Queens to Check, Dragon to Mate

by dracone

Meeting's First Night: C

Culicidae didn’t know what to make of all this, after being shown to her room she had her drones play guard at her door while she went to see Nymph. The impromptu meeting with Nymph went as well as anticipated, so much so that she was actually hoping for something to go wrong on her way back to her room. No such luck in something less peaceful happening on her way back, all of this had started annoying her almost immediately. To her knowledge no queen had ever even attempted something like this, the worst part was that she was thinking back to a comment Chrysalis had given about historical records being skewed by the victorious in their favor. She hated admitting it, but Chrysalis had been right about that sort of thing with Queens were very quick to act as if all their arrangements were perfect up until the points they stopped being worthwhile, the unwillingness of queens to portray themselves as anything less than perfect and even the fact that she herself had designs on holding up Chrysalis as a complete failure despite her proven success at managing to survive this long.

Culicidae hated that she was having such thoughts, she had been taught that a queen must never doubt her thoughts or actions. That was just the problem though, she had been taught to think this way, not come to it on her own, not discover it through her own experiences, the fact of the matter was Cicada had taught her this was the way a queen is supposed to think. All this was contradicted by Cicada’s own teachings that a queen must not allow any force from outside herself dictate her aspects, minus the properties one acquires from her mate of course but those had entirely different rules.

That was another problem, she had only had two sessions with her mate then up and left, and that had been over a six-hour period. Chrysalis had made an offhanded comment about having multiple sessions with her mate over an extended period of time, Culicidae had never even considered that possibility, and from the looks of the other queens at the time Chrysalis had revealed this information neither had they. Culicidae loathed admitting her own mistakes, but in this case, she had no other choice. Chrysalis had successfully integrated into her surrounding society so thoroughly she could move about without a disguise, an undocumented achievement for a changeling queen. The fact she did this while in self-imposed exile, with a general execution agreement from all other hives, only made the feat more impressive.

Chrysalis even openly stated how big her current hive is, with an exact number. Chrysalis had basically decided to not follow in the “traditions” of the changelings. Culicidae could respect that, didn’t stop her from wanting to kill Chrysalis, but at least she could respect her on some level. And she hated all of it, things were bad enough with Chrysalis openly expressing her emotions. Culicidae wanted to gag at it all, to make matters worse she actually liked the meal Chrysalis had prepared.

The dragon had made a comment about how Chrysalis hadn’t just acquired that property from him, what she had gained had grown and altered to the point it was different than his and had him making claims that her skills in the kitchen were superior. Queens aren’t meant for menial labor such as working in a kitchen, they are meant to rule through delegation. Chrysalis probably didn’t even need to consume any of the foods she was, from what Culicidae gathered she had gathered enough emotional energy from the ponies to be sustained for an extended period of time. The fact Chrysalis was willingly partaking in such actions was another issue that bared addressing. She was even talking with the ponies about family gatherings like it was the most natural thing in the world to be involved in such things, and the reverie they conversed about it with stated such things were an overall pleasant affair with no fears of anyone trying to terminate anyone. Such things were never likely to happen amongst changelings, the contamination needed to stop at the borders of this nation, if it spread any further the entire changeling way of life would be ended.

Then it happened, in her room, after she closed the door behind her she saw two articles of clothing with notes calling them a “nightgown” and “bathrobe” and she found herself thinking of them as aesthetically pleasing. She was disgusted with herself, even as she slipped off the clothes she had been wearing all day to slip on the “nightgown” and admire herself in the lustrous dark sky blue color. The robe was a light forest green color, with her once again admiring the aesthetics. It was at this moment she realized she had been compromised by the contamination, maybe all the visiting queens had been. If that were true then Vespa and Cicada’s assault on Chrysalis taking longer than anticipated, in Chrysalis’s own words, was likely their attempts to assert dominance over the contamination.

That drone Chrysalis had brought with her to the event was definitely invaluable, wiping out Chrysalis’s extremely small hive would ensure it did not shift to the control of another queen. Just keeping Chrysalis’s drones after her termination would be acknowledging Chrysalis was no failure, an act that must not stand. The main problem was that the bulk of Chrysalis’s hive was not present, by her own admittance they were not at the colony grounds so as to prevent any hostile parties from properly locating it, made the hive’s extermination far more problematic than it had to be.

