Improving Relations
‘Mhmmm, yes.’
Queen Chrysalis purred softly to herself as she settled down atop her throne, the magical energies contained within the precious green crystal sending a soothing tingle across her chitin. A low hum, barely audible, steadily ebbed into life at the same time that a pulse of magic caused the throne to glow brighter for a short second.
Tucking her hind legs up underneath her, and resting her head on her forelegs, Chrysalis shifted and cricked her neck. The resulting crack reverberated around the cavernous throne room, even reaching deep into the many holes carved into the surrounding rock walls. Smiling as she felt her chitin re-adjust, she allowed herself a quick private laugh.
“Ha, Equestrian fools!” she chortled to herself, reminiscing about the many ponies now cocooned down in the hive’s depths. “This is only the beginning! First I shall take their towns, then Canterlot, then the whole of Equestria! They thought they could challenge the might of Queen Chrysalis and not suffer the consequences!?”
Her laughter echoed around the throne room, the lack of an audience not phasing her one bit.
As Chrysalis laughed, the memory of her battle with Princess Luna tugged at her mind and caused her to stop suddenly with a wince.
“And those accursed, so-called Princesses…” she snarled, her teeth clenching. “Though they may have thwarted me through their trickery before, I won’t be so easily denied again. I will steal their precious subjects from right under their hooves, and there won’t be a thing they can do to stop me!”
Her evil grin lessened somewhat as she raised one forehoof to her chin.
“Still, it wouldn’t hurt to add some more power to my overwhelming might, just to make their inevitable defeat that much more pathetic…”
Her mind twisted and churned with possible ideas and plots, the ancient malice contained within fuelling her desire for sweet revenge. Flashes of possible magical artefacts she could create or steal, scenes of conquest as Equestria was tamed beneath a million changeling hooves, plans of more subtle methods…
“Hmm,” she brushed her chin with a hoof as one particular idea sprang to mind. “Risky, of course, but if I manage to get them to fall for it again…”
Fangs flashed in a wicked smile, Chrysalis licking her lips as more parts of her new plot formed and slotted into place. Almost as if it sensed her noxious eagerness, her throne’s glow increased its glow as more and more power ebbed and flowed throughout it.
Then, her ear lifted as approaching sounds made themselves known, echoing down from the wide entrance cavern opposite her.
The sounds of gnarled hooves, buzzing wings, and chittering speech.
Chrysalis allowed herself to keep a small smile as she sat up upon her throne, her mind still radiant with her many schemes as she prepared to commence the first changeling royal court since her embarrassing defeat at the hands of her hated foes, the Equestrians.
A defeat that she intended to not experience again.
A drop of moisture fell from the smoothed tunnel ceiling to splash against bare skin, and Daniel absentmindedly lifted up a hand to brush the water off of his right shoulder.
Walking bare-footed through yet another bug-horse tunnel, (all of his clothing save for his dependable patchwork-briefs having been whisked away earlier by a group of bug-horses in the pool area), he surprisingly wasn’t feeling as sour as one would expect. It may have just been because of the relaxing soak and swim, but he had surprised himself with how chill he had acted when the second group of chattering bug-horses had intruded upon his group’s private bathing time.
He looked towards the front of the convey he was travelling in, Bluey and Snouty heading up the pack with a new bug-horse trotting alongside them. This one was male, and if his vibrant red cape and jade-buttoned crimson vest was anything to go off of, an important one. The fact that all of his bug-horse groupies had left the pool and bowed to the newcomer as soon as he had trotted up was also a pretty good indicator of high rank.
The leading trio hadn’t stopped sharing whispers since they had left the bathing area, and Daniel was certain that something was up. Still, he was sure that Bluey could handle it, and he hadn’t picked up on any unease from the group.
Almost as if on cue, a bump against his leg reminded him that there were more than three bug-horses with him, and he looked down to meet the smile of Yellow Cable. Rubbing her head, much to her enjoyment, he took a second to glance around at the others.
‘They seem to know what’s going on,’ he figured, the remaining three sharing hushed chatters as they trotted up behind him. Even though he still couldn’t understand their words, it was impossible to miss the air of excited anticipation that surrounded them.
Another thing noticeable was the lack of bug-horses so far. While they had swarmed the bathing area, he had yet to spot many since they had entered the new tunnel. Daniel kept on glancing to the many alcoves and smaller passageways that branched off as they passed, finding nothing save for the same black walls and green-glowing lanterns. Then, they turned down one of the smaller tunnels to the left, the three leaders out in the front beginning to slow.
“Czzzrt chrzzrzrt.”
The group came to a halt, the bug-horse in the cape gesturing to a solid black door set into the tunnel wall as he spoke to them all. Daniel gave it a once over, a simple rectangular handle set into the smooth black surface, before the caped bug-horse pushed open the door with his foreleg and trotted inside.
The entire group followed him, Daniel ducking his head to get through the doorway before looking around.
The room was about the size of a small hotel room, though the ceiling was thankfully high enough for him to stand up comfortably. A small wooden table and two matching round stools, unlikely to have been made by bug-horses considering the sappy floral engravings around edges, sat up against the far wall with a single flowerless glass vase atop of it.
Opposite the table and set into the wall was a strange rectangular booth made of polished bug-horse black stuff, a smooth oval-shape carved out from the top. Judging from single white pillow that sat within it, Daniel figured that it was meant to be some kind of sleeping spot.
‘Fuck that, won’t even fit my arse in it.’
The middle of the room contained the only splash of colour, save for the green lantern-lights set into the ceiling. A wide and circular red rug was set out upon the middle of the floor, an array of bright and fluffy-looking cushions spread out across the edges. A single folded quilt sat in the centre, Daniel raising an eye at the picture of a mustard-yellow flying-horse in explorer’s gear winking at the viewer.
‘They stole that from a child, didn’t they?’
All in all, the room was fairly plain and basic. Granted, better than random caves and open fields, but a far cry from some of the small horse dwellings that he been in before.
However, apparently not all had the same opinion.
“Chrrzrt!”
“Crrrzt, brzzrt crzz!”
“Brzrzrzrz!”
Red, Green, Grey, and Yellow all chattered happily to each other as they rushed around the room poking pillows and cushions with snouts and hooves. The other three bug-horses were much more restrained, caped bug-horse speaking softly with the two in armour before leaving through the door.
Bluey shut the door after him, before trotting over to look up with a smile and gesture around the room.
“Brzzhrzt.”
Daniel made a show of looking around the accommodation.
“Eh,” he said with a shrug and a glance over at the sole sleeping-rectangle. “Where are you lot sleeping then?”
“Wow, an entire room to ourselves!”
“Look at all of the soft things!”
“I want this one!”
Burrow smiled and shook his head at the reaction of the drones, the four zipping around to excitedly investigate every part of their new accommodations as Mr Growls stood and examined the room for himself. Aphid was likewise amused, however the noble standing next to them didn’t even bat an eye.
“The Queen, in addition to having generously provided you with accommodation well above your station, has also felt it fit to excuse you from regular hive duties.” His eyes glanced up towards Mr Growls. “You also have permission to take from the stores if needed, but Her Majesty stressed that you are responsible for obtaining the majority of what you need. She has also asked me to remind you about the feeding schedule, understood?”
Both Burrow and Aphid nodded, the noble moving towards the door.
“Good, that will be all.”
With that he trotted out and left, Burrow shutting the door behind him before moving back next to Aphid.
“Well, that went smoother than I expected.”
“Yeah, it did.” Aphid replied while giving the room a look around. “And we got a private room out of it too, a table and everything.” Dodging around two drones fighting over control of a yellow pillow, she stopped just short of a small black door set in the back wall. “Huh, we even got a toilet as well.”
Burrow trotted over to her, coming up alongside just as Aphid pushed open the door with a hoof. They were both greeted by a tiny room, the single distinct feature being the bottomless hole in the floor.
“Huh, so we do.”
“Queen likes us that much now.”
Burrow glanced up and behind him as Mr Growls joined them in the toilet investigating. The biped leaned down and tilted his head at the hole, before his shoulders shrugged and he ambled off to check out the table.
