• Published 2nd Dec 2015
  • 3,332 Views, 151 Comments

Queens to Check, Dragon to Mate - dracone



Spike and Chrysalis are now raising a family, but her "side of the family" threatens the peace when they arrive.

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Preparing for the Headache That's Coming

Author's Note:

Once again, I'm doing things a little different for this chapter. Normally I have a chapter focusing on a single character, this chapter jumps through 3 characters.

The first thing Arachne, Nymph, and Culicidae saw when they came down the stairs after finishing the morning meal offered unto them was the sight of Chrysalis showing affection to the dragon, with him showing it back. Nymph felt a need to put a few holes in Chrysalis, how dare she be shameless in a show open affection! Arachne actually felt a bit queasy, but also intrigued by this display of relationship status. Culicidae was not amused by the display of affection, the only thing stopping her from draining them all and being done with was her commitment to the Accords and professionalism.

Despite the demeanor she chooses to project, Culicidae had always felt a need to have a level of what ponies would call professionalism in her work. She wanted to put a stop to it all, and she had a few ideas on how to set up for just that. First step, get Chrysalis and the ponies off balance. Discord was another matter, getting him off balance would take far more work and cooperation with the other queens than she was willing to put in. Culicidae still had her pride as a Changeling Queen, she was just in the process of reevaluating and reorienting what Cicada had managed to beat into her, sometimes literally.

Culicidae respected Chrysalis’s ability to break free from the way of thinking Cicada had forced upon them all, but she still very much wanted to kill Chrysalis. She wanted to drink Chrysalis dry, the dragon she called her mate, all their offspring and all ponies gathered around this table. Sadly, she could only do such things in the confines of her own mind, for now.

Nothing could satiate her hunger for life fluids, that fluffy substance she hadn’t bothered to learn the proper name for with meat that was still bloody was a good start but ultimately a failure in sate her craving for blood. Culicidae had known what she was getting into when she selected her mating partner, she hadn’t realized how intense the cravings would really be like. And Chrysalis was only digging herself a deeper grave, flaunting her partner about publicly and showing open affection for a drone.

The sight before her made was one of the first times Nymph was intensely considering the direct approach, this sensation was so bad she was actually holding herself back from clearly causing some sort of property damage. Not once had Nymph been required to restrain herself in such a manner, the sensation just made her feel more destructive. It was as if Chrysalis was mocking her, to think that a Queen could fall so far and find enjoyment in her own confinement was infuriating.

To Nymph, Chrysalis’s self-imposed exile wasn’t of much concern. What was of annoyance to her was Chrysalis’s seemingly “happy” interactions, she had admitted to having an exact number that was immensely smaller than a hundred but was in no rush to expand the hive’s numbers. This likely meant she already had another brood incubating, but she also had admitted to not having another brood in the works because of something pointless sounding. What kind of queen was more concerned with the maturation of her hive than growing the hive, if all the drones were stunted in their maturation all she had to do was accelerate that maturation.

Chrysalis was in defiance of everything she had been raised to believe should be important to a proper Queen, it was infuriating. Then it hit her, Nymph came to the sudden realization she was acting as Cicada had intended her to. A queen wasn’t supposed to act as another queen intended, it showed they were being influenced by that queen. That all said, changeling queens were all self-serving, egocentric, rulers with delusions of grandeur. Chrysalis had been like that when she last saw her, twenty-plus years ago, but now her behaviors were the complete opposite. Chrysalis was on a friendly, practically intimate, basis with Equestria’s rulers, she was content with being relegated to a domain that had its boundaries dictated by an outside force, and was seemingly devoid of the narcissistic tendencies that defined changeling queens.

Changeling queens were supposed to either leave their chosen sexual partners after a brief stint, kill them or both. Chrysalis had done none of those, she actually had her sexual partner living with her and was clearly displaying open intimacy with him. Calling her “Fallen” was an understatement, she was allowing the ponies and dragon to corrupt her hive on a scale never seen before. If she had somehow managed to be the one corrupting it would impressive, but she had allowed herself to be corrupted.

