The Little Curiosities

by Comma Typer

Parthenogenesis

Secretary Epiprocta hurries to the queen’s office in the royalist hideout, her insectoid wings buzzing over her hole-ridden legs.

She quickly slams the door shut once she’s in. “You said you wanted to see me, Miss Chrysalis?”

“It’s Queen Chrysalis,” snarls royalty herself with only her head visible above the desk, “and you must address me as Your Majesty just like everyone else. I may trust you to keep a secret, but do not forget your place.”

Epiprocta then bows low from afar. “Apologies, then. Must be the secretary routine settling in hard, especially after Sir Compound died in a raid and I had to take his place and… never mind.” Keeping her head low, “You said it was urgent, and I hoped that a less formal tone would also help ease your concerns.”

Chrysalis fiddles with her hooves. “It’s not exactly a threat.”

The secretary looks up. “It is not military force, then?”

“Perhaps it’s worse than that.”

Epiprocta lets out a nasty hiss. “A traitor then in our midst, then! Where is he?!”

“Nothing of the sort!” while Chrysalis waves her hooves in the air. “It’s... well, do you plan on getting married?”

The underling lowers a brow. “I’ve had plans once, but we got cut off at the last minute due to a particular something I could’ve never expected.”

Chrysalis sighs, hoof on cheek. “None of us expected the Change to turn the world upside down.” She shakes her head. “But enough about that. I would’ve asked you about your kids, but I realized you don’t have any.”

“And why are we talking about kids now?”

Her answer is a desk levitating in the queen’s sickly green magic, pushed to the side to reveal the rest of Chrysalis ordinary form sitting on the floor.

And a pile of thick-skinned ovals oozing with a mysterious substance.

A curious Epiprocta takes a step forward. “Are those what I think they are?”

“Eggs!” shouts a bewildered Chrysalis. “I’ve just given birth to all thirty of these in the past hour! I-I’m not married, I’m not even illicitly seeing anyone! This is... this is...“

The secretary hovers to the pile of eggs, landing nearby to examine them closely. “They’ll be fine.”

“I’m sure they’ll be fine, but am I fine?!” She points at herself. “This isn’t how I planned the future of the kingdom to be! Imagine: thirty princes and princesses vying for my throne when I die!” And her eyes bug out. “I’m a mother of thirty!”

Epiprocta rolls her eyes. “You shouldn’t get hung up over this. Equestria’s Chrysalis has been the mother of a million over her thousand-year existence—“

“You’re not helping!”

After a moment of awkward silence, Epiprocta sits down by her side, caring eyes boring straight into the queen’s soul. “Look, Miss—er, Your Majesty. What’s... what exactly is wrong?”

Chrysalis just rocks her head, groaning long. “I think... no matter how long this has been going on, no matter how much I get used to this horsefly body and changeling magic, I still won’t really get used to it. I... I guess having enough love going around in this hideout will eventually make that happen to me—I mean, I know I’m going to lay eggs sooner or later, but having it actually happen is another thing, and…”

She rubs her eyes and groans again. “Anyway, take my mind off of this and tell me how’s the love collection going.”

“It’s going splendidly,” reports Epiprocta with a snarling grin. “We’ve captured some of those colorful imposter changeling couples loyal to the Thorax pretender. That alone will be enough to power us for half a year, and that’s without factoring in the pony lovebirds from last month.”

Chrysalis lightly scratches the desk. “And tell me again why we turned into love-starving predators while Thorax and his ilk get a mostly harmless diet? Just because I bear a striking resemblance to an evil villain from the other side doesn’t mean I should become one and be cursed with this eternal love hunger!” She ends with a dramatic gesture with her hooves.

She smacks an egg away on accident.

“No!” and she flies over to it, picking up the still-solid egg and cuddling it to her face, squishing her cheeks against it. “Don’t you worry, my child! Mommy’s got you! Mommy didn’t mean to do that to you. She was too rash for her own good. Now who’s a good baby? You are!” The queen then showers the egg with kisses. “There, all better now?”

Epiprocta chuckles at that motherly affection. “You’re quite sappy for a queen.”

“Well, these are my children! No matter how unusual and disgusting it is to just pop out thirty babies in the same day, they’re living beings, and they’re my living beings! You better give them the respect they are due as future royalty!”

“And how do you plan to name them?”

Chrysalis’s eyes shrink at that. “A good point to raise up. I think I should spend time naming them. I’ve already spent a decade pondering on what to name my first child. I might as well brainstorm with the others on the matter and much more.”

She narrows her eyes toward the secretary. “I order you to find me mothers who can take care of these eggs. I am ignorant as to how to care for them all, but I am sure you will find capable changelings who can teach me.”

And Epiprocta bows down fast. “As you command.”

Comments

[Venerable Ro]

A study in contradictions, a Chrysalis who loves her children and barely considers her enemies as anything but obstacles.

[Eroraf86]

Chrysalis lightly scratches the desk. “And tell me again why we turned into love-starving predators while Thorax and his ilk get a mostly harmless diet? Just because I bear a striking resemblance to an evil villain from the other side doesn’t mean I should become one and be cursed with this eternal love hunger!” She ends with a dramatic gesture with her hooves.

That does raise multiple concerning questions about the effect of magic on free will.

[FanOfMostEverything]

10509817
Logically, she should be able to share love as readily as any other changeling, but fate-related shenanigans may be involved. Chrysalis may have to defeat her own Equestrian analogue to be anything more than a queen of parasites.

[Comma Typer]

10509059
10513227

Exactly! Though it's interesting to see a human-curious Lyra in a situation where all the humans are no longer human.

10509443
10512837
On that note, Equestria already has a nuclear weapon: Princess Celestia. Nuclear fusion happens in both WMDs and the sun. So to Lyra, it'd be like having a portable sun inside a missile!

10509596
I don't think I'd call Octavia crazy, but Pinkie and Vinyl certainly fit the hyperactive and crazy bill to an extent!

[Comma Typer]

10509063
Another nuance that comes to Chrysalis here is that she's much more mundane than her Equestrian counterpart. Equestrian Chrysalis is obviously fueled by malice and, later on, revenge which cultivates some kind of pragmatic "love" for her children and maybe even some kind of sadism saved for her enemies. Earth's Chrysalis is simply concerned about political legitimacy and wanting to bring her country and people to what she thinks is the right path, so the Change is ultimately just a major wild card in her journey.

10509817
10512845
I don't think magic would have much of an effect on free will if at all since it's mostly physical changes: like Sweetie Drops said, she's still Sweetie Drops but just as a magic pastel-colored pony.

Still, monsters of the week and so on happen in Ponyville. Some Equestrian form of that Narrativium thing from Discworld could be in play that spread to Equestria Girls Earth in the past (as early as the Pillars banishing the sirens or Clover the Clever burying the Memory Stone on the other side, or as late as Sunset Shimmer going through the portal for the first time or Princess Twilight going to Earth to get the Element of Magic back). If that were the case, then the whole Chrysalis-must-fight-Chrysalis thing can still play out normally.

Though given how one Chrysalis prefers a conventional battle while the other is more than okay with stealth and more changeling-appropriate tactics, it may be a cat-and-mouse kind of warfare.