“I’m willing to bet that it has more to do with the Queen keeping her new favourite food away from the general hive populace,” he scoffed, before glancing around the room again. “Still, we can’t really complain.”
There was a flurry of activity off to the side, Burrow and Aphid looking over just as Mr Growls sat down on the rug against the wall.
“Growly, look!” Mirror announced as she bounded over towards him and dropped a large frilly pink pillow straight onto his lap, much to his visible annoyance. Not that Mirror noticed, of course. “Can you believe this? We’re living like ponies now!” Clambering up on top of it, she rolled over onto her side with a happy hum and tucked in her legs, just as Cypher ambushed him from the side.
“Well, not quite like ponies just yet.” Forgoing a pillow, she instead opted to just sit up against his side and bury her head into his patchwork shirt, one forehoof absentmindedly playing with a stray string of cloth while the other worked its way around an arm. “We’re not nearly as soft as they are. Stupid Equestrians.”
The remaining two drones, Meddle and Muddle, chose that exact moment to dive upon Mr Growls’ other arm. Muddle grabbed his hand and started poking his fingers with her forehooves, while Meddle became engrossed in closely studying the tiny hairs that dotted the skin.
“Yeah,” Mirror agreed from her spot on the pillow, back resting up against his stomach. “Stupidly soft Equestrians.”
Burrow met Mister Growl’s eyes, and could only nod in agreement with the resulting eye roll as Aphid mentally scoffed.
”Pah, pathetic. Like they can criticise ponies while acting like that with him!”
Burrow didn’t say a word. A single word.
”‘Still… I’m up for a lie down.”
He couldn’t help but shake his head as she trotted over to claim a spot by Mr Growl’s feet, and he moved over to sit down upon the still-folded quilt off to the side. Head resting on his forelegs, Burrow could only watch and trade eye rolls and shrugs with his female-besieged friend.
‘Wouldn’t want to trade places with you at all,’ Burrow thought with a scoff, just as Aphid rolled over and began playfully poking a foot with her hind hooves.
“Thank you, My Queen. We will do as you command.”
“Good. I expect you to work quickly, scholar. That will be all.”
The changeling bowed before hastily trotting away from Chrysalis’ throne, passing the four armoured guards at the doorway with a wince at their stares. Heckling chatters echoed out from the numerous seating spots inside of the walls, which caused Chrysalis to smirk as her many children continued the courtly tradition of mercilessly harassing any that dared approach her with questions.
It may have seemed counterproductive given the entire purpose of Court, but it gave her much amusement, at least.
‘Still, I tire of this.’
Sitting up and waving her hoof in the air, Chrysalis glared around to meet the blue gazes of her now-silent subjects.
“Enough,” she announced. “Public Court is over. Drones, return to your assigned tasks at once.”
Buzzing wings and galloping hooves signalled that her order was being followed to the letter, the majority of the changelings exiting out through the many passageways and crevasses that filled the throne room. A few scholars and high-born nobles remained lounging in the lower (and thus closer) mini-caves, but they were wise enough to keep any conversations between themselves to a dull whisper.
She enjoyed the brief minute of quiet, before an ear cocked at the echoing sound of a single set of hoofsteps. A pair of heavier thuds accompanied them, Chrysalis sitting up straight in her throne. Her dainty tongue flicked out to taste the air, her eyes narrowing as her new visitors entered through the main doorway.
“Oh,” she scoffed at the drone and Foodbeast while the guards eyed the newcomers with glares. “That time already.”
The biped was preoccupied with meeting the stares of the guards, Chrysalis raising an eye at the defiant way he crossed his fat arms, while the drone decided on a smarter course of action.
Prostrating herself upon the floor, the changeling’s strange grey necklace dangled down around her neck as she bowed her head.
“My Queen,” the drone addressed. “As you have ordered, Mr Growls is now here for you to feed on if you so wish it.”
The Foodbeast turned away from the guards at her words, Chrysalis twirling a hoof with a sigh.
“For want of better,” she growled, before wrinkling her snout. “But it will do. Drone, bring the Foodbeast to the side of my throne.”
“At once, my Queen.”
Taking care to avoid eye contact with the creature in question, Chrysalis watched as the drone manoeuvred behind the Foodbeast and began to butt his legs with her head, the creature moving forwards at the prompting.
Chrysalis didn’t miss the eye-roll as he did so.
Butting away, the drone guided him to the left side of the throne, the Foodbeast sending an unamused look down at her as they reached the very base of the black spire. Ignoring it and moving to the side, the drone bowed once more.
“As you have requested, my Queen.”
‘At least this one knows how to speak to her betters.’
“Very good. Now return to your assigned quarters until I send for you.”
The drone’s head shot up, Chrysalis raising an eye as she met the changeling’s eyes. She could sense the surprise. The confusion. The spark of jealousy that flared up and threatened to boil over into a visible reaction. Chrysalis actually leaned forward a little as she continued to stare, and part of her hoped that the drone would try her luck in challenging her.
“…Of course, my Queen.”
But it was not to be, the drone suppressing her emotions and obeying as she had been raised to do. Slightly disappointed, Chrysalis watched as the female turned to leave, the Queen’s hoof scratching her chin.
A clearing of her throat. “Before you go,” Chrysalis followed up with the drone’s back to her. “What is your name, drone?”
The female drone turned back around. “Mirror, your Highness.”
“Hmm,” nodded Chrysalis, before waving a hoof in dismissal. “That is all.”
With the drone resuming her trotting towards the exit, Chrysalis switched her attention to the Foodbeast. The biped’s arms were still crossed, and he turned his gaze away from the departing drone to look up at her with an even stare.
“As for you,” Chrysalis spoke with her eyes focusing on his. “It’s time that we had a little talk about how things work around here.”
“About time.”
Daniel was tempted to add on a suitably colourful insult, or several, but he managed to show enough restraint not to. Judging from the way the big bug-horse narrowed her eyes anyway, he’d already pissed her off. More.
“To start with,” the voice in his head continued as the bug-horse leader emitted verbal chattering as well. “I, Queen Chrysalis, am to be obeyed without question. Especially by a lowly non-changeling like you.”
With an indignant snort, Daniel was just about to fire back, but the apparent Queen got in first.
“That means no insults, or filthy words.” Her fangs flashed. “You’re lucky that my advisors tell me that you could be of some use, or else I would have… dealt with you already.”
Daniel couldn’t resist. “Dealt with me like before, right?” He flicked his chin up with a smile. “How’s the cheek?”
Chrysalis’ left eye twitched, and Daniel’s smile increased when he noticed her teeth grit together. Then, he did it.
“Cunt.”
The temperature of the entire throne room seemed to instantly drop, a stark contrast to the Queen herself. Chrysalis bolted up from her chair with a buzz of her wings, her horn crackling to life with a sickly green glow as she stood atop of her seat on all four hooves. Daniel didn’t even care at this point if she tried to shoot him with magic or whatever, so he didn’t budge from his spot. With the angry alien equine snarling right at him, he uncrossed his arms right before she spoke again.
“Listen, you little-“
“No, you listen, bug-horse. Cause I’m fucking done with this shit.” He raised his voice a little and didn’t yell, however he did point a finger right at her. “I couldn’t care less about ‘obeying your every word’ right about now, cause I’m fucking done. You’ve been nothing but a complete bitch this entire fucking time to me and the other bug-horses, and I don’t even know why.”
Chrysalis seemed a bit taken-aback by his interruption, and this time Daniel was the one controlling the argument.
“I call you a cunt because that’s what you are, a complete and total cunt. And don’t pull the whole ‘It’s because you’re not a changeling’ thing either, because I’ve been watching you treat everyone else like shit as well.”
He took a step forwards, aware of the bug-horse guards behind him shifting from their spots.
“I’d rather go back to that snow than be stuck here with you if you keep on acting like this. I get along fine with other bug-horses, I follow them when they take me to you, I even sat down with you when you got the shit bashed out of you by those other horses.” He jabbed the finger in the air to make his point. “You won’t even explain to me how this whole mind-talk bullshit works, you just keep on telling me to shut up when I ask about it.” He lowered his finger. “So stop acting like a cunt, and I’ll stop calling you cunt. Fuck, we might even be able to actually speak with each other like civilised people.”
