It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a Changeling Queen in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife
After the assassins sent by a rival Changeling Queen murders the loved one of Queen Chrysalis, she must find a new husband or wife quickly, or be forced into desperate actions for the sake of her swarm before they starve.
In the depths of the Badlands, far outside the domain of pony or griffin or even dragon, stood the tall black mound of a Changeling Hive, full of red-shelled Changelings going about their daily tasks of guarding, building, book-keeping, and everything else required in their society. And deep within the hive, sprawled on the satin cushions of her throne, sat Queen Chelicerae, with one of her most senior generals close by. She looked to her left, where a mirror reflected her in all her glossy glory, her carapace polished and shining in the candlelight. "General Chitinous, I am so proud of you and of the swarm in general. It saddens me that we are a bit of an anachronism nowadays." She snorted, talking to herself more then to him. "Some Queens have gone undercover permanently and dispersed their swarm across the length and breath of Equestria and the other lands. Some of their swarm have gone into trading and other such things and survive on meat and vegetables, consuming only just enough love from those around them to stay healthy. You don't think I'm too proud to go undercover, do you, General?"
General Chitinous shook his head. "No, your Majesty, of course not." He knew better then to openly contradict his Queen. Whilst she never executed or physically hurt her subjects except in the rare case of the worst possible crimes one of them could commit being committed, she was not above short-term but humiliating punishments. He had done a week-long stint of guard duty just like a common soldier once after he criticised one of her ideas; whilst nothing deeply unpleasant had happened, the boredom of hours spent guarding a gate to the outside had cured him of any desire to repeat the offence.
"I'll do it happily, but only for a good reason. It would be below me and the swarm to go permanently undercover. Other Queens have decided to live in castles modelled on pony society. Which is fine unless they get faced with an invading army, a tornado, or a sandstorm. When I visited Queen Kerrigan a year ago, her castle had been hit by a freak sandstorm a couple of days ago and her underlings were still cleaning and polishing and emptying the outer corridors of her castle after it blew her windows open and filled a large part of it with icky sand. It had got everywhere...into the sandwiches.. .sandwiches is what they were. It got into the joints of some of her swarm before they could transform to keep it out, and they had to bath to properly remove it and regain the full use of their limbs. Here, we roll and pull rocks in front of the few openings of the Hive, and no sandstorm or hurricane can do damage. Even a direct hit from a tornado won't crack it open, nor will all but the most heavy artillery. Most Queens do not care about the changeling culture like I do. They think me vulgar for sticking to the Old Ways." She snorted again.
"I suppose you want to know why I called you here, General?"
He nodded. "Yes, your Majesty."
"Recently I found that the changelings of Queen Chrysalis's Hive had been encroaching on pony territory that I considered to be in my sphere of influence, when one of my swarm was bitten on the carapace and slightly injured. When I demanded restitution or the extradition of the offending changeling to my Hive, Chrysalis laughed in my face and told me that there would be war before she would place one of her children in my hands. I want revenge, but full scale war would cost too many lives and make my swarm go hungry. Instead I want you to get a squad together of this Hive's finest infiltrators, those who can even fool other changelings. Summon them from abroad if you have to. They are to infiltrate Chrysalis's Hive, and destroy the main love source and any spares, so they only have the love sucked from cocooned ponies and the love brought in by their infiltrators. With the main source gone, they will go hungry within weeks and Chrysalis will be forced into doing something rash to the point of being stupid. And it is this Hive that will reap the reward of her folly. If my soldiers succeed, they will get double love rations, if they fail, Queen Chrysalis will most likely kill them."
"Yes, your Majesty." He bowed and left the throne room, and orders went forth through the officer corps to find the best of the best. Half of those needed were in the Hive relaxing on leave, but the other half were deep undercover and could only be reached by the Queen broadcasting using her Royal Voice. Since when it was used it went to everyling in the Hive, the Queen used it as rarely as possible. This, however, was important.
