The Godking is NOT Amused

by Zemez

The Godking is Food

Queen Chrysalis was worried. It was the day of Princess Cadence's wedding, who a month prior she had locked in the crystal caves beneath Canterlot. She wasn't worried about princess lovebutt though, nor was she worried about the Elements of Harmy who had been invited by Celestia, at Chrysalis's behest, to help set up the wedding. She had actually just asked for Twilight Sparkle, as she had a scheme to frame her as a crazy pony in front of her brother, allowing more love and sympathy from Shining Armor to come to her.

And that part of the plan was working. Every other pony wrote her inconsistencies she had been creating as pre-wedding jitters. But that manic mare had fallen for it, constantly talking about how something was off with her. If chrysalis was right, and when it came to manipulating creatures she usually was, Twilight Sparkle would finally cause a scene in the rehearsal in an hour. All was going to plan...

All except one thing. Godking Veretus, who claimed himself as high God of someplace called Alvaris. Chrysalis may have been quite young for a changeling monarch, but she had never heard of that place, and she knew about the hippogriffs...

His stories aside, he worried her for two reasons. First was that he was always wary around her, at first she thought he knew that she wasn't the real Cadence, but he hadn't warned any of the ponies. Her second reason was that he was feeding her... Constantly.

Changelings feed on love. more accurately, changelings aren't emotivores, but energyvores, Centuries of history, some only recently rediscovered, Implied that changelings didn't actually feed on love, but some sort of energy made by the emotion.

Regardless of the truth, changelings were minor Empaths, able to feel in near proximity the emotions of other creatures, and minor impressions of what would trigger their love. This allowed them to use their shapeshifting ability to turn into the best form suitable for creating the strongest feeling of love.

Extracting love from a creature in large quantities taxed them, causing lethargy, drowsiness, and in long-term harvesting, confusion and disorientation. This was why Shining Armor hadn't discovered her yet. She had used this to her advantage to make twilight Sparkle think she was brainwashing her brother. Changelings both had to conciously extract love, and couldn't gather it from farther than a single room's length.

This last one was what frightened her so, this Godking was not only constantly feeling affection for those around him, he was somehow sending it directly towards her, twenty-four-seven, every day for the past month since he had first laid eyes on her.

She looked up at the clouds from where she felt the emotion originating. Since she had met him, he had started occasionally lazing about on clouds for an entire day, content to just sit there and watch Canterlot go about its day. Even now, blocked from sight, and hundreds of feet above Canterlot, she was still being force-fed his love.

Despite everything about this accomplishing her goal, something about the Godking just irked her, both his love for some reason felt slimy, despite love having never felt anything besides tingly to any changeling, and she couldn't get the thought of him out of her head, no matter what she did. She always felt like he would be her greatest obstacle, that no matter what she did, that if she didn't get rid of him he'd ruin everything.

She had an hour before the rehearsal, and she had to do something about him now. She took off from the Balcony she was overlooking, flying up to the cloud the Godking was laying upon. When she alighted upon it he was already looking at her, his stupid Imperious gaze, like she was a child of no consequence always sent shivers up her spine.

She had come up here with no plan, and already with her horn alight with a greenish glow, she teleported them, he didn't resist.

They popped up in the upper caves below Canterlot. Mapped out months in advance of her infiltration, the lower level of the 'Crystal Cavern' was where she was keeping the Alicorn of Love. However, they were in a sidecave to the main one, at the end of a branching tunnel. The only light was the greenish glow of her horn, but changelings didn't need light to see.

He just stood there, watching her, his imperious gaze was filled with mild curiosity, like she was putting on some form of play. She gritted her teeth, she was going to break this creature.

She sensed about him, all she could feel was that unending affection, but she was a Changeling Monarch, and they weren't Rulers of the changelings for nothing. She focused her senses, delving deep into his emotions, no matter how much it made her carapace crawl.

there... an odd dragon, it was buried deep, the feelings surrounding it was that of dejection and sorrow, filled with familial love. He missed this dragon from his homeland, oh she would have fun with this.

"You're a long way from home..." she began, slinking around him, she was slightly upset he didn't turn to follow her as most creatures would, afraid of being stabbed in the back.