Daniel stepped back after his tirade, the guards bug-horse guards moving up behind him scattering to the sides as he did so. He then recrossed his arms and waited for the bug-horse leader’s response, Chrysalis still staring at him with her horn aglow and eyes wide.
She continued to stare for a few seconds, before her eyes snapped away from his and focused on the guards. A short burst of buzzing chittering later and the four guards were all racing for the exit, another twenty bug-horses emerging from the holes in the surrounding walls to fly off after them. The black resin doors shut heavily behind the last bug-horse to leave, the chamber going quiet save the hum of the Queen’s horn and the buzzing of her wings.
“Don’t you ever do that again in front of my subjects!” Chrysalis growled as she flew down to land in front of him. Trotting forwards, she raised a forehoof and pointed right at him. “I am Queen!”
“You’ve mentioned,” Daniel replied with a look down. “Cunt.”
He watched Chrysalis grit her teeth again, the equine lowering her hoof as her horn’s glow died out.
“I don’t know.”
“Don’t know what?”
“I don’t know how this is even possible!” She glared at him. “You think that I also don’t hate this? Being insulted by you whenever you open your stupid fat mouth? You going around and bewitching my subjects? Teaching my drones and soldiers to talk back to their betters?” She flicked her head with a snort. “It’s bad enough that my invasion failed, now I have to rebuild everything while dealing with you.”
Daniel decided, this time, to not respond with the tried and tested response of calling her a cunt.
“So don’t make it any harder than it has to be,” he suggested with his arms uncrossing. “You agree to chill out a bit, I’ll stop insulting you, and we can both just get on with it."
She bared her fangs again, but only for a second before she relaxed back into a frown.
“Fine. If only to lessen the time that I am forced to spend communicating with you,” she conceded with another snort. “So let’s get it over with. Just don’t expect me to act like I can actually tolerate your presence, brute.”
Skitter used a hoof to adjust his helmet as he watched the last of the nobility and scholars rapidly exit down the corridor. His comrades behind him closed the throne room doors and ensured that they were shut, Skitter turning back around to face the other three.
“Wow,” he huffed. “I don’t know how the Queen could understand him, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen her that mad before.”
One of the other guards, Shimmer, shuffled on her hooves and looked back towards the closed doors with her ears down. “I hope she doesn’t hurt him too much,” she murmured. “He seemed pretty nice.”
Skitter nodded in response, turning to take up his guard position.
“Nice or not, I don’t think Her Majesty thinks so.”
A muffled snort from the guard named Chitter. “Can’t imagine how you figured that out. I bet we’ll be cleaning up monster remains in about ten minutes, tops.”
“I still can’t believe that you all feed on emotions. It’s like a Red Dwarf episode.”
Chrysalis snorted and shifted her eyes away for a quick break from conversation, her neck cricking and legs stretching out as she adjusted her position upon her throne. Snuggling her back up against a pleasantly warm leg, she flicked her ears as a hand removed itself from rubbing her shoulder to give her ears a scratch.
The mutual learning session… may not have been as unpleasant as she had been expecting.
“You still insist on talking about things like I’m supposed to know what you mean,” she grunted after remaking eye contact. “And what is so hard to believe about it? You eat meat and plants, don’t you? Am I supposed to think that odd?”
The hand moved back to her shoulder, Chrysalis not even trying to hide her smile as it massaged the softened chitin.
“Snags aren’t an emotion, and you can actually touch a carrot.”
She snorted again, knowing how this line of conversation would go. For a being that had seemed to be surprisingly intelligent under all of the cursing (not nearly as intelligent as herself, however), he certainly was naïve when it came to the sheer power and expanse of magic.
“Yet we changelings thrive and prosper on love despite its lack of physical form, with no need to consume solid food unless we absolutely have to.” A smirk from her to him. “Maybe you just aren’t evolved enough to achieve the same.”
This time it was Foodbeast’s turn to snort in dismissal, Chrysalis repressing a laugh. It was certainly a welcome change from his previous antagonism.
“Yeah, whatever you want to think then. I’m not seeing any supercomputers around here, just saying.” His hand switched once again to rubbing her ears, cutting off her retort. “So define this love that you feed off, then. Are we talking like romantic love, what?”
Chrysalis took a second to shake her mane out, before answering. “Well, all kinds will do. Certain changelings have a taste for specific forms of love, with lust often being the most fun to earn.” She gave a smile and a lick of her fangs upon noticing his shoulders squirm in discomfort. “But anything will do, generally. Changelings often don’t have many chances to be picky, so we have to just feed on whatever is offered to us.”
His hand paused the rub, his voice lowering. “Are… are you feeding off of me, now?”
“Maybe.” Chrysalis flashed her fangs in a grin, before rolling her own shoulders. “Why, do you… feel attraction, Foodbeast?”
“Fuck no,” he quickly denied, so quickly that she actually felt a bit insulted. “You’re just… you know…”
Intrigued, Chrysalis rolled over onto her back.
“What? What am I?”
“Well… you’re kind of like an animal to me. You know, like a dog. Not that you’re not intelligent like a person. Just that... you’re a bit, uh…”
“What, a pet to you?” Chrysalis’ good mood vanished, her fangs showing for real this time. “A creature to treat like a nymph? Like an innocent beast to dole out attention to? Really?”
Both of them looked down to his hand, now resting on Chrysalis’ chest due to her changing position. Their eyes made contact once again, Foodbeast failing to hide a small smile.
“You haven’t exactly asked me to stop. It’s been at least two hours.”
Huffing, Chrysalis brushed his hand off of her using a foreleg, and rolled back over onto her hooves. “So it’s been that long that we’ve been sitting here. I have things to attend to, so you may return to your room.”
With grace, she buzzed her wings and leaped off of her throne. Turning her head back, she did one last glance over the holes in the walls to check for any hidden observers before meeting his eyes again.
“This evening was… less unpleasant than I expected. I…” Chrysalis stopped herself from saying ‘I look forward to’. “…expect to see you again tomorrow. If you continue to be reasonably behaved, then we can ask and answer more questions. One of the guards will escort you back. That is all.”
With that, she turned and trotted for the doors, before she paused to look back over her shoulder. Foodbeast was halfway down dismounting her throne, no wings to aid him. Chrysalis waited for him to look into her eyes again before continuing.
“And don’t you even dare let anyone else know of what we have spoken about or what has transpired. If you do… the consequences will be dire.”
Foodbeast snorted as he made his way over towards her. “Oh, yeah, I was just about to go and blab to everyone about how much of a softy you are. You know, with how I can speak bug-horse and everything.”
“For the last time, we’re changelings.”
“You look like bug-horses to me,” Foodbeast grunted, stepping past her and breaking eye contact. Rolling her eyes with a frown, Chrysalis just waited for him to push open the doors so she could verbally berate him in front of the guards.
“Yeah, thanks for showing me back and all. You can go now, I suppose.”
Daniel, one hand ready to push open his shared room’s door, watched while the bug-horse guard chattered at him with a commendable attempt at a smile. The male bug-horse was still as undecipherable as all of the bug-horses before it, despite his last few hours of listening to the Queen talk in her buzzing speech as well as mentally ‘talk’ with him. It was all the same buzzes, clicks, and chirps to him.
‘Well, at least I know her name now,’ Daniel thought, nodding back as the guard raised a foreleg to his helmet in a salute. ‘That's something, at least.’
It was certainly welcome to see that the bug-horse ruler could be just as co-operative as the rest of them after a few minutes of light petting, but he knew that she was going to be far more difficult to completely win over compared to his current hangers-on.
“Brzrzrt-chrzt.”
With a final wave of his foreleg, the bug-horse guard turned and trotted off back down the long corridor, leaving Daniel to push open the door and step inside.