***** From Ponyville and Canterlot, from high Cloudsdale to the mountain-cities of the griffins, those who were summoned made their excuses, kissed their loved ones goodbye and returned to the hive with their precious cargos of stored love , where they were greeted by General Chitinous. "The Queen has summoned you here to go on a mission most perilous; to infiltrate the Hive of Queen Chrysalis and eliminate her main love source and any spares. Once that is done, their food supplies will be rapidly exhausted. If you succeed; you will receive extra love rations, raises in rank, the Distinguished Conduct Medal to wear when in the Hive, and of course the praise and thanks of your Queen. If you fail; our Queen will not have to punish you as Queen Chrysalis will do that for her. I know how dangerous it is to infiltrate another Changeling tribe, I did it myself once as a young officer. You are the best which is why you have been chosen. Do not fail, this is For The Swarm."
Hundreds of miles from their Hive, the "Twelve Apostles" as Queen Chelicerae nicknamed them, came to the subtle scent trail that had been laid down as an invisible boundary marker known only to Changelings that marked the boundary between one Changeling territory and another. For Changelings to operate here from rival hives the normal procedure would be to send an ambassador to ask permission, but instead they hid behind a cloud and changed their shape so that they had the black bodies, dark carapaces and blue eyes of Queen Chrysalis's brood. Then they flew over the border and up to the Hive. As they got close they changed shape again, taking the shape of pegusai, so it seemed as if they were bringing love back to the Hive, something that commonly happened as the main source of love was never quite large enough to feed everyling and other sources were needed. They joined with a couple of others and flew to the main gate. A couple of bored guards with spears ordered them to change into their Changeling form and that was it, they were allowed inside. They didn't even ask us for a password, our own security would never have been so sloppy thought Refraction, the commander of the unit.
As it happened, they had arrived at the main meal of the day, just as the sun was starting to set, and trooped or flew down with the other Changelings for a refreshing, nourishing meal of love soup. Afterwards it was relatively easy to identify the guarded door to the Queen's private royal quarters where her main love source was. They had worked out their plan before they got there and went to the out-of-the-way armoury where the spears, swords and armour was stacked and stored in case of invasion or siege, with a single guard on duty. Unlike the two gate guards who looked heartily sick of their job and wanting to be elsewhere, he was alert and wore light armour. Refraction went up to him and said "Good news, you've been relieved of duty early."
"Really? Nobody told me about that earlier. And why would twelve guards be sent to do the job of one?"
One of the Twelve had got behind him and bit him through the throat, at a place where the mostly bite-proof exoskeleton was thinner to allow movement, and the guard died without a sound. Taking his keys, they unlocked the armoury and got what they had come for. Spears and royal armour. Armour that was only worn when not in battle by the trusted royal guards of Queen Chrysalis. Whilst Changelings could make their exoskeleton change and feel to the touch like pony skin, griffin feathers, dragon scales, they could not fake armour or clothing properly. Armoured up, they cocooned the body and left it hanging from the ceiling as if the guard had been very unprofessional and helped himself to a snack from the grub's chamber. Then, acting like they owned the place they strutted up to the door, Refraction wearing an officer's armour. It could all still fall apart he thought, concealing the fear he had on the inside. This place is in public and there are two guards, not just one. If they ask for a password and we guess wrong, we won't be able to kill them before they raise the alarm and Chrysalis's changelings rip us into pieces, or take us prisoner which once they find out what we did, won't be much good and will only delay our deaths. We have to brass it out, attitude is everything.