"I am." he answered calmly, She couldn't see his expression from behind him. So with reluctance, she completed her slinking circuit to his front, her horn had been extinguished, but she could see his eyes tracking her even in the pitch darkness.

"you must miss your family, perhaps your friends, who are so worried about you..." she said with mock sympathy, he merely shook his head calmly.

"Not so much, and my companions are probably more worried for where I ended up..."

"Now that's not true~' she cooed, circling around him once more, he declined to turn this time as well, which was what she was counting on. "I know at least one creature you miss..."

He didn't respond to that, which let her know that her tactic was working. When she was behind him, her form was engulfed in Green Flames. She was skilled and talented in all aspects of being a Changeling, and her transformation skills were top-notch, as in less than a second, Instead of wearing the visage of the Alicorn of Love, she was a dragon.

She was surprised at the form, it was lithe and powerful, standing several inches above the Godking, it was a quadrupedal form. She imagined her deep red scales would sparkle in any light, her claws were sharp and strong, digging into the very crystals the caves they were in was covered in with the barest of effort. Her tail, thick and corded with muscle, felt like if she swung it right she could shatter rock. The four horns burst from the side of her head, their sharpened tips extending past her snout and perfect for stabbing foes.

She chuckled, she was surprised, but decades of acting prevented it from showing as her voice came out in a rich deep cacophony, like a bass's strings. She saw the Godking flinch, his body was tense as his metal claws gripped themselves tightly.

"I can be anything, any creature you want, but being so far from home, you'll Never see this form again. And I don't feel much like this form suits me..." She was absolutely lying, this form was powerful even greater than taking on the form of an Ursa Major.

"Of course, if you please me maybe I-" She had finally circled her was back towards his front. what she saw had caused her to slightly pause. He wasn't crying, or shaking in terror, his eyes were devoid of anything. That imperious gaze full of mirth was gone.

"-ll occasional take this form." She finished, his reaction was so odd she focused on what he was feeling, She had stopped as previous experiments revealed that his sickening affection remained in the forefront regardless.

She felt nothing but unending rage, enough to drown the whole world. She was so horrified she recoiled slightly. It was then that in a flash he moved. Her form, larger than his and powerful enough to go toe to toe with one of Equestria's strongest predators, was powerless as he grabbed her neck and forcefully pushed her against the crystal wall.

"I would give anything, even my own Conviction, if you could truly be him..." He said with an infinite weariness in his voice. "For ten long years... I blamed his death on myself, on these two hands that killed him... And I would burn the world to bring him back."

What was more frightening was that even underneath all this hatred, he still sent that steady stream of love. As he finally dropped her, she dropped the transformation. He walked off down the caves, and as she gained her bearings, she couldn't help but whisper one thing.

"You never stopped..."

He was gone from her sight, but still, she stayed there shivering. Her mind kept making several connections, each worse than the last. So lost in thought that she didn't even notice she had gotten up and was walking downwards through the caverns.

She only regained her awareness when her magic opened up the crystal wall she had placed to prevent the escape of Cadence. The Mare looked like a wreck, filthy from a month of sleeping on the ground with no water to clean herself with. She was haggard, the beginning signs of malnourishment and dehydration were evident.

"Come here to Gloat some mo-" Cadence trailed off. Perhaps it was something in Chrysalis's expression since the rest of her was in pristine condition. Although she began to wonder about her own sanity after the words left her mouth.

"Get going... you're free to go..." Cadence merely looked at Chrysalis blankly, and Chrysalis's muted shock was beginning to give way to anger. She was giving up and this mare just-

"You're kidding, right? You keep me trapped down here for a month and you expect me to just leave and forget it ever happened?" Chrysalis growled at the mare.

"When somecreature lets you go after holding you prisoner, you skedaddle as fast as you can!" She yelled at the mare.

"In case you can't tell, I can barely walk thanks to you! Besides, who knows what you've done to Shiny in my name! What you've done to my friends!" For a mare that claims she could barely walk, she was standing and getting in Chrysalis's face quite well.

