Tainted Love: A Twysalis Prompt Tag Collab

by Foals Errand

Parasite by Knight of Lycaeus (story)

Author's Note:

Read this first

by Knight of Lycaeus

With less than a week to the planned convention, I held another Court session that was slightly tenser than the last one had been. Spike was the only one who still refused to forgive Chrysalis, that and he refused to even allow her to speak. I knew something had to be done and soon otherwise it could be disastrous once all the Princesses and their Courts had gathered. Other than that I had expected a fairly normal Court session, minor complaints and requests. Nothing major, just like what I usually dealt with. Apparently the universe decides to be cruel and gives me another curveball.

One group that waited to see us were some workers from Canterlot Castle who had asked where would everyone be staying when the meeting commenced at the end of the following week. I was confused and frankly so was all of my friends. It took a hurried flamed letter and about fifteen minutes to clear up the confusion. Apparently the meeting had been mistakenly written in as Crystal Oaks instead of Canterlot Castle. The clerk who caused the error could not be found although he had left a name…. Peaceful Disaster. I swear I could hear Discord laughing in the background.

With no time to readjust the meeting back to Canterlot I went with the only other option, I assured the workers that accommodations will be found and I invited them to return the next day. Court was declared close after that. My friends and I devised some plans to see if some accommodations could be made by the week’s end, however the first task at hoof was the Mayor’s office. Mayor Mare held much the same power and position as before, I had interfered little to none with the local politics and I preferred our arrangement. So our meeting was something I had hoped would go more smoothly, but again the world conspires against me.

It took about an hour of questions, fainting, smelling salts, and tea before the cycle repeated itself again and again…. By the end of it, we came to the decision that the local inn was too small to even consider using not to mention the expansion cost would have been ridiculous. That left only one place that would have enough space, that one place was my home. Wonderful…. This led to me, all of my friends, Chrysalis, the entire Hive, the Canterlot workers to begin all the necessary preparations. Fortunately this later snowballed into almost the entire town all pitching in to clean and furnish every possible room large enough for guests. Now instead of an almost bare crystal tree, I had a very richly furnished crystal tree.

---

[/hr]

With the tree fully furnished came the other issue that needed to be dealt with, Spike and Chrysalis. In the past three weeks since Chrysalis moved in with her Hive, I had grown to enjoy spending time with her. Due to the constraints she was under she spent the majority of her time either in my home or with my friends.

In that time I learn quite a lot more about her, or really what I could glimpse beneath the arrogance and entitlement. Still when she was being more pleasant, I did find her to be good company. I heard of her life in the desert which was a lot harsher than it is here but it seems that Changeling maintained a thriving culture that was interesting to hear about. Another thing I had learned about her was how willing she was to do anything for her Hive; the desperate invasion of Canterlot was proof of that. It was something that I could I understand and relate to in a way, although my measures are usually less drastic…. usually.

However Spike refused to speak to Chrysalis at all and at this point the only thing I could only hope for was for the two to be somewhat civil…. So a day after we had finished furnishing the crystal tree that I, who was tired of waiting for the two to do anything at all, more or less politely asked the two to meet with me in one of the smaller rooms which I sealed off.

Before I could even speak, I was cut off by a cold voice.

“I hate you.” The first words I heard out of Spike’s mouth and I knew he meant it.

“I’ve been called worse dragon.” Chrysalis snarled.

Spike just glared at her, I swear this was going exactly as I thought it would, absolutely nowhere.

“I hate what you did. You attacked my family and for what?” Spike yelled.

“Food, positive emotions are our food source.” Chrysalis answered back curtly.

“Food, you Changelings feed off emotions, drain ponies dry. Do you even think about how we feel about that?” Spike continued to yell, this made me thankful for the silencing spell I had placed on the room which would ensure no Guards barging in.

Chrysalis returned his glare, “Why would we? Food is food, what would you do to survive?”

Spike growled silently.

“Have you any ideas of our living conditions dragon?” Chrysalis asked.

“No….” Spike growled out.

“This land is almost paradise compared to my own homeland! Do you have any idea of how hard it is to find even the most meager scrape of food?”

“No….” Spike said more quietly.

I watched the two resume their silent glares, I sighed as I watched this. I knew it was nearly hopeless but I wanted them to be at least civil when the meeting began, so much for thinking that.

“I hate you,” Spike began more quietly this time, “you Changelings live off of others with nothing in return.”

I continued to stay silent watching the two carefully; watching Spike was almost like watching a fire grow increasingly more intense especially as his voice picked up in volume again, “Parasites, that’s what Changelings are! We serve as your damn food and you leave us as nothing, which is the very meaning of parasite!”

I moved from my position and hugged Spike tightly hoping to prevent another outburst.

I could see Chrysalis staring at us both intently. After a while I could feel Spike calming down.

“I do not like you or Changelings.” Spike said firmly breaking free of my embrace, “I might never like you.”

“Fine dragon, hatred is something I’m more than used to.” Chrysalis said crisply.

Spike slumped slightly, the fire dying down somewhat. “I did however learn about forgiveness, especially when you almost hurt those closest to you….”

Spike breathed deep, “I will agree to move past this…. but attack my family again.”

Chrysalis nodded understanding the unstated threat, “I’ve learned some things as well dragon, that ponies are more than just food sources, so fine…. we’ll move past this.”

Both of them resumed glaring at each other although less intense than it had been earlier, I knew it would take a long time before either of them would be ready to move past this stage of uneasy peace. I was glad that both of them would likely remain civil enough for the meeting next week.

Comments

[Europa]

A very nice heart-to-heat between Chryssy and Best Dragon. Love it.

[Cytotoxin]

....Chrysalis had so much more powerful arguments.

"Big words, whelp. But you should remember something... Dragons eat ponies too. Much more literally so then we changelings, I might add. If we drain somepony, they will survive and recover in time, but if a dragon eats you, you`re gone. Now, you`re probably going to yelp how you`d never eat a pony... but you`re a dragon. So it`s only a question of time before you stop thinking with your brain and start doing it with your stomach. You lot are all the same - clever when you`re weak, but remarkably unperturbed about ethical conduct when you grow into power."

"We give nothing back? Heh. Same could be said of you. Do you really think your manual labor is even close to covering the costs of feeding you gems? Your friends will wither and die from age before you`ll grow up enough to be self-sufficient. Compared to the mooch like you, we pay back tenfold - affection isn`t free even among ponies."

[Knight of Lycaeus]

5698882
Hmm. I think you're probably right in that Chrysalis does have some stronger argument points than Spike does and thank you for pointing out somethings I didn't think of when I first wrote this and it has given me some ideas of how to tweak some of their discussion.

[erictheblue]

It took about an hour of questions, fainting, smelling salts, and tea before the cycle repeated itself again and again…. 

reminds me of a silly gag in a story:
Princess Luna captures a Changeling, ties him up, then yells at him in the Royal Canterlot Voice-
he faints.
she talks to him in his dream-
he wakes up with a scream.
she RCV's him again-
he faints again.
this repeated several more times...