Touching an epaulette with a hoof to pull rank on the guards, he stuck his nose in the air and pushed open the guarded door. To his great relief the guards raised no objection to he and his team entering the private quarters of Queen Chrysalis where her main love source was. A pony. A pony taken at birth many years ago in a love raid when she was a tiny foal, brought up amongst Changelings so she regarded them as normal, then seduced by the Queen when she was old enough. Her love for her swarm, when focused through a pony, was strong enough to provide up to three quarters of what they needed. Kidnapping and replacing ponies made up the shortfall and in particular fed the grubs before they pupated. It was easy enough to find the pony through her scent, as the only free uncocooned pony in the entire Hive. It turned out to be a blue unicorn mare with a red heart on her flank as a cutie mark. Refraction went up to her and without warning, tore her throat out with his fangs.
A few rooms away, Queen Chrysalis sat on her throne with her most trusted councillors holding court and punishing minor, middling, and major misdemeanours. She happened to be glaring at a luckless changeling who had been caught syphoning love from a captured pony who had been hung up to feed the grubs. "You made a serious mistake, a very stupid mistake. The grubs are the future of our Swarm, and..."
She let out a choking sound. Sweet Heart! Something horrible has happened to Sweet Heart! "Seal shut the Hive! Close all the gates! Someling or something has struck down the love of my life!" With a whirr of her wings she took off closely followed by her ministers and bodyguards. Refraction and the others barely had time to get away from the murder scene before the Queen arrived, and at once began to cry as soon as she saw his body. She shook it with her hooves franticly. " Sweet Heart, princess, wake up, WAKE UP!" As she carried on crying for her lost love, the love for her swarm had no non-Changeling focus with which to feed it, and all over the Hive, Changelings wondered why they suddenly felt hungry shortly after finishing their supper. One of Queen Chrysalis's generals transformed in front of her into the form of Sweet Heart, but she waved him away. "No...no, I understand you were just trying to be nice, but...but even if you could be just like her for me, it would not be the same. My love for the Swarm has to be fed through the prism of a pony to feed it...we just lost most of our love supply. All we have to feed on are the cocooned ponies and griffins, and what love our undercover agents can bring to the Hive. General, please find out exactly how much love is in the stores, the rest of you...leave me to mourn alone."
Refraction and his squad got out of the royal quarters just in time before they were sealed off, and he told his soldiers quietly "If we get trapped in here it's a death sentence. Within hours at the most they'll be looking for us...a Queen at close range can literally sniff out if at close range a Changeling that is not part of her own Hive. And if they find us the very least that we can expect in such circumstances is a quick and merciful execution. Not only did we murder the love of Chrysalis's life, but we cut off seventy percent of this Hive's love supply at the same time. They only have a week or so of love left, and the Badlands are too arid for crops to grow or for many animals to roam." They went to a side gate, acted as if they were about to close it and then bolted out of it. Refraction and all but one of them made it up, but the last of them was grabbed from behind. Quickly he turned into a giant porcupine to make them let him go and tried to roll away, only to be struck by spear after spear, his dying body finally pinned to the floor of the Hive. When Chrysalis heard that the rest of the killers had managed to escape, she was not happy.
"Gather every squadron together, and get out there and chase them until you catch them. Anything flying smaller then a dragon or alicorn, capture it if need be and cast a reveal spell on it, then let it go if it's innocent. Make sure they can't go to ground, I want them taken alive." The air was filled with the hum of wings as squadron after squadron of Changelings poured out of the Hive and set off after the killers, who bolted for the border as fast as they could fly. Their wings were aching and they were close to crashing to the ground when their own Hive loomed up in front of them and they shed their disguises.
A junior officer came running up to Queen Chelicerae, an action which the Queen had deemed acceptable in a crisis. "Eleven of our Changelings have been chased back to our Hive by what looks like a whole Swarm!"
"Battle stations!," the Queen replied. "Get everyling capable of fighting out there and formed up rank on rank to protect my children. If need be we will fight to the death to protect them rather then let them be renditioned for torture and execution."
Her Hive erupted into a frenzy as spears and swords were grabbed from the armoury and platoons formed a rough and ready line outside the hive. All seemed ready for a massive aerial battle between the armies of black and red but instead, the two Queens hovered within speaking distance. Queen Chrysalis spoke first. "A team of your Changelings murdered the love of my life, Sweet Heart, a pony I have been with in a coupledom for thirty years. I demand their extradition to be punished as I see fit, or that you have them executed in front of me."