"I wouldn't have had to do any of this if my people weren't starving!" Chrysalis yelled back, pushing against the Alicorn's furry snout with her own chitinous one.

Cadence recoiled at that.

"You... Your people are starving? why didn't you just ask for help?" Cadence lowered her eyes and her ears drooped. Chrysalis hated that expression, like her Changelings needed pity, like she needed it.

"And who would help!? The griffons are anarchists at worst, and their society is collapsing due to inflation at best! The dragons are self-obsessed jerks, the zebras and yaks are too far away and any other creature doesn't have enough population to help us!" Chrysalis ranted. Cadence looked down, before looking back up with renewed determination.

"Why didn't you just ask us for help? Celestia would have figured something out." Chrysalis laughed, deep and hard like she had heard the funniest joke in the world.

"Because she refused us aid nearly a thousand years prior, before I was even born!"

Cadence had no response to that. While she knew Celestia was burdened by Luna's banishment, was it truly so bad that the kindest mare she knew would refuse to aid another when asked? What she didn't understand was that as far as she could tell, Chrysalis didn't look like she barely escaped, she looked like she casually strolled down here, so Cadence had no idea why she was releasing her.

"Why?" Cadence asked, chrysalis merely hummed in acknowledgment. "Why are you abandoning your plans?"

"Because..." Chrysalis laid down. Not in the normal way pony like quadrupeds did, which was tucking in their legs and laying on their stomach. She merely flopped over onto her side. "I had a talk with the godking-"

Cadence giggled, Chrysalis looked at her without an ounce of amusement.

"Sorry... It's just, he seems to have the effect of causing whoever talks with him to reaffirm their decisions in life..."

"Quite." Chrysalis merely agreed. "I turned into a creature dear to him... who was long dead... His want for this family member was so great he was prepared to destroy the world if it meant getting them back... I realized, that if I did fail somehow, If I messed up somewhere, would I turn out like that? Maybe all my subjects would perish during the attack on Canterlot... Or perhaps in return for amnesty Celestia tells them she'll finally help them if they depose me... The hive holds little love for me due to my decisions that have kept us from being on the brink of complete starvation."

Chrysalis was surprised that at the end of her rant the pink alicorn was laying a hoof on her wither, giving her a sad smile.

"I understand... Veretus showed me that I've been avoiding the role of leadership... He makes it seem so easy, deeply loving creatures whose lifespan is probably just a blink to him. I always feared it, leading ponies who would look up to me, and I would see them age and die, ponies I would have known for most of their lives..." Chrysalis snorted.

"And you decided to date a unicorn, even get close to his family with that fear." Cadence smiled softly, now laying in front of Chrysalis.

"Falling for Shining Armor was an accident... And twilight just has this way of connecting ponies, her dedication to knowledge, her little freakouts when something doesn't go to plan. After they had entered my life, it was just impossible to say no." Chrysalis sighed at the alicorn's words. She could feel how much those two meant in Cadence's love.

"So what will you do... I suppose I won't run, Shining Armor won't drop the shield even in the state he's in, and my army won't attack without my signal... I just don't feel like fighting anymore." Cadence beamed, getting up quickly for a mare who survived isolation with no food and water for a month.

"Now, we return to the castle, and I get married. You are formally invited to attend, Queen Chrysalis." Cadence bowed slightly before rising back up, waiting on her reply.

"Even after everything?"

"Of course. We talked about stallions, the daily grind of life, and had a heart-to-heart. We didn't paint our hooves, but I'm officially declaring this mare talk, and that makes us friends. And friends help each other, so you're going to help get me cleaned up and ready, and after the wedding, I'm going to help your subjects get fed." Cadence declared with finality, holding out of hoof to Chrysalis.

She took it.

Comments

[Sub-Zero]

Man this story is getting good I can't wait for the next chapter I wonder what will happen when godking gets truly angry I'm just waiting for it

[Zemez]

11049504
Quite enjoyable to see somepony is enjoying the first book. I'll probably take about a few days after the Selfish Love arc to read through and correct punctuation and capitalization mistakes.

[Prince Jules Moonshade]

Yay happy ending for da buggies!