Culicidae didn’t like being here, the fact that imminent threats were few and far between meant that the residents were soft. Chrysalis had gone soft, so much so that she could no longer be rightfully be called a queen. Her insistence that the drone was not a drone, the act that was designed to simulate self-autonomy, and the way she got all the ponies to go along with the charade was all proof of her softness. The only way the drone could have remained at such a stunted development was Chrysalis deliberately stunting its development, the only problem was that when she and the other queens had inspected the drone there were no indicators that Chrysalis was manipulating the drone’s development in any way. If it was indeed true that the drone was developing at an unaltered rate that would mean that all of Chrysalis’s hive were not developed enough to put up a proper fight, an advantage that could easily be utilized by a queen with knowledge of the truth of that hive.

Culicidae didn’t like that she took the gifts offered so readily, even more so that she actually enjoyed the act of wearing what was offered her. Culicidae kept on thinking she was going to be in debt, immensely so, to this “Rarity” pony. This line of thinking only got worse when she inspected her closet, there were easily a dozen formal dresses and about half that in “casual” attire. Chances were the other queens had similar outfits in their closets as well. She wanted to shred all the outfits to ribbons, but something stopped her from doing so. She was growing even more infuriated with herself, so much so that the only thing she could think was to calm herself and try getting some sleep. She was in for another day of annoying displays, the coming day would let her know just how much damage was really being done.

The fact she was wearing this “nightgown” without even thinking it over beforehand told her that she was very much beginning to be contaminated as well. The outfits in the closet all looked appealing, much to her self-disdain, and made the outfit she had made for herself before coming here look like a tattered rag by comparison. They all had intricate, sometimes even ornate, decoration integrated into the outfit itself. To make matters worse, all the designs matched up with aesthetics she found herself approving of.

There was only one explanation to she could think that made sense for the odd behavior of the queens at this meeting, the ambient magic of this nation caused a shift in thinking for in line with the general thoughts of the bulk of the populace, with higher standing authority figures likely altering the course of things. And since the populace of the town was mostly gone, with the exceptions being the princesses and the consoles of one of the said princesses being the only real populace that would mean their ideological stances were influencing the area. Culicidae was not looking forward to the coming day.

Author's Note:

Well, looks like she's not taking things well. I really feel like this story could use some art but I'm having too much trouble finding a fitting image for this story and/or Queen Takes Dragon; on top of that, I really don't have the kinds of funds on hand for any commissions just yet, most of my resources go toward necessities with the barely enough left for emergency spending.

I feel like I should give the readers that made it this far a chance to influence the main story, so we'll put things to a vote. First some ground rules, 1) be mindful of others who haven't made it this far yet and post your vote in a spoiler tag and 2) leave a brief summary that is also kept in the spoiler tag why you think the story should go that way. Vote A if you want to see things head into the next day at the meeting, vote B if want to see the goings on with the correctional facility and the 2 idiots that made a play on Chrysalis's life, vote C for a look at things from Spike's PoV, vote D for a look at things from Luna's PoV, vote E for personal suggestion (don't leave summary in comments for this and PM me the suggested summary regarding the suggestion)

Comments

[Rammy]

C because i want to know how spike as a dragon is seeing this

[Mrof]

C for spike. I would love to see whats going through his mind,

[Razzy]

Wow, talk about paranoid.

Don't go after the young Cutelings, that won't go well.

I vote for B. Because Changeling Queens in Prison sounds like an exploitation flick title.

'so much so she was' - so that she

'worst part was she was thinking' - part was that

'her from want to kill Chrysalis' - wanting

'what she had gained at grown and altered' - gained she had grown and

'making claims her skills' - claims that her

'and the reverie they conversed about it stated such things' - about it with stated that such

'maybe all the visiting queens had' - had been

'so much so that she could longer be rightfully be called a queen' - could no longer be rightfully called

'Her insistence the drone was not a drone' - insistence that the

'could think to calm herself and try getting some sleep' - think was to calm

'The outfits in the closest all looked' - closet

'There was only one explanation to she could think that made sense, the odd behavior of the queens at this meeting' - There was only one explanation for the odd behavior of the queens at this meeting she could think of that made sense

[dracone]

8466476
you are missing part of that vote, read the author's notes again. Thanks for pointing out the errors, get fixing them when I can

[Razzy]

8466488 Added.

[dracone]

8466476
If that's really how you feel regarding your vote, feel free to write up the story as a spinoff. From the looks of things at the moment you're out voted, but I'm not opposed to other people playing around in my world. Just give me a heads up and ask for help in anything pertaining to the materials I've provided, also if you do decide to make the story please send me a link to the story when you're ready to post.