Queen Chelicerae snorted. "You know as well as I do that every Changeling Queen loves her children and extradition is not going to happen. As for punishing them myself, why would I do such a thing when I ordered them myself to kill your lover? You came here so fast, your Swarm left it's weapons and armour at home, whilst mine are fully armed. Your Swarm is tired, mine is well rested. And if we do start to lose the fight we can barricade ourselves in our Hive. You don't have the love supplies for a long siege, you'll starve before we do."
"But why did you do such a thing?"
"I want your territory and your Hive, and starving your Swarm of love is the way to do it," Chelicerae said coldly.
Chrysalis hesitated, then gave orders to her Swarm to return to her Hive. She's right, if I order an attack my Swarm could easily lose the battle and get slaughtered, and we lack the resources for a siege. We have to get back, find out exactly how many cocooned ponies and griffins we have and how many agents are undercover in the field, and how many days we have before the love runs out. Then we either have to find a way to replace Sweet Heart or select a target to attack for the biggest love raid ever. As she and her Swarm turned and left they heard the mocking laughter of the Chelicerae Swarm behind them. I will have my revenge for this, Chelicerae. You have a pony lover deep within that Hive of yours, and someday he or she will fall to my hooves.
When they got back she snapped out orders. "I want every captive we have to be counted, and every agent we have, no matter how high, located if possible. We need to know exactly how much love remains, so that rationing can be set in place. Until this problem is sorted out, the officers, members of the Royal Court and even I will be on the same low love rations. The only ones that can't have their rations cut are the unpupated grubs, the future of the Swarm, who must be fed at all costs. Then we will have the funeral of Sweet Heart, and plans will be made to restore our normal love supplies within a week. Leave me for now."
She found Sweet Heart's cold stiffening body and kissed it's forehead, hugged it, sang to it and held it in her magic so it seemed to be standing on it's own hooves. "You were the love of my life, and it will hurt me so badly to put you away in the dark," she told it.
Soon enough one of her servants made his report. "Forty-two ponies and twelve griffins, half of which are feeding the grubs with their love. And we have as many agents in the field bringing love back twice a year."
"Bring every cocoon that is not feeding the grubs to the main hall and put a heavy guard on them. Rations are to be lowered to the equivalent of half a cup of love soup a day for everyling. Summon the generals; a major love raid on Canterlot will be planned. There is no point in targeting the griffins; there is little love to be found in most griffins compared with ponies. Tomorrow I will personally try and track down a possible replacement for Sweet Heart. If I can do so and persuade her to fall in love with me before our supplies run out, there will be no need for a war. Tonight we will hold Sweet Heart's funeral."
"Had you never loved so kindly, had you never loved so blindly, I would never be broken hearted." the Queen said, starting her eulogy.
Queen Chrysalis stared at Sweet Heart in her coffin. They had placed jewels upon her body...bracelets and anklets and necklaces, and dressed her in a beautiful dress that a Changeling undercover agent had brought with royal funds from Rarity Originals. They had washed off all the blood and closed her dead eyes and it was as if she was peacefully asleep. But she'll never wake again. If I could I would keep her in my bedroom, but then she would start to swell and stink and rot...Chrysalis thought. "Sweet Heart loved me for myself, and I loved her back just as much. May she have a new life in the Otherworld, where everyling has as much love as they need. Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust. We commit you to the ground. Sleep well, Princess." She wanted the eulogy to be a lot longer then that, but she thought if she said any more she would burst out crying in front of her subjects. She watched as the coffin was closed and lowered into the grave within the Hive, and the earth and clay was piled down upon it, and went to her bed, hugging one of the pillows that Sweet Heart had once slept in, and dreamed.
