Chapter 2.5
Queen Chrysalis fled from the dining hall at a calculated pace and began making her way towards one of the castle's gardens. The feeling of disgust never left her as she went.
How could Celestia and Luna allow such a beast to reside in the same building as they do? That would be like letting a griffin spend the night alone in the hive's nursery. It seemed like a tragedy in the making. Weren't they concerned that it might try to attack or eat one of their subjects? Perhaps that was why Luna was so willing to give up the human when she'd asked that its possession be passed to her.
She really should have been more wary. Up until that point, Luna had been much more frugal in her dealings than her sister, but as soon as Chrysalis had brought up the human, she was suddenly much more accommodating. She almost seemed eager to be rid of him, but the queen couldn't be sure at the time. Luna held her emotions close to her chest, out of Chrysalis' reach for the entirety of their meeting.
Originally, she had inquired about the human as a means of sustaining herself until the new hive was established. After the failed invasion of Canterlot, her hive had been more desperate and demoralized than they had ever been. A possibility of starvation became a certainty in the minds of her subjects. It was only a matter of time. She had gambled and she had lost it all. With the ponies now knowing of their existence, collecting food for the hive in secrecy was nearly impossible. They had a small store of emotions taken in the invasion and the hive would be okay for the time being, but it wouldn’t last forever. Being violently blasted away from your main food source by a giant magical shield tended to have that effect on a population. That left Chrysalis with a choice. Either sit and watch as her hive slowly starved to death, or seek help from those she once sought to conquer and hope they would show her mercy.
The decision was stupidly easy to make.
She'd once heard a phrase that fit her current situation perfectly. If you can’t beat them, join them. If she couldn’t rule over the ponies, she would have to bow to them. To an extent at least. She still had her pride as a queen.
She had left one of her generals in charge of the hive and headed to Equestria for the second time. She came alone in hopes that they wouldn’t assume they were planning to attack again, or if they chose to seek retribution, she’d be the only one to suffer their wrath.
She'd felt exposed, walking into the nearest settlement without a disguise. The citizenry screamed and ran, and the guards came quickly. Chrysalis made them aware of her intentions and soon found herself on a heavily guarded train on its way to Canterlot.
When she'd arrived and finally got an audience with Celestia, she was surprised at how... not upset she was. She listened to the queen's plight, and talks about integrating the hive into Equestria began soon after. It was a strenuous few weeks, and Chrysalis knew it was a long shot, but she came out of it feeling like her species once again had a chance at surviving. There had been no tricks, no outrageous demands from Celestia. It was all surprisingly reasonable and straightforward.
Then, on the day that the talks were supposed to come to a close, something came up and Celestia couldn’t attend their meeting, so she'd sent her sister instead. Luna was reserving, but not greedy. By that time, most of the work had already been done, and there was no way to really screw it up from either side. Before they closed the meeting and signed the treaty, however, Chrysalis felt her stomach rumble and clench in pain for the umpteenth time just that night.
In the weeks she had spent in Equestria’s capital city, she’d barely had anything to eat. Walking into a place where everyone clearly hated her, she hadn’t expected a feast, but this was ridiculous. Even now, as she walked the halls of the castle in search of a garden, she couldn’t get a bite to eat. The guards and maids bottled up their emotions and locked them away as soon as they knew she was near.
A changeling could consume a large range of emotions, some more palatable and nutritious than others. The emotions permeated the air and the changeling could passively suck the ambient energy from the air or more actively take it from the being producing it. Love was the best thing a changeling could consume, but even fear and hate could be eaten, even if they tasted foul. Unfortunately for her, she couldn’t even siphon those from the aether if the ones producing the emotions didn’t let the energy go free. That was the problem with changelings revealing themselves. Of course, she could always pod one of the ponies and take what she needed, but that's what got her into this mess to begin with.
Chrysalis had tried to disguise herself in order to get nourishment, but she was no infiltrator. She didn’t know the social structure between ponies here. She didn’t know the relationships and bonds between them, so she couldn’t exploit them. She'd managed to stumble upon conversations between acquaintances or coworkers, but nothing substantial. One would think she could siphon something from the bond between the two most well known siblings on the planet, but even they had given her nothing, as they were masters in controlling their emotions.
It was while she’d been eavesdropping on a pair or maids that she heard about a creature they called a human. The fact that it wasn't a pony, and probably didn’t know much about the Queen seemed like a jackpot to her food deprived stomach. She had looked for an opportunity to bring it up in conversation with Celestia, but other, more important things always came up. She was not about to place more importance on her stomach than on the survival of her hive.
