//------------------------------// // Feast by Europa (Dark? ...) // Story: Tainted Love: A Twysalis Prompt Tag Collab // by Foals Errand //------------------------------// by Europa "Pods, pods," she heard her workerfriend mutter. The unicorn trotted over to the large cocoons holding her latest prisoners from Equestria, and Chrysalis followed her. Twilight levitated a notepad and pencil before her and scribbled down some figures into it. "Alright, I think that's more or less Manehattan's population." "That's great news, Twily," she said as she gave the pony a brief nuzzle. She briefly glanced at the ponies, sleeping soundly in their cocoons, sedated into dreamless sleep that meant their bodies would be utterly unable to fight the feeding process. Sure, sometimes they'd have to refresh the slime so they'd continue to get oxygen and nutrients, but that could be done without removing the ponies, and the energy they got eclipsed the energy they had to put in. Now, after so many decades of barely scraping by, they had a great feast before them that would never run out. "That's the last of them, right?" "Mmhmm! With that, Equestria and the Crystal Empire have been conquered. The Cosmic Manipulation Mechanism is working as planned, and the other nations are too scared stiff of your military to avenge Equestria. Everything's perfect." She nodded. Perfect. It was, wasn't it? Equestria was finally her's. The decapitation strike had gone off without a hitch, and even now the alicorn sisters slumbered in dreamless sleep within their pods. Cadance was in the same situation. "Great! Then you and me can go back to our room," she said, her voice carrying a hint of things to come. Twilight blushed bright red through her purple coat - the novelty of blushing red never wore off - and nodded. "Of course, of course!" She banished her notepad and pencil away to who-knew-where and trotted to her side. "Lead the way, Chryssy." She did so, leading the pony through the corridors of her hive. They passed many changelings on the way, all looking full and healthy. Queen Chrysalis herself was no longer as twig-thin as she'd been. Twilight was recovering as well from being fed on voraciously in the past, and if it weren't for the royal purple irises being flooded with the emerald light of hypnosis, noling would have suspected anything was wrong with her in the first place. Most of the changelings they passed first were soldiers in case anypony broke out, and harvesters who specialized in ripping the most love out of ponies as possible. Then as they went further into the tunnels they passed civilians, nearly everyling bowing to their Queen as she passed by. Then they entered the noble area of the hive, then further into the royal tunnels, and then deeper and deeper, past the enchanted-armor-wearing Imperial Guard and into Chrysalis's private chambers. They were essentially a large, rectangular prism. Unlike most of her hive, there were sources of light beyond her glowing eyes; enchanted torches with green fire that never consumed air, never burnt down or gave off smoke. Her bed was a large circle, covered in luxurious green silk with four posters around its circumference. Dotted around her chambers were drawers and tables, littered with all sorts of projects both Chrysalis and Twilight had set their hearts on. Chrysalis closed the entrance with a soundproof forcefield, grabbed Twily in her forehooves and stood on her hind legs, buzzing her wings for balance. She lifted off and flew over to the bed, landing on top of Twilight and looking down at her workerfriend, down at her green eyes. She winced in guilt. There weren't many things that Chrysalis regretted doing to take over Equestria, but hypnotizing Twilight was one. She hadn't changed much, just Twilight's loyalties were altered. The pony's personality was untouched and... and she liked her personality. Twilight Sparkle was, contrary to her first impressions, a wonderful worker and she didn't deserve what Chrysalis did to her. Her conflict must've been apparent, because Twilight's face softened and she reached up to stroke her cheek with a hoof. "Hey, Chryssy, what's wrong?" She rolled off of Twilight and sat on the edge of the bed, her head hung low. "I can't do it," she muttered. "I can't keep doing this to you." Twilight sat up and hugged her from behind. "What do you mean?" "I hypnotized you," she whispered. "I did that to you, made you betray your friends and family. You don't really love me, I made you. I just, just undo it..." Her horn lit up... ... only for Twily's magenta aura to swirl around it and gently extinguish the magic. "Chryssy, you didn't." "Yes I did!" she snapped, turning around to look at Twilight. "You know as well as I do that you should hate me for what I've done! You would if it wasn't for me." "So what's the solution?" she asked. "Chryssy, all you did was change who I was loyal to. You didn't make me love you. The same would've happened had you chosen to make peace with Equestria, I'm sure of it." Chrysalis scoffed. Yes, peace. That was an option. "And even if I had, what do you even want to do about it? Unhypnotize me and have me filled with hatred and despair? Retain my feelings for you, but not my loyalty, and be conflicted?" Twilight hugged her harder from behind. "Chrysalis, please just let it stay. Let me stay with you. Please." She looked back at the pony, into her magic-tainted eyes, and nodded. She shifted around so she was facing Twilight and leaned over her, pushing the pony down into the bed. "Thank you," she whispered, nuzzling the pony. "Thank you."