She was standing atop the grave of Sweet Heart and lay down upon it to be as close as possible to the pony who had been the love of her life. And as she lay upon the earth she heard a scratching down below, and a faint cry of "help... "Don't worry, Sweet Heart, I'm here!" she replied, and started to dig frantically with her hooves and the magic from her horn. At last she reached the coffin and opened it, and a stink hit her nostrils, the smell of something long dead. The thing that sat up, swollen with rot and decay, it's wounds gaping open and it's eyes eaten away and squirming with maggots, did not look like her beloved Sweet Heart any more. She backed away in disgust and the thing spoke. "Don't you love me?" As it lurched forward to hug her...
She woke up.
"That was horrible." Later that morning she summoned her royal council. "I know that you and the rest of the Hive will soon get very hungry on such short rations as we now have to survive on. And hunger brings resentment, and resentment can bring rebellion and even revolution. I have come up with two plans. The first is an outright invasion of Canterlot, the pony capital, during Princess Cadence and Captain Shining Armour's wedding. That would be the mother of all love raids. If it works, we could capture and cocoon as many ponies as we need. If it fails, we could find ourselves in a drawn-out war with Princess Celestia. The second much preferred option is that before then I find a replacement pony to love me. I can't just advertise in the dating section of the Canterlot press-Changeling Queen is looking for pony to date and fall in love with. Some ponies would laugh and think it was a joke, some would be revolted at the very idea, others would date me for the privileges they could get rather then for my personality, and no love would reach the Hive. So I will wear a magical stone that will glow when I find a possible candidate, change my shape and go looking for the right mare for me. I will be back in a few hours."
Putting it on, she changed shape into a rather large pegasus and flew south, careful to stay well within her own territory and avoid ending up in the domain of Queen Chelicerae. For the next few hours she went past pony after pony with no response from her magical charm. She was almost ready to go back to the Hive and give up for the day when, as she was passing a library in the town on Ponyville, her charm started to glow. Looking inside, she saw a beautiful purple pony mare with a magical star for a cutie mark. My charm does not lie, I must have that pony for myself. But how? My last love was chosen for me by my mother when she was still alive...I have no idea how to date anypony. And I can't just tell her who I really am and hope for the best. She had an idea. Looking around to check that nopony was watching, she took the shape of Princess Celestia.
The disguised Chrysalis knocked on the library door and when Twilight Sparkle opened it, she gave a low bow. "Princess Celestia...I'm so happy to see you. What have you come all the way to Ponyville for, and without your royal chariot?"
"I got an important message from someone who I thought was the ambassador from Gryffindor, who asked to talk to me in private without even a guard present. Whilst relations between us and the griffins have not always been friendly, they have a strong sense of honour and would never order an ambassador to assassinate anypony. So I granted his request and was horrified when in a burst of green fire he turned into a Changeling. He at once said that he meant no harm, which was why I didn't fry him with the magic from my horn. He explained that the Hive of Queen Chrysalis was in serious trouble because it's love source had been destroyed and needed help from Equestria, and wanted you and me to come and enter talks with them. Now, without the time for doing things formally. I have left my sister in charge."
"But...Princess...you're talking about us walking into a Changeling Hive. I respect your judgement, and I know that we would be going as ambassadors but...what if the changelings are treacherous and don't let us leave? I don't want to end up hanging helplessly within a Changeling pod having my love drained out to feed hungry Changelings."
"The Queen has assured me that there would be no trouble, and besides, cocooning you or even me would not by itself be enough to do much to solve the hunger problem and would bring the wrath of Princess Luna and the Eqestrian Royal Guard down on the Changelings. They only have enough love to feed the Hive for a few days even on near starvation rations so they could not withstand a lengthy siege. This is our chance to get any missing ponies back if we can solve their problem, a chance that might not come again. Queen Chrysalis has her faults, but she respects the rights of ambassadors."