‘On the topic of hangers-on…’
Daniel scanned the room he’d been assigned, the glowing green orb suspended from the ceiling aiding him with warm light. His eyes glanced over the pilfered piles of pillows and bedding, but at first he couldn’t find any trace of the six bug-horses.
“Huh, maybe they had to go and do something,” he muttered to himself. As he did so, he caught sight of movement on the strange smooth pod-bed, the pile of quilts and sheets heaped on it shifting. A single bug-horse foreleg popped out from under one side, the appendage flopping down by the side of the pod. A head appeared from the sheets a second later, ears twitching and nose sniffing.
The sour and downright sulky look on the bug-horse’s face vanished in an instant as soon as she spotted him, and her frown changed to a wide smile.
“Chrzrst!”
Bedding fell to the ground as she stood up and shook herself, the bug-horse’s grey Ethernet cable bouncing from side to side, before she bounded off the sleeping pod and landed in front of him with more chatters.
“Crzrtzrzt bzrtz czrt!”
Her face immediately went for his patchwork pants leg, the bug-horse continuing to chatter and buzz as she nuzzled.
Daniel looked around the room once again, searching for anymore bug-horses lying in ambush, before he focused back on the one rubbing up against his leg. “Just you then, huh? Did the others leave you behind?”
“Brzrrzzrzt!”
The reply was, as expected, completely unintelligible. Still, Daniel judged from the way that she looked up with a grin that she at least appreciated the attempt at conversation. Chattering some more, she left his leg to trot over towards the pile of cushions up against the wall, before flopping down belly-first atop of a blue one and looking back at him.
Meeting her wide eyes, brimming with expectation, Daniel raised a finger into the air.
“I’m onto you, bug-horse. You’re just like a four-legged tick, an emotion vampire.”
Said four-legged, tick vampire simply chittered in response and enthusiastically thumped the cushion next to her with a foreleg, her short grey tail wagging as she did so.
‘Granted, a cute tick,’ Daniel thought with a scoff. Taking a step forwards, he rolled his eyes as Grey’s wings buzzed with excitement. “Fine, have it your way. I’m warning you now though, don’t expect much in the ways of pats. Your bloody Queen pretty much took up the entire day’s quota already.”
Burrow stepped to the side of the corridor as a single scholar trotted past, Aphid and the three drones following his lead. The scholar paused and tilted his head at the bundles on their backs, but didn’t say anything or ask questions before trotting on. Watching him go, Burrow stepped back into the centre of the corridor and moved forwards, his eyes searching the doors on either side from the correct room.
‘Ah, there.’
Spying the doorway with the correct set of circular markings, Burrow approached it. Raising a foreleg to push it open, he reconsidered and instead gave it a few knocks instead.
‘Wonder if he’s still with Mirror and the Queen,’ he thought, before a voice called out from inside the room.
“Grabra?”
“It’s just us,” Burrow replied as he pushed open the door and trotted in, only to sigh and shake his head. “Well, what a surprise Mirror.”
“Mhmm… what?”
Eyes half-lidded, Mirror shifted her head from a cushion to glance over towards him. Her body was resting on top of a leg, her wings buzzing as a hand kneaded the small of her back.
“Shudup,” she murmured as her head went back to the pillow. “It’sh good.”
“Grung,” Mr Growls greeted with a raise of his free hand, the other one not stopping.
Shaking his head, Burrow moved to sit beside his friend on a pillow, his hind legs splayed out as he placed down the brown cardboard box he had been carrying on his back. Opening the lid and starting to go through the items inside, he glanced up a few times as the drones moved in to claim their own spots.
“Haven’t had enough yet, huh?” Cypher teased as she flopped down beside Mirror, Meddle joining her on a large pillow. Both drones shifted the numerous bags and boxes from their backs onto the ground, Mr Growls peeking over to try and look inside of one.
“No,” Mirror grunted out. “Meany Queeny wouldn’t let me stay, so I had to wait forever for Growly to come back.”
That caused Burrow to look up and tilt his head. “Really?”
“Yep.”
“Is that right?” Burrow said with a look to Mr Growls. It was returned, Burrow meeting it with a smile. “I hope the Queen didn’t go too hard on you, I mean, you’re still here after all.”
“I’m sure he can hold his own against Chrysalis,” Aphid said over the hivelink as she stood and waited for Muddle to relieve her of her two brown saddlebags. Burrow watched as the two bags were placed gently on the ground, Mr Growls hesitantly waving his free hand at Aphid.
“Grung.”
“Right back at you, Growly.” Trotting over towards him, Aphid circled around the wary biped much like a shark laying claim to its prey. To his credit, Mr Growls didn’t even flinch as her short grey tail flicked over to brush his nose as her rump slid past. Aphid finished the circling by ducking under an arm and draping herself down over his lap with a content sigh. “Now how about you give me a more solid greeting, hey?”
Burrow didn’t miss the way Mirror raised her head to glare at Aphid, before glancing over to meet Mr Growl’s eyes. The biped shrugged his shoulders at her with a pointed glance down towards Aphid, before both of his hands went to the soldier’s shoulders to earn a happy snort from the changeling in question.
“Rwarg grawg ra,” he whispered to Mirror, Burrow guessing that it was something along the lines of ‘make it up to you later’. Evidently Mirror thought the same, the drone flicking her ears with a small smile.
“Oh, someone likes you,” Meddle teased with a whisper, earning a giggle from Cypher beside her. “Must have been that alone time, Mirror?”
“Oh shut it Meddle.”
Someone cleared their throat, everyone save for Aphid looking over at the source. The final drone, Muddle, was standing over by all of the bags and boxes that they had brought in.
“Are you all forgetting something?” She grumbled with a look out to all of them. “What about all of Growly’s things?”
“I only care about one of his things,” Aphid spoke up over the link even as her face failed to leave a thigh. Muddle sighed in return, Burrow catching the annoyance in her eyes as she raised her head up towards Aphid and prepared to speak again.
Figuring that Muddle was about to say something she’d regret, Burrow decided to defuse the situation by loudly tapping his hoof against the side of his own box.
“Muddle’s right, we should probably get everything sorted before lounging around with Mr Growls again.” He nodded his head towards the mentioned drone. “Speaking of which, do you want to go first, Muddle?”
Her face lit up with a smile, and her horn glowed as she scooped up one of the saddlebags. “Sure!” She trotted over towards Mr Growls, the bag levitating out towards the waiting biped. “For you, Growly.”
“Hey, don’t stop!”
Unable to hear Aphid’s silent objections, not that Burrow thought that Mr Growls would care regardless, two hands lifted up to take the offered saddlebag. Everyone watched as the clasp of the bag was undone, Mr Growls reaching in to withdraw the treasures inside.
A bright pink hairbrush was lifted out first, Mr Growls examining it with a snort of amusement. Muddle, standing before him, lit up her horn again and took the brush back from him. “It’s a hairbrush. Hair-brush. Brush.” Levitating it up, she moved it to one of his arms and stroked the exposed skin with the bristles. “I thought you’d like it, so you can brush all of those teeny-tiny hairs that you’ve got. To keep them all clean.”
They all watched her continue to use the brush, before Mr Growls laughed lightly and placed a hand upon the handle.
“Ragraw.”
Taking the brush from her, he lifted it up and started to brush the brown hair upon his head, Muddle folding her ears back as the others chuckled. “Oh, well I suppose you can use it like that instead…”
“Gra.” Mr Growls didn’t seem to mind or take any insult, the brush being left stuck in his hair as he moved his hand back to the bag. Rummaging around, a smaller brush was pulled out and held up before them all, Mr Growls smirking with more amusement as he eyed the bright pink toothbrush.
“That’s a smaller one,” Muddle helpfully explained. “I think the Equestrians use it to clean their ears. Like this.”
Burrow could only sit and smile as his friend turned to give him a flat look, Muddle gleefully trying to poke the small brush into a defenceless earhole as the other drones watched on with fascination.
‘And that’s only half of one bag,’ he thought with a grin, subtly gesturing around at the rest of boxes and saddlebags with a hoof.
With a snort, Mr Growls rolled his eyes, before he winced as Muddle’s wings gave a light buzz.
