Whatever Slash, I think you're more bark than bite.”
While the two bickered back and forth over Slash’s combat prowess, Trenderhoof had cautiously moved off the dance floor to watch the two without being noticed. He sent magic through his horn, activating the enchantment etched into his glasses. His plan had failed miserably, as Jason had been gone most of the day. That said, now was the perfect time to get some intelligence on the creature. He smirked as his glasses recorded everything. Nopony would ever suspect that he was a Forever Knight.
“Soon we will remove that watch from you, monkey,” he vowed under his breath, making sure to fade back into the crowd.