"Princess, I trust you and know you would not lie to me, so I'll go with you," Twilight replied. "But how? I'm not a pegasus, I have no wings, and you did not bring your royal chariot with you? I'd ride on your back, but I'm scared that on such a long flight I might lose my grip and fall."
"If you hold onto my leg, I have the magical power to teleport both of us there safely."
Twilight did so and then thought Hey, isn't safe long distance teleportation only possible if you have travelled to the place that you want to get to before, by non-magical means? Before she could let go, there was a flash of green magic as she teleported, followed by near-darkness. As she blinked and her pupils got used to the low light, the first thing she noticed were blue lights all around her, with here and there some glowing green slime upon the walls. As she realised that the lights were the eyes of Changelings, one leapt forward and clamped an anti-magic device on her horn, just as Princess Celestia revealed herself in a burst of green flame to in fact be Queen Chrysalis.
"Twilight, welcome to my Hive. I brought you here because Sweet Heart, the pony love of my life, was foully murdered by the agents of a rival Changeling Queen named Chelicerae. And I want you to take her place."
"You...what? Are you crazy? You kidnap me from everything and everybody that I know and then expect me to fall in love with you? Despite your main food being love, you don't seem to have a clue about romance. Kidnapping is a big turnoff for everypony."
"When I and Sweet Heart were together, her love for me provided most of the love that a hungry swarm needs. It was never quite enough, so over the years my agents kidnapped a few ponies and griffins and took their place. With Sweet Heart dead, this Hive lost most of it's food supply. If you refuse to take Sweet Heart's place, then my agents will first kidnap Princess Cadence and then invade Canterlot, and capture and cocoon as many ponies as we need to solve our food supply problem. And it takes a lot of cocooned ponies to feed an entire hungry swarm."
Twilight stamped her hoof on the floor in anger.
Chrysalis transformed into Applejack. "You and I would be so sweet together, sugarcube."
"Now you're just creeping me out," Twilight replied. "I'm sure there is somepony who would love to be your girlfriend or your boyfriend and be treated like royalty by your swarm, but it won't be me."
"I could be Rarity, Applejack, Princess Celestia, anypony that you find sexy," Chrysalis told Twilight. "Do you prefer stallions?" And she shifted into the shape of Big Mac.
Twilight shook her head. "Yuck. No. Just no. Even if I was to agree to become your girlfriend of my own free will, love takes time to form, little by little, not all at once. And time is one thing that you don't have. Princess Celestia made sure that everypony could eat, even if it was just the grass in public places, because if enough ponies get hungry for long enough, they get angry enough to revolt against lawful government. Given a few weeks, the same thing could easily happen to you."
"Which is why I want you to take a single drop of a very powerful love potion. My agents in Ponyville told me that three foals that call themselves the Cutie Mark Crusaders, made it a few months ago and used it to make their teacher Cherilee and Big Mac fall in love with each other. Unfortunately they used too much and the love potion became a love poison. But if a single drop is taken, it has the same effect as if a relationship has been going on for three months."
"I will not become your love slave," Twilight angrily replied. "My friends and the Princesses need me to be with them."
"I would take a single drop of the potion too for the sake of restoring my swarm's main food source," Chrysalis told her. "So we would be a happy pair of lovers, and I could take the shape of anypony you liked so you would never be tempted to stray with anypony else. You would live a life of luxury with me just like Sweet Heart did." She pointed a hoof up to where a pony hung encased in a cocoon. "Choose peace and love with me, or war and one day seeing your friends hanging from the ceiling in cocoons. Imagine Fluttershy, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, everypony you know converted into Changeling food or Changelings themselves. What is it to be, Twilight Sparkle?"