“Haha!” The drone announced victoriously. “It fits!”
“Ah…”
Daniel sighed and glanced up at the full moon in the night sky, the desolate wasteland around him lit up almost as if it was day. The leafless and twisted tree before him was likely very thankful for the watering he was providing it, and the crisp breeze in the air was tinged with the biting scent of urine.
‘So glad I came out here instead,’ he thought with a grin as he shifted slightly from side to side to give the tree ample coverage. ‘An indoor dunny is good and all, but stuff being cooped up in that place all of the time.’
He stared ahead at the blackened bark of the tree in front of him, a hum escaping him. ‘Wonder if that’s why some of them seem so shitty all of the time. Not enough sun.’
Shaking off, he readjusted his underwear and pants, making a mental note to take another swim/bath in the morning.
“Maybe I’ll even try out some of the stuff they brought me,” he mumbled to himself. “Hopefully it’s not the same stuff they used on my actual clothes…”
Pausing only to give his hand a wipe down on the tree, he turned and started the walk back to the bug-horse tower. His shoes crunched the dusty ground underneath them, and Daniel looked into the main ground-level entrance to find two armoured guards staring back out at him.
“Chrszt!”
A third bug-horse bounded out from between the two, Grey bouncy and full of energy despite the late hour. Daniel raised an eye as she ignored the looks from the guards and went straight for him, chatting with her focus right on him. Meeting the stare of her solid blue eyes, he decided to try something.
“You’re pretty clingy today, aren’t you?”
He only received happy chittering in reply, no trance of mental communication whatsoever.
“Okay then,” he continued as he took a step into the tower. “Let’s go back in then, hey?”
Grey understood what he was getting at, the female chattering what Daniel assumed was words of thanks to the pair of guards, before she trotted out in front of him with a glance back. Following her, he kept up with her pace as she took corridor turn and stairwell with an ease he doubted he could ever match.
After about a minute of confusion navigation, they arrived at a familiar straight corridor of many doors, Daniel trying to get a quick count of them for future reference. He wasn’t able to finish before Grey moved to the left side and pressed open a door, the bug-horse turning around to make a shushing motion with her foreleg before stepping into the room.
Taking care to soften his footfalls, Daniel quietly followed her and took stock of the room, squinting as he did so to compensate for the dim light emitted from the green pustule up above.
It was the same as they had left it, half-empty boxes and bags sitting around the room with numerous items piled up beside them. Four of the bug-horses were curled up next to each other on the colourful horse quilt, a few legs intertwined as they snored peacefully in slumber. The fifth was on her back in the smooth sleeping pod, a pillow clutched in her forelegs as she wheezed out through her green-covered snout.
Grey cable went over to the sleeping group and tilted her head, before she seemed to brighten. With a smile on her face, she picked up on of the spare pillows with her mouth and trotted over towards the opposite wall, stepping over a stack of various canned vegetables as she did so. Dropping the pillow down she turned and looked at him, a wide grin on her face.
He raised an eye at her, Grey lifting a foreleg up to point towards the sleeping bug-horse in the pod.
“Oh, I see,” he whispered with a sigh. “You expect your due, huh?” He quickly removed his shoes and patchwork socks, the bug-horse not moving from her spot, before he placed them down by the door and tip-toed over towards her. Sidestepping a pilfered box of unknown small-horse food, he stopped beside Grey and looked down at the pillow on the floor. “I take it you want me to sit down first.”
Grey didn’t reply, instead she excitedly shifted her weight from forehoof to forehoof as she gestured to the pillow with a nod of her head.
Suppressing an eye roll at the predictable response, Daniel just yawned and sat down against the wall.
“Now it goes without saying, but there’s not going to be any funny busin-“
He was cut off by Grey clambering over him, her stomach flopping down to rest upon his. While her forelegs wrapped around his sides, the hind legs planted themselves on his own, hooves resting upon his knees. Planting her head onto his chest, she nuzzled up with happy murmurs until her snout was tucked into his neck.
‘Okay…’
Initially frozen as she shifted around to get comfortable, Daniel glanced over towards the four bug-horses sleeping on the quilt. Once again noticing how clumped together they were, his thoughts turned to Snouty.
‘Well, it’s not nearly as bad as she is, I suppose.’
Deciding that her intentions were pure, and resigned to the fact that he wasn’t really going to get much sleep if he let it bother him, he relaxed and instead took the alternate route.
Grey’s thin wings tickled the underside of his forearms with a quick buzz as he returned her gesture, her own forelegs tightening their hold on him. A happy chatter escaped her, and Daniel remembered his conversation with the Queen earlier in the day.
“If you’re not careful, you’ll end up a fat fuck like me.”
“Chzst.”
Her muffled response to his whispered warning didn’t sound too concerned, Daniel just laying his head back against the wall and closing his eyes.
Burrow blinked his eyes open and let out a short yawn, a foreleg cracking as he stretched it out in front of him. He tried to do the same with the other, but upon turning his head to investigate he found it firmly in Meddle’s grasp. Smiling to himself, he managed to wiggle it free without waking her up, and with that accomplished he stood up from the pile to look back at the three drones he’d bunked down with.
‘Wait, three?’
Looking first to the sleeping pod, and only finding a passed-out Aphid spooning a pillow, he quickly blinked the remaining drowsiness out of his eyes to scan the room.
Finding Mr Growls wasn’t difficult, but it was the black and grey addition to the patchwork pile that caused him to raise an eye. Softly trotting over towards the oddity, he paused and tilted his head at what he found.
Mirror had obviously been very persuasive the previous night, the slumbering drone snoozing on top of Mr Growls with her forelegs on either side of his chest. Her snout was resting under a chin, but most interesting of all was the fleshy foreleg that was draped over her back. Burrow didn’t miss the soft smile that his friend had on as he also continued to sleep, so he figured that maybe it hadn’t taken Mirror much effort to obtain the enviable slumber spot.
‘I swear, Aphid and these drones…’
Turning around and leaving the two, he looked up at the dim green light fixed into the ceiling. A brief glow of his horn and the light’s intensity started to steadily grow. Smiling at his work, he moved over towards the table and chairs, his rump taking a seat as he sat and waited for the growing light to wake the others up.
“Gragraragra!”
“Filthy beast, I have told you again and again to address me properly!”
“Rawgrawa!”
“That does it, I’ve had enough of your disrespect!”
Chrysalis gave a pointed glare over to the four guards at the door, her foreleg flicking out as she made a show of baring her fangs. “You, leave us and shut the door! Don’t let any changeling in no matter what!” She pointed the same foreleg down at the Foodbeast as her guards slowly backed out of the room. “This creature needs to be taught a lesson for defying me. Don’t repeat its mistake!”
The rapid hoof beats of the retreating guards was followed by the bang of the throne room doors slamming shut behind them.
“And as for you…!” She shouted out after them, before she gave the alcoves in the walls around them a good inspection for any spying changelings stupid enough to stay behind. Finding none, she lowered her foreleg and waited for a few moments with her ears cocked.
Finally satisfied that no-one was watching, she relaxed her glare and reclined back on her throne with a huff.
“You may approach.”
Watching the Foodbeast roll his eyes and move towards her throne, she shifted over to the left side as he heaved himself up onto the raised platform. He sat up next to her and kept his arms by his sides, Chrysalis holding back the urge to thrust her head at him and demand attention. Still, one of her ears gave an involuntary flick.
‘No, I will not give in that easily.’
“So, Foodbeast,” she said while looking into his eyes. “You don’t look quite as dirty today.”
He glanced down at himself and back up, his makeshift clothes dirt and dust-free.
“Yeah, me and the others spent a lot of time today at the pool-things you’ve got going on down below. Not too bad, really.” He scrunched up his mouth. “Not a big fan of smelling like a weird mix-up of flowers, banana, and mint though. They couldn’t just stop at one bottle of soap, no, they just had to find out what each one was by dumping it on me.”His fingers jittered. “And they brought in a fucking horde of bug-horses that pretty much wanted endless pats and massages. Bloody Snouty.”