When the treaty was about to be signed and her stomach reminded her of its needs once again she finally mentioned the human to Luna. The Princess's ears perked up and things happened from there. Somehow, she thought she had convinced Luna to give her the human, but looking back, she was willing to be rid of it the moment Chrysalis brought it up. In fact, the more she thought about it, the more suspicious it seemed. Luna had even informed her of where the creature's living quarters were. The treaty was signed and the Hive officially became part of Equestria. Chrysalis knew it would take time to move her changelings, and even more time to get ponies to be accepting of her kind, but it would have to do for now.
After the signing, the queen had gone for a celebratory snack, but that had turned out poorly too. She had tried subtlety at first, but the human had shown no interest. Her hunger got the better of her, and in her impatience she had stupidly revealed herself. And almost as if some deity was telling her just how stupid she was for doing that, she had been knocked out in an extremely embarrassing display that got her blood boiling just thinking about it.
In another attempt to get a strong reaction out of the human so she could feed, she had learned something horrible about the creature. It’s words still rang in her ears.
"My people actually made an entire industry based on the slaughter of animals like cows and pigs raised specifically for the purpose of being eaten."
Pigs or rabbits were one thing, but cows? Creatures that could think and talk back? If this human and its kind were willing to eat cows, what else were they willing to eat?
Not only had she been denied sustenance the night before, but this morning as well. Even worse, Chrysalis didn’t have the energy to shapeshift anymore.
She was hungry, but she wouldn’t show weakness. Now that peace talks were done, she could focus on filling her own stomach again.
Even if the human was a monster, it was still a better food source than anything else around here. The human didn’t seem to have strong emotions. Mostly, it just radiated contentment, which wasn’t very filling. However, the fact that it didn’t shield its emotions from her meant that she could feed from it. If only she could get it to show strong emotion, she could have a veritable feast! It might be risky, but her stomach demanded that it be done.
Chrysalis stepped through a pair of ornate glass doors and into one of the many gardens placed around the castle grounds. Walking past trees and statues with plaques covered in scribbles that meant... something, she eventually found an empty, secluded spot where she wouldn’t be bothered. If she couldn’t enjoy a meal, at least she could enjoy the warmth of the sun as it washed over her. She laid down and soon drifted into a nap.
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Nice
neat
I'll have mine with ice.
Excellent chapter!
cool
Chrysalis, you are a fucking predator, and you don't seem to be attacking and draining every passer by, so why are you assuming that a sapient predator would attack other sapient animals. Like your hive did. Like you have done before.
I just
W h a t ?
I like the idea of a shapeshifting, emotion-eating insect fearing humans.
Human: "I'd never eat a pony."
Celestia: *whew!*
Human: "Pony meat is poisonous to humans*."
Celestia:
*Just re-watched Disney's "Return to Oz", where Chickens being poisonous to Trolls is a major plot point. IRL, horse meat is 'mildly toxic', and eating it can result in food poisoning, major intestinal distress, and allergic reactions.
Neato beanarino
10235295
As Liam stated at breakfast in the previous chapter:
Chrysalis is thinking to herself:
Liam stated that his people killed and ate cows on an industrial scale. In this world however Cows are Sapient. They are intelligent people you can hold a conversation with.
To Chrysalis's mind Liam just told her that his people enslaved, bred, raised, murdered and ate intelligent beings on an industrial scale and that they did so with no remorse.
This is why she's worried about a Sapient predator killing and eating other Sapient creatures.
Once Liam clarifies that the only sapient creature in his homeworld are humans like him, and that cows are just simple animals, her fear and disgust will mostly go away.
That helps clarify a few things. Thanks for the update
Weary means tired or exhausted - I presume you mean 'wary', meaning cautious or worried about danger?
Looking forward to the next chapter.
10235408
Thanks for pointing that out. I fixed it.
10235295
Hypocrisy is such a beautiful thing, isn't it?
are we sure chrysalis just doesn't want the moral high ground?
Having the high ground worked for obi wan
10235295
Changelings don't have to kill or physically injure their prey to feed off them. Liam specifically used the words "slaughter" and "eat" when describing what his people do. No assumptions here, just cold hard facts and a misunderstanding due to lack of context.
Good chapter
Luna..... WTF is wrong with you
Is this supposed to make her sympathetic? Because it doesn't. It just makes her look bad.
I really hope this isn't going to be a Chrysalis romance.