Looking at Chrysalis Arachne could see the changes that were both subtle and obvious. Changeling queens in their natural state, even after taking on a mate’s qualities, were a subtle mockery of pony beauty standards. But Chrysalis had always been closer in appearance to actual pony beauty standards than a mockery of them, with her now effectively sitting there as an example of a beauty standard for some ponies to strive for. She would probably not be as aggravating in terms of personality if the dragon was removed from the equation, probably even going as far as to act like a real Queen again. But it was actually worse when she thought about it, Chrysalis’s entire hive acted as a mobile foundation for her state of mind. In order to drive a queen from her mindset, and into the realms of insanity, she would have to destroy the bulk of the hive.

A quick cursory view let her know all the major players were there, she noticed something blink out and blinked her eyes a few times to confirm her eyes weren’t playing tricks on her. Discord was blinking in and out at short and erratic intervals, then whispering something into Celestia’s ear. He probably knew where the rest of the hive was and decided now was the best time to do a quick checkup on them.

Discord blinked out again, but when he didn’t reappear near the conference table she wondered where he had gone. He had to have gone somewhere, “Trying to figure things out, are we? I do like to give credit where credit is due,” came Discord’s voice, right next to her ear, “I suppose you were wondering why I haven’t done anything erratic until now, that would be due to a little deal I made with Celly. And I wasn’t checking up on the foals, that would be a violation of an agreement I have with Spike and Chrysalis. I was, however, looking into the future of these proceedings, looks like we’ll be here for another three or four days. I must say, it was a bit of a shock that only two of you did something to warrant being sent to a penitentiary so far, looks like I lost that bet with Luna, now I’m out a hundred bits and a favor to be called in at her leisure. Celly’s not gonna let me live that one down, not for a few years at least.”

“For one who taps into chaos so flippantly I was wondering about your restraint of use regarding your magic, still am,” said Arachne.

“Oh, that’s an easy one,” said Discord, “I promised to only do little things that could easily be attributed to ‘change blindness’, such as altering my attire all meeting. You all didn’t seem to notice, those that have been around me for extended periods of time have trained themselves to do so. I’ve been using my chaos powers all through the meetings and meals, just a bit more subtle than usual. Celly wanted to know how long these proceeding might last, I checked for her. Luna wanted to know when the foals would be able to return, she adores the young, so I checked on that for her as well, you’re not learning the timetable for the foals returning though. Oh, if you think all the spies you and the other hives have stationed around town and the nation are well hidden, you’re wrong. Chrys has been helping us in the development of new Changeling detection equipment and methods, we’ve had a good idea of where to find all the voyeurs you have stationed across the nation. And it’s only going to get harder for you, mostly because we now have access to changelings that are willing, and very glad, to help with the endeavor.”

“She’s an even bigger traitor than I thought,” said Arachne with no pity to be found in her voice.

“To be a traitor you have to have some sense of loyalty or obligation before their act of defiance,” said Discord, “Chrysalis trusted you with the knowledge of clothing production before her botched invasion, the only reason she didn’t share before then was fear of destruction. You betrayed her long before any of the events that led to this point, she felt no obligations to you before you even got here. She can’t be a traitor, she abandoned almost everything the rest of you hold in high regard years ago. I will admit, she still holds onto the Accords but that’s more of a case of feeling a need for a formal code of conduct and going with the best she has at her disposal. Chrysalis is actually working on a new code of conduct, that uses the Accords as a template. She’s shared the knowledge of such with all of Equestria’s princesses, she has yet to come to anyone for assistance of any kind on that front. Although, several here think it is rather big of her to admit she’s working on that sort of project.”