It took Chrysalis a second to figure out which changeling he was referring to, an amused snort escaping her at the nickname. Still she didn’t question it, her head tilting as she raised an eye at him.
“You seem talkative.”
He grunted in response. “I don’t really have many options open to me, do I?” Fingers popped as he flexed them. “So, pretty obvious why I’m here anyway.”
Chrysalis tried to keep her smile neutral, but it came across as predatory anyway. “You may proceed with the feeding, yes.” Framing it with her in control soothed her ego, Chrysalis shuffling closed as he rolled his eyes in return.
Still, his hand went to her head regardless, Chrysalis closing her eyes for a brief moment as his fingers hit a sweet spot at the base of her ear. The slight affection she was feeding off seemed to spike, his words from the previous evening resurfacing in her head.
'Like a dog.'
‘Pfft, what does he know?’ She shuffled even closer at the thought, her teal tail giving a quick swish as she moved her head so she could still look at him while receiving the rub.
“You should be thankful that at least you have a use,” she told him as she flicked another ear. “A way to earn your keep.”
“What, apparently feeding you and six others? And I thought my previous job was a bit boring.”
Moving her side to touch his, Chrysalis ignored how he lent back.
“It could be worse, you could be put to work digging holes and mining out new tunnels for the Hive. Or sent out into the land to scavenge stones and materials we need. Instead you get to spend your time lounging around in the baths, fawned over by drones and soldiers alike.”
Foodbeast scoffed at her words, his hand pausing. “I wouldn’t mind some of the scavenging, actually. Good excuse to get out of this place more instead of sitting on my arse all day.” He gave her a look over. “And the sun helps too, you should try it more often.”
“And just what is that supposed to mean?”
“It can’t be good for you, staying in here all the time brooding like an emo. An hour or two of sunlight and fresh air might actually cheer you up a bit, works for me.”
She narrowed her eyes. “Oh, I’m sure you’re right. Why, you can’t even correctly pronounce the word ‘changeling’, so you must be an expert on our race.”
He scoffed again, his own eye raising up. “Sounds like some evidence right there, to me.”
“Shut up and get back to work.”
The hand started to move again, Chrysalis finding it hard to keep her frown as it moved down to the back of her neck. A tingle going down her back, she gave another glance around to the holes in the wall.
‘Should I tell him?’ she wondered. ‘It’s not as if he can repeat it to anyone, after all.’ Looking him back in the eyes, she cleared her throat.
“Well, speaking about work, I was actually thinking about expanding the population of the Hive sometime soon.” The neck rub stopped, and Chrysalis snorted at the fear that crossed his eyes at her words. “No, there is absolutely no plan to involve you, you complete fool. Besides extra feeding, that is.”
“There better not be, I’ve seen Alien.” Foodbeast’s spare hand moved to cover his heart. “No cunt’s going to put an egg in my chest.”
She could only stare at him with a concerned gaze. “You… you don’t actually think that’s how we reproduce, do you?”
The neck rub started up again, Foodbeast moving his other hand to his knee. “No, not really. I sort of figured that since you have males and females that it would be sort of normal. And fucking Snouty has been doing her best to try and root me it seems, so unless she’s packing a facehugger tube somewhere, I don’t really have to worry too much.” He rolled his eyes again. “Still, going off of what you’ve told me, I wouldn’t be surprised if you all spring up out of the ground through the magic of evil thoughts, or something like that.”
“Pah, what a stupid thought. Changelings have existed since the dawn of the world, even longer than I.” She flicked her mane, almost insulted, but she brushed it off as his usual sheer ignorance. “Still, creating more changelings is not the main issue. The problem I face is a much more personal one.”
“Oh really?”
Chrysalis squinted and pointed a foreleg at him, and due to their closeness it actually pressed up against his chest.
“You’re not to tell anyone this, changeling or pony. Ever.”
He blew a dismissive burst of air through his nose. “As I’ve told you before, if it’s too complex to convey in stick-figure drawing form, I doubt I’m going to be able to spill the beans even if I wanted to.”
Chrysalis eyed him for a few solid seconds, before she glanced around the empty throne room again. Sighing, she looked back at him and lowered her foreleg.
“Fine.” She hesitated, before shaking her head. ‘Just tell him, it’s annoying and he can’t possibly repeat it.’
“It’s an issue,” she continued on after a moment. “But I need to decide on a suitable mate.”
Daniel remained still as he processed the information.
“No means no.”
It wasn’t the right choice of words, Chrysalis glaring at him with a flash of her fangs.
“Wha… Foodbeast! How could you even… A drone maybe would consider it, but I…” She rubbed one of her temples with a hoof, closing her eyes briefly. “No, you oaf. I need to pick a changeling! Not everything revolves around you!”
Daniel gave her a look and stopped the neck rub, withdrawing his hand back to his other knee. “I know, I know. No need for rudeness.”
Chrysalis growled at him with a quick buzz of her wings, before she closed her eyes again and took a deep breath.
“Okay, fine. I’m… sorry.” The queen actually shuddered when she pronounced the last word. “It’s just a touchy topic, after all.” Her ears laid back, Daniel watching as she struggled to speak. “But it’s just so irritating. You have no idea how hard it is.”
There were many ways for him to reply to that accusation, but Daniel decided that playing safe and keeping the (relatively) trusting queen on his side was a good idea. So, to her surprise, he placed an arm over her back and patted her on the shoulder.
“Okay, so tell me then.” He said, using his other hand to lift up a foreleg. Daniel’s fingers stroked the soft underside part of her hoof, he couldn’t recall the correct name, and watched her reaction. One of the so-called ‘drones’ he shared a room with seemed to love the treatment immensely, and judging from the Queen’s eye flutter he felt it safe to assume that she shared the opinion. “I mean, you’re not bad-looking, considering you’re an alien bug-horse, and aren’t you the leader around here with all of the power? Shouldn’t you be drowning in bug-horse chads?”
Chrysalis tilted her head with a shiver. “Chads?”
“Dudes. Manly men. Uh… Colts, I think?”
“Colts are young male ponies. I think you mean males.” She winced, despite the petting. “And it’s not lack of suitors that are the problem, I can just order them to if I need to, after all. No, it’s the lack of quality males.”
Chrysalis groaned, her eyes giving an exasperated look to the ground before she looked back up at him.
“My scholars are all stupid fools, and the few ones that even come close to my own intelligence are either too old or too pathetic. The infiltrators are all hopeless buffoons, aided only by the Equestrians’ own stupidity. And the soldiers, don’t even get me started on the soldiers.”
Her forehoof pulled out of his grasp, Chrysalis breaking eye contact as she buzzed her wings. Flying up and over him to the other side, he could only watch as she lowered herself sideways onto his lap back-first. A green glow from her elongated horn levitated out a large green cushion from somewhere behind her throne, Chrysalis resting her head upon it as she crossed her hind legs. To finish, she stuck both of her forehooves out at him, and only returned to eye contact once he had grasped both of them.
“So, what you’re saying is that there’s no one suitable in this entire place,” Daniel replied as he resumed massaging her hooves. “Out of the, what, hundreds?”
“Four-hundred and eighty-six males.”
“Right. So, I already take it that you don’t really love anyone of those blokes already?”
She actually laughed at that. “Ha, love them? I am Queen Chrysalis of the Changelings, I have no need for such feelings save for the sustenance that it provides me!” She noticed him raise an eye at the declaration when she was done, Chrysalis flicking her head to the side with a snort. “But no, Foodbeast, I do not have feelings for any of them in particular. Not that feelings would matter, anyway.”
“Oh, so you’re more looking for a genetic thing?”
“A what?”
“Uh, like the best possible changeling.”
Chrysalis nodded, her expression souring once more. “Yes, unfortunately as I have already told you, that is quite impossible.”
Not even attempting to try and figure out what sort of standards the Queen was running on, Daniel let a moment of silence pass. Although he did suspect that her ego wasn’t helping her quest for top-shelf Vitamin-D that not even the sun could provide, he wasn’t exactly in a position to judge her. Still, surely it wasn’t that hard to pick out a single worthy bug-horse.