Twilight thought for a while. Would it really be so bad being loved and kissed and cuddled by the Changeling Queen? Someone who could take the shape of any stallion or mare within lovemaking that I wanted, within reason? This could be the chance to make my secret fantasies about Princess Celestia come to life. And who would not want to be loved? "I have thought about it a bit and agreed but in exchange I want you to do three things for me. First, call off this invasion. I don't want Canterlot to perhaps be wrecked and all my friends to end up in cocoons to have their love milked out of them. I don't want Celestia and Luna's benevolent rule overthrown, leaving no one to control the sun and the moon and bring night and day. I hate war, that brings nothing but expense and misery and pain and death." She paused. "Second, I want to see my friends and family occasionally. I don't want to be shut up in a harem. I do understand that I might need bodyguards to prevent that rival Queen from having me murdered, but I want to have a normal life where possible. Lastly, I want you to love me as much as I love you."
Queen Chrysalis nodded and signalled to an aide to bring the love potion to them, and very carefully added a drop to each of two glasses of water. "To peace within Equestria-down the hatch. Afterwards I will call the invasion off." Rather reluctantly, and hoping she had made the right choice, Twilight picked up the glass and drank it at the same time as Chrysalis drank hers. Chrysalis is so pretty...from that look in her dark eyes to her shiny black chitin body. And she loves me for my own sake. Twilight and Chrysalis leaned in and kissed each other lightly on the lips and then the Queen sent a message through the rarely-used hive mind system. "Soldiers of the Hive, all of you stand down, repeat stand down. There will be no kidnapping of Princess Cadence and no invasion of Canterlot, for Twilight Sparkle and I now love each other." There was cheering throughout the Hive when that message was given out as noling wanted to risk dying if it could be avoided. "Come with me, let me show you around the Hive." Chrysalis unlocked the anti-magic device from her new girlfriend's horn, and the first place she took her was to the Hive's love well, which was now once more at a proper level.
"This is the most important place in the Hive, the love well, where we get most of our food from. It has to be guarded in shifts around the clock, as if it was to be poisoned or fouled that would be bad news for the entire swarm. From it one can get the most tasty love soup." After showing Twilight all the other interesting parts of the Hive she said "I guess we have to do something hard; we have to tell everyone who matters in your life that we are now a coupledom. And then we need to move all your possessions-all your books and charts and other stuff-into the Hive and set up a love nest for us and a couple of rooms dedicated to your things. I will get an escort and some sky chariots ready to haul all your stuff back here, as you'll be spending quite a lot of time in the Hive from now on. Not all of it, don't worry. I would never imprison you." Soon enough fifty or so Changelings, some of them hitched to sky-chariots, were ready to go, and Twilight took her place in the royal sky-chariot beside Queen Chrysalis.
Taking good care to stay out of the territory of Queen Chelicerae, it was sunset by the time they reached Ponyville and crossed the border. Pegasui that saw them scattered and informed the small detachments of Royal Guards that served as police ponies of what was happening, but it would take some time to get enough of them together to challenge the Changelings. However, Rainbow Dash came flying up to them. "Let Twilight go, you overgrown insect!" she snapped at Chrysalis.
"Don't worry, I'm not her prisoner. I agreed to become her girlfriend to avoid an invasion of Canterlot and the ruining of Princess Cadence's wedding," Twilight explained.
Meanwhile Spike had quickly sent a message to Princess Celestia in the form of a telegram.
Changelings openly in Ponyville Stop With Twilight Stop Come Quickly Stop
It was not that long before Princess Celestia teleported to the scene and she and Queen Chrysalis glared at each other. "What have you done to my personal student?," Princess Celestia demanded to know. "If that really is Twilight Sparkle and not some disguised Changeling, give her to me, and put all that stuff back that you took from the library."
"A pony named Sweet Heart, my girlfriend, was murdered by rival Changelings, so I brought Twilight Sparkle to my Hive and persuaded her to take a drop of love potion. Don't worry, I took one too, and she'll be treated like a princess. It was that or kidnap your aunt and launch a giant love raid on Canterlot. Which do you think would be worse? Without a girlfriend, my swarm can only gain love by raids and large scale replacements" Chrysalis replied.