10235802
I mean, if that's how you feel, you really ought to pic your fics more carefully, because this, from day one, is obviously exactly what you just said you hoped it wasn't.
I really have to wonder what Luna assumes she is legally capable of.
10235886
I was thinking it was one where she was an antagonist, the the love interest. Besides, her being evil and totally willing to take someo e unrelated to anything that's happened to her hive makes it impossible to sympathize with her. I don't see why Liam shoukd hsvecto give up his health and freedom for someone who is only expected to act maliciously, let alone love them.
I CALLED IT! OMG I knew it!
Awesome chapter!
Oh, Chrissy... don't you know that there have been times we ate our own ancestors and even each other? It's truly astonishing, the things humans might eat... sewage fruit... rotting flesh... rocks and metals... and so, so many insects.
Om. Nom. Nom.
Oh hes gonna teach her to read.
10235802
Sorry pal, better luck next time. It is exactly what you didn't want. The picture for this story is of Chrysalis, the first chapter is based solely on Chrysalis and Liam... I tried to make it as obvious as I could. Sorry if you were mislead.
Not bad at all. It gives some needed context for what's going on, which is appreciated.
10236724
I appreciate you telling me this, but it does 3xpose a flaw in the story. Unless you're going for a dark slavery/abuse fic where the protagonist loves someone who is harmful to them in some capacity she's going to need a redemption arc. If this is what you were aiming for then more power to you, although you should have made that totally evident in the title/description.
If you intend for it to be a positive relationship I think you should reexamine what you have and where you plan to go, because right now the only one who looks to have a positive relationship with Liam is Celestia.
Really enjoying this story :)
Crissy should ask him how many cows humans eat
Liam: "Oh, about 302 million"
Chrysalis: "...Your people must have been slaughtering for a long time. Countless generations"
Liam: "Ah. That's per year."
Chrysalis: "...."
Liam: "And about 480 million goats per year"
Chrysalis: "..."
Liam: "And 573 million sheep, and 656 million turkeys and "
Chrysalis: "Stop. Please."
Liam: "And 1.5 billion pigs per year, and about 60 billion chickens per year."
Chrysalis: "Billion. With a B."
Liam: "We really like pigs and chicken! Their skin when roasted is just best. Are you feeling alright?"
Chrysalis: *throws up and passes out*
10236603
Caught that too. Tell the bibliophile you can’t read and it’s going to be an emotional buffet.
10237088
Maybe you shouldn't tell an author how to write their own story. I don't see any stories you've written, so this is one of those opportunities to exercise tact.
Imagine coming to world like equestria and you tell ponies and those on it you have industry made for the focus of slaughtering animals so people can eat. With some of those animal being sapient in equestria but on their world they aren't. That horrify some of those creatures but humans are omnivores and need balanced meal of meat, veggies, and start he to survive...depending on ethnicity of course.
10237791
I always thought changelings as omnivores and emotivores ^^ having steady died of positive emotions like love and others in addition eating some physical food. With those fangs I often them eating meat like humans along with fruits, and some form of vegetation.
10235295
Because she knows that in this world cows are sapient, but she doesn't know that they aren't in his world. Heck, she doesn't even know that he comes from a different world yet. For all she knows, humans live extremely far away and are extremely uncommon to find outside of their own nation, and that's why she hasn't really heard of them before. Plus, she only drained her victims of their emotions. He just told her about how his people have raised, bred, and slaughteredsentient beings. He didn't mention that he came from a different world where cows aren't sentient.
10240104
Excellent point
10249302
Thank you.
Ah yes, this is good.
As a bibliovore, this is a delicious snack.
Ahhh good old miscommunication...
At the same time humans are still the guys who have thrived on war since the dawn of conflict soooooo maybe not so much miscommunication.
What's this, a changeling story that ignores the later stupidity? Awesome!
Chrysalis needs to get Liam to experience strong emotions, and all she knows is that he is a carnivore and a bibliophile. Since she no longer has the strength to shapeshift, and since dressing like a cow to stir his appetite for beef up could be dangerous... Then she must dress up as a book to stir up his love for reading. I'm sure somepony would be willing to make Chrysalis a textsuit for the right price.
10278520
Subarashii
Well yes, but actually no
If she can eat snobbish condescension, she should totally look for Blueblood.
10453989
She'd get dysentery for sure.
I do like this alternate take on Chrysalis where she isn't a complete loon and actually cares about the survival of her subjects; in her own way, if nothing else.
I Love This