“Hang on,” Daniel muttered, looking Chrysalis in the eyes again with one hand leaving her hoof to raise a finger. “What about the one with the fancy armour?” All he got was a blank stare, so he elaborated. “You know, the one who you chucked out of the cave before, the legend with the rum?”
Green eyes narrowed, Chrysalis pursing her lips. “What, Scuttle? Scuttle!?”
‘Scuttle?’ Daniel thought, making a note to write the name down in his notebook later. ‘Now that I think about, I should probably ask her for the others’ names as well.’
He didn’t exactly have a chance to get to that line of questioning, Chrysalis lightly slapping his free hand with her hoof.
“No Foodbeast, bad selection! Scuttle barely qualifies for a changeling, let alone me.” She scrunched up her face and flicked out her tongue. “No, absolutely not.”
Still, despite her objections, her could feel her squirm atop of him. Also, as she looked away to try and hide the thoughtful look in her eyes, Daniel was once again reminded at how the bug-horses seemed like pretty bad liars. So, getting tired of the run-around, he pressed his point.
“But he’s obviously high up in the ranks.”
“He’s my second in command,” Chrysalis admitted with a huff after meeting his eyes. “The Commander of my forces.”
Daniel managed a smile. “Sounds like a pretty good qualification to me. You obviously think he’s suitable to lead your army, so he’s probably good enough to lay the pipe.”
‘Am I talking him up a bit too much?’ Daniel wondered as Chrysalis seemed to mull over his words. ‘Nah, not really. Cunt gave me booze, might as well help a bro get some.’
Another huff from Chrysalis brought his attention fully back to her, the Queen flicking her head again.
“I’m not even going to ask what you mean by that, but I can take a guess.” Her eyes glanced down to his hand rubbing her hoof. “You’re lucky that you have those, otherwise I’d have you drained dry for talking about me like that.”
“Your fault for bringing it up.” Daniel stopped rubbing her hoof to wave his hand down before him with his best highschool girl impression. “So, are you ready to goss about the boys that I like, girrrrrrl.”
Her forehoof slapped his hand again, but Chrysalis couldn’t hide the small smile on her face.
“Oh shut up, fool,”
She shifted herself back a bit, wiggling her hind hooves as she did so.
“Now pay some attention to the royal rear hooves, and I might be generous enough to explain to you how changeling society works.”
“Hey, thanks for showing me the way back.”
Daniel turned away from the door and faced the guard, his shoulders shrugging.
“Not sure if you’re the same one from yesterday, but take this regardless.”
The guard at first didn’t move when his hand moved to lift up the purple helmet, but then bug-horse’s ears flicked when the ear scratch began. Breaking out into a smile, the male rolled his head around a few times as the scratch continued, before Daniel stopped and replaced his helmet.
“Zrzzt.” The guard nodded with smile still present, Daniel giving him a final wave before turning around and walking into his room.
He’d barely shut the door behind him before he felt a snout poke into the back of his thigh, a burst of bug-horse chatter rising up from behind him.
“So…” Daniel said as he turned around to face the only bug-horse in the room, Green’s short tail swishing and wings buzzing as she grinned up at him. “Is this going to be the normal work day, then?”
She excitedly tapped her hooves on the floor, her eyes making a pointed glance back over towards the pillow-stocked rug in the middle of the room.
“Crzrt rzzrtz zzrt!”
“I’ll take that as a yes.”
“Hello? My Queen?”
Chrysalis adjusted her spot on the bed, her body stretched out over the dark green sheets. Resting her head on an upright foreleg, she focused on the small hallway that led to the doorway of her royal chambers.
“Commander Scuttle, I’m in bed. You may approach.”
The sound of hoofsteps on the smooth black floor drew closer, until Scuttle’s helmeted head poked around the corner wall. He didn’t say anything initially when he first spotted her, but one of his eyes rose slightly.
A second of silence passed, Chrysalis resisting the urge to glare at him.
‘Thanks a lot, Foodbeast,’ she silently thought.
However, before she had to resort to breaking the quiet, Scuttle did it for her.
“Good evening then, My Queen.” He trotted fully into her room, fully armoured with a brown saddlebag on his side. “Did you wish to talk about something?”
Rolling her eyes, Chrysalis sighed.
“No Scuttle, I asked you to my room so you could stand there and stare at me all night in silence.”
“Okay then, my Queen.”
He stopped talking and stood ramrod straight, Chrysalis once again wondering just why she decided to take the Foodbeast’s advice.
“Scuttle, you idiot.” Her head gave a flick. “I asked you here to discuss the needs of the Hive.”
Her Commander nodded at her, his rump hitting the floor as he sat down. “Yes, I take it that you wish to organise some breeding pairings over the coming days?” He must of noticed her look of surprise. “It was something I suspected, giving our recent good luck with our acquisitions. The love stores are at bursting point, so much so that I’ve already got the scholars working on another bank of crystals.”
Scuttle met her eyes and waited for a response, Chrysalis giving her mane another flick before replying.
“Well, yes, that. Get to selecting some suitable pairs with the aid of the nurses, and I shall be the judge. Hopefully these ones will prove to be more effective for our causes, considering out last embarrassment.”
“Unfortunate, that,” Scuttle huffed. “At least some of us turned out to be competent though, My Queen.”
Chrysalis looked at him deadpan, before shaking it off.
“If you say so, Commander.” Her hooves fidgeted. “Still, that is not the only thing that we have to discuss tonight.” Her tail flicked, Chrysalis staring down her snout at him. “The time has come for me to personally ensure that we have a suitable group of elites and nobles for our future schemes. As of such, after some advice, I have decided on an acceptable male to make that happen.” She straightened her posture. “I have selected you, Scuttle.”
There was another moment of silence, Chrysalis letting him adjust to the news. No doubt he was overwhelmed with surprise, the opportunity to bed with the Queen for the purpose of procreation. A rare honour indeed that any changeling would be humbled to rec-
“Wow, did you just say that you took advice?”
Unable to respond to that, Chrysalis just looked at him with her mouth agape and eyes furrowed. Regardless, Scuttle continued on unperturbed.
“I mean, you barely listen to what I say, so who could you have possibly…” Scuttles eyes widened ever so slightly, a small smile growing on his face. “Oh. Ohhhh…”
“Stop right there!” Chrysalis tinged the warning with a hiss, her foreleg going up to point at him. “I know exactly what you are thinking, and you’re completely wrong!” She shifted on her spot. “I have scholars that I talk to, you know. It’s not just you.”
Scuttle stood up on all four hooves, and nodded his head. “Of course, My Queen.” Still, the smile remained on his face as he trotted over towards her. Watching him all the while, Chrysalis frowned when he placed his saddlebag on top of her small, squat and black bedside table. Glass clinked together as he fumbled around with it, before Scuttle pulled out a fat brown bottle and two small glasses. “Forgive me, I’m thankful to be chosen. Would you like to join me in a few drinks to relax a bit?”
Chrysalis eyed the bottle with distaste, before she sighed and gave in.
“Okay Scuttle. But only this once, it’s a special occasion after all.”
Her Commander nodded and started to pour the drinks, Chrysalis fidgeting on her spot as she waited.
‘This better be worth it,’ she thought, Scuttle passing over her glass with care. ‘If not, I’ll hang Foodbeast upside-down from the highest spire myself.’
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Exactly what I'm feeling right now.
Long time no see! 
...What if the Ponies reproduced like Xenomorphs?
Love it, like always. You are good damn great with characterization, each of them is so different and colorful. Can't wait for more, great that you came back to us :D
Chrissy: You! YOU DID THIS TO ME!
Daniel: Wha-EW!!! I DID NOTHING OF THE SORT!... Unless you guys have a weird way of getting-
Chrissy: Okay, NO! But it was still YOUR idea!
Daniel: You're the one who followed through!
Chrissy: It's not like I have a lot of options, now is it?!
Daniel: Don't blame ME for your poor decisions! Less vicious bug-horse queen, more cuddly bug-horse queen. Maybe your kingdom would be in better shape.