Princess Celestia focused magical light through her horn. Chrysalis's hand picked bodyguard of changelings hissed loudly in anger at this threat to their Queen and their food supply at the same time. They held back though; attacking an alicorn that had lived for over a thousand years was likely to be fatal. Any non-alicorn would just have been rushed and most likely quickly cocooned, overwhelmed by sheer numbers. Queen Chrysalis lit up her own horn,. "Princess Celestia; I am not giving Twilight back to you.Every Changeling Queen needs her own pony to love, to focus their love for their Swarm through. If you were to go to the centre of every Changeling Hive in existence you would find an incredibly loved and pampered pony. Twilight will be treated the same, with pretty much anything she could ever want."
The response of Celestia was to send a beam of fire across the gap between them, which was met by a beam of green flame from Chrysalis. "Drain her, my children," Chrysalis commanded, and all the changeling horns of her bodyguards lit up. Although Celestia was an alicorn with a huge amount of love for her nation, and the ponies within it, she could not defend herself against both the pinprick attacks from the bodyguards, and the far stronger magic of the Changeling Queen. Each individual changeling drone could not do much against Celestia, but when they were all united as one they could sap a lot of her energy. "Twilight....help me, why are you just standing there?" Celestia demanded.
"I....I willingly took a drop of love potion, I love Chrysalis now. Celestia, Chrysalis, stand down and stop fighting over me! Otherwise one of you is going to get badly hurt and I don't want that. I'll explain to you fully how I came to be here if you just stop fighting."
Both Princess Celestia and Queen Chrysalis did what she said and Twilight explained "At the heart of every Changeling Hive is a pony who loves and is loved by the Changeling Queen of said Hive, and through the pony the Queen can grant love to her Hive. There is never quite enough unfortunately, which is why more love has to be brought in by other sources fair and foul, but without the pony, the Hive would have to go on large scale love raids to avoid starvation. I became Chrysalis's consort to avoid a major war breaking out between her Hive and Equestria and both of us took a single drop of love potion to keep the peace in Equestria. I understand why you are so worried, but you don't need to be worried about me. I'm in the safest place that I could possibly be. When I am at the centre of the Hive, I am as protected as you are in the keep of Canterlot Castle. No monster or rival changeling or other threat could possibly get to me."
She turned to Queen Chrysalis. "You and your Hive have to let Celestia go without trying to harm her; and you must let me leave the Hive at times to be with my pony friends. I will return to you every time, I promise."
Princess Celestia sighed. "If that is what you truly want, Twilight, then I understand, but you could be making a very big mistake. The changelings and ponies have never been friends. To changelings, ponies are just sources of tasty food. I will let all your friends know what you have decided to do." And she teleported back to Canterlot Castle. Twilight and Chrysalis reached the Library and Twilight used her magic to pick up large numbers of books and papers and other useful things and transfer them to the sky-chariots of the changelings.
"Twilight, have you gone completely crazy?" Spike asked. "Why leave your home and your friends and everything you know to go and live in a nest of changelings? Stop this whilst you still can, you don't have to do this....please??"
"I am doing this for the safety of all of Equestria and because I love Queen Chrysalis as much as she loves me. You are welcome to come along with me if you like, I doubt the changelings would mind if I explained to them who you are and how important you are to me."
"Me, living with the changelings? What if they treat me as a food source? What little the books say about changelings is anything but nice."
"I will personally make sure that nothing nasty happens to you, the changelings have a lot of respect for me as their Queen's Consort. And you will be allowed to return to Ponyville at times too, I will make sure of it."
"Twilight, I trust you and I would follow you anywhere, and you'll need me as your assistant. So yes, I will go with you, even into the very heart of a changeling hive."
Soon enough the sky-chariots were full of everything Twilight would need and she, Spike, Queen Chrysalis and her changeling escort set off back towards the Hive.