The other queens gave Chrysalis and the ponies an intensely disapproving look, as did Arachne. Chrysalis was being very unlike any queen any of them could remember. Arachne wanted to call her out on being very unchangeling, but Chrysalis had nipped that argument in the bud already with her declaration that she was incorporating more aspects of her mate, which was clearly a very changeling thing to do. But what was frustrating Arachne the most was the fact that Chrysalis’s vibrancy was so great that its presence actually made Arachne herself feel inadequate, the oldest standing queen feeling inadequate was not something she would ever openly admit to or allow to be broadcast.

While Nymph was definitely attractive looking, it had still been Arachne’s natural attractiveness that had the ponies in awe of her for a few seconds. But things were different for Chrysalis, she had never held a candle to the physical beauty and capabilities of her siblings before this point. Now, she had a beauty that mad Nymph feel threatened, physical abilities that put every other changeling to shame, and seemed completely oblivious to the fact she could probably destroy a decently sized hive on her own. The jump in power Chrysalis had was unprecedented, enough to make every queen at this meeting feel insecure about something they had come to the table with on the belief that Chrysalis would never be able to touch their claimed forte.

Chrysalis’s carapace, if it could still be called that, was far more durable than Culicidae’s. Culicidae hadn’t shared a little secret but Arachne had found it out, that the hide of her mate could withstand having large boulders dropped on it repeatedly for an extended period of time, of course, Culicidae and her mate would be a little dizzy afterward but that was the price one has to pay sometimes. But even with that defense a sharp object, like Vespa’s stinger or Cicada’s claws, would still leave noticeable wounds on her. Chrysalis took an attack from both and didn’t even have a blemish on her exterior. Chrysalis’s beauty was surprisingly more impressive than that of Nymph, the queen refuted as the most beautiful of all changelings. Cicada and Vespa both had a strong natural offensive power that was considered among the most dangerous among changelings, with Vespa even being refuted as having natural weapons that were only capable of being damaged by rock or metal. Chrysalis had taken both of their attacks and not even budged, only made a comment about her attire being ruined. She then broke one of Vespa’s stingers like it was a twig and showed she was even more dangerous by spitting fire on it and turning it into real ash, before then Arachne had reasoned that any fire displays by Chrysalis would be merely illusion magic.

If Chrysalis didn’t have a kill order on her head, never been in exile and had a hive that numbered in the hundreds she would definitely be a major power player among the changeling queens as was now. Then the thing ponies called “irony” hit Arachne, Chrysalis would not be in the state of nearly being a potential power player should she somehow manage to return, and not be killed, if the very things that led to her state of exile had never occurred. A single failed invasion was grounds for all other queens to execute you, Arachne started thinking that if this rule was a bit more lenient with permitting a small handful of failures instead of just one big one then maybe they wouldn’t be in this position.

Chrysalis was smart, smarter than even Arachne herself. Chrysalis didn’t quite have Arachne’s cunning, but she surpassed the cunning with anticipation and preparedness. Chrysalis had managed to read the personalities of other queens and develop countermeasures for almost all of them, considering she was publicly known for having personally encountered over three dozen queens, this was so impressive that Arachne had actually chosen to emulate some of those countermeasures. Chrysalis was one who liked to think ahead, literally beating all her opponents in games of strategy before she was even a full century old, no other changeling had come close to her in terms of mental abilities.

No matter what would come next, the changelings and Equestrians all knew there was a headache coming. Chances are the headache would be pretty bad, depending on how things went. These queens were used to long meetings that were roundabout, often even going as lasting over a week. They were not used to meetings that got right to the point and made no attempts to prolong the proceedings, like this one. None of Equestria’s representatives, including Chrysalis, made such moves, it was if they wanted to get things out of the way as quickly as possible with as little inconvenience to all parties as possible. All the plays to extend and prolong the event as much as possible came from the “visiting” queens, much to their annoyance and disdain. The whole thing hadn’t even officially started for the day and all three queens could already feel a headache approaching, not that any of them would openly admit it.