Chrissy: *Mood Swing!* WHY-HY-HY-HYYYYYYYYY DOES NOPONY LIKE MEEEEEEEEEEEEEHEHEHEHEHEEEEE!!! I JUST WANNA' RUUUUHUHUHUUUUUUUULE!!!!
Daniel: ...Okay. Awkward. Where's... scuttle, was it? Maybe you should bawl into his armor or something.
When Chrysalis finally admits she likes Scuttle, I hope Daniel is gonna put on this huge shit-eating "I told you so" grin.
Huzza! The great 'death-from-above-koala' hath delivered upon us a great boon! Tis a joyous day indeed!
Glad to see ol'cheese legs is learning to chill, also mirror snuggling up with mr growls is squeee inducing. How I would love to be in his shoes.
Nice to see this isn't dead!
So Chrysalis is tsundere and possibly starved for company.. not so hard to believe. Changelings have a racial bonus to cuddling, and our resident human is a bottomless fount of food. (Is their surplus because of him or is he just a nice bonus?)
I'm curious to see how the rest of the hive adjusts to him, really. Ear rubs and a full belly would tend to make for good relations, but it's not like he's being passed around to everyone.
To be fair though, egg-laying species, so hormonal Chrysalis won't be too long..
Whenever I read the grunga grunga parts I kinda think that it sounds like the roar from Suburban Sasquatch...
Basically just skip to forty seconds in and you'll get the basic idea.
Top notch update! I like what you're doing with Chrysalis. I just hope we won't have to wait another 10 months for the next chapter ;)
Enters dream realm
~~Hey, Luna! Guess what juicy gossip I just heard~~
I quite like how you have developed Chrysalis, both the outer persona and the inner self.
But now I wonder, how many have been told of the prophecy of Benjamin Nokans by his prophet Switcher?
Great addition to the continuation of the story! Please don't let the next one take too long!
8696108
"Benjamin Nokans? Man, what a coincidence. There was a series back in the 1970s where a dog called 'Benji' would show up at just the right time to solve some kind of problem, right? And I had a weird tendency to show up at work right before something broke or somebody needed something with their computers fixed, so I earned the nickname of 'Benji' from my bosses. And everyone who went to the pub with me after work knows how much I hate drinks served in cans instead of bottles; they'd just call me 'Daniel No-Cans', and a bunch of people started to think that was my actual last name. 'Benjamin Nokans'; 'Benji No-Cans'. What a name. Weird, right?"
Fucking hilarious hahaha
8696036
^^THIS!!!
Good stuff!
Glory to Mr Growls, the truest of Bros
Hehe!!! Some little bugs are getting lucky tonight! :D
HES Alive again. Best writer. Have all the Nigel story’s downloaded
Gril?
I just now realized the chapter titles >:( I’m dumb
8696388
Not going to lie, it was Australia Day on Friday and I've pretty much been in a constant state of intoxication since. I already had the chapter set into Fimfiction and semi-edited, but then I sort of did a drunken re-read through and changed the original 'girrrlll' to 'grilll' before posting. So, there might be yet more 'corrections' hidden in the fic somewhere.
Another amazing update.:D
8695855
Just a bonus supposedly reserved for the Queen and caretakers (not that any changeling that trots up and asks is turned away) at the moment. The surplus has more to do with the fairly successful raids they conducted before returning to the Hive. Not that Daniel has really questioned that quite yet. That comes later.
I can't believe that I haven't come across this story until now. Ive spent the entire day marathon listening to the entire thing, and I have to say, you kept me riveted the entire time. Im about to listen to "Improving Relations" now, and I can't wait to see what else you have to show us.
Great job
The Monk
On an odd side note, when my Mac reads these stories to me, it reads them with a strong Irish accent. Your writing style plugs into it perfectly.
Can't wait for food beast to figure out a way to communicate with bug horses, and hope he gets an opportunity to protect the hive from the heinous princesses.
I can already see it, Chrysalis and Luna and/or Celestia, locked in combat, and our human just chucks a fuckin rock and knocks one of them out.
"You can shoot your magical burn beams all you want, but a rock to the head is a rock to the head."
Good chapter, fun chapter, look forward to more.
Nice writing as always.
Are we going to see drunk queenie.. or hungover queeny.
Anyone who got plasma canon on their forehead should avoid drinking.
8696816
Piddily-pete, u fookin' buggy bitch. Swear on me mammy, ya don't give mah potato back i'll fookin' wail on ya like yeh were wed to me!
Disclaimer: Everyone is part Irish, so there is no possible way this could cause offence
8696879
Probably not, at least of a while. Chrysalis comes across as the sort who would try and avoid losing control of herself. Too paranoid.
Chrysalis just needs someone to actually care about her. The rest shall write itself and it shall be adorable.
Its great to see this updated after so long. I have when stories just disappear, especially good ones.
8696897
Jesus, that accent. It's like I never left Newfoundland.
I was rewatching red dwarf and I just finished the episode your referring to before seeing this chapter.
Oh my god, there is just too much cute in this chapter. Between Chryssie being her adorably grumpy self and the perpetual antics of the drones (especially Mirror), this whole chapter is absolutely adorable.
8696791
That might just be the greatest explanation for a typo I've ever seen.
8696815
Considering how the nurse seemed to be warming up to the changelings before he (unfortunately) let her go, he can probably talk Chrysalis into letting one loose to wander around the hive as a test when the subject of prisoners comes up.
8696820
He doesn't view them as heinous, he just didn't want to take their side. I know it's been a loooong time since he made that decision, but I remember that much.
8696815
“You guys get love...by attacking ponies.”
“Yes, what is the issue?”
“Are ponies masochists?”
Queen's choice, huh?
I ship it.
D'awwww, Chryssie is just so Tsundere.
I love Scuttle's reaction.
More cuddlebugs!
Hooohohohohohoo, oh man, it's good to see this being updated again
I freaking love how this fic has been going so far, so it's good to see I updated at last! It's been awhile though, and I can't remember if it's Aphid or Mirror that I really like the most, but I know it's the one who's been getting all touchy feely with him. Tbh, I ship it hard.
Good work.
One million five hundred thirty-seven beers on the wall~
One million five hundred thirty-seven beers~
Take one down~
Pass it around~
Everyone dead from alcohol poisoning.
*Rises from dead*
"It's updated guys!"
*Skeletons come running*
Damn am I glad you're writing again.
All of the changelings are adorable, especially with the little jealousy thing going on within his little group.
Just picked up on this story. So Scuttle is going to lower the queen's inhibitions...full and stuffed...does that apply? I'm not much on Australianese but I hope her commander has fun as well as her.
8696815
He must be getting awfully pasty staying underground or nightwatching all the time. Not that he should try going on a raid but getting outside and doing something, anything... heck, walking . From the routine I see in this chapter, he has some mind-numbingly boring downtime between feed the Queen. If it was me, I'd be going stir-crazy after staring at the walls for an hour despite a lap-bug vying for belly rubs-- I'd have gone exploring the hive (groupies in tow) just to stay awake.
(I do wonder, are all changeling nymphs bitey or just some of them? Might be good to know before letting fingers get close, tho I suspect they come in all sorts of temperaments like any child)
YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES!
...I'm excited for new chapters!
8697586
Who said anything about him being the one who views them as heinous?
I just love human on princess abuse....
Feeds that superior predatory ego, ya know?
Yeah, Chrissy really needed to get laid...
this is wonderful. im excited for more shenanigans!
Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeee, it's back! And it's still as glorious as I remember!
So, Daniel actually managed to hold a proper conversation with Chrysalis.
There's hope for her yet!
And helped Scuttle get laid. Nice. Top-tier bro code right there!
She really underestimates her underlings though, they're not nearly as stupid as she believes.
Ah well, her arrogance can be endearing sometimes.
Also:
It's must have
Oh wow I'm ashamed to admit but I kinda forgot Bout this story.
But I'm really glad to say I'm happy it's back!!!
Daniel might just get both sides to agree to peace yet. Lol
When next AWESOME chapter!?
8701251
The world will know that few stood against many. And even a goddess/princess can bleed.