> Royal Consort
>  by Snowbird
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Out of the Dungeons...
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Hey! What does it take to get some room service in here?”

It had not been a banner week for Queen Chrysalis. Two days before, the Royal Guard had gotten wind of her latest hideout, and she had been brought down during the fight and captured. The next thing she remembered was waking up in a dark stone room, magically-unbreakable chains around her wrists, ankles, and neck, and feeling like she had been dragged across several miles of gravel. Considering how far away they were from Canterlot when she had gone down, that may have been exactly what had happened. After that, time got a little hazy for the changeling. All she knew was that the light outside the window never changed, and every once in a while a guard would come in, spoon-feed her and let her use the toilet in the corner, and then lock her back up. Assuming six-hour intervals, that put her at about two days into her captivity. Not the worst she had ever dealt with, but they were certainly being thorough with her confinement for once. Not even anyone to talk to.

“C’mon, mortals! I understand that I’m a prisoner, but get me some reading material or I’ll scream that you’re savaging me.” It sounded like that one had done the trick, because the door opened a few minutes later and this time five guards, armored and armed to the teeth, came in and began undoing her shackles. It was about time someone remembered she was there, even if they were just planning on executing her. Of course, it wasn’t the first time they had tried that either. Still, just to see some actual daylight again would be quite the thing, and maybe get some fresh clothes. She did like her royal gown, but it had been torn and stained by her transport and subsequent stay in the dungeon.

“Be silent, worm. Were it my decision, you would stay here and be forgotten. However, you have been granted a hearing. I suggest you use your words wisely.” Once she was unbound from the wall she probably could’ve at least knocked them senseless and run, but she had no idea where she was and she was still wearing the enchanted cuffs, which would cut off the lion’s share of her strength. If she didn’t flat-out kill them, they would easily catch her before she managed to tunnel out the side of the mountain, if they were indeed in Canterlot at all. Besides, she wanted to see where this was going. Celestia had tried to reason with her before, the first time she had led an uprising and tried to take over Equestria, but after that failed spectacularly she figured the princess would be smart enough to not try again. Seemed she was wrong.

After an eternity of walking through rough-cut caves, the floor turned to tile and the atmosphere became less like the lair of a dragon and more like the palace Chrysalis figured she was in. It seemed she had been trapped in the same mines that she had attempted to imprison Twilight and that annoying pink one in. How poetic. She knew most of the castle well from her time infiltrating its security under the guise of the servants and later the princess, but it seemed something was wrong with her memory. She wasn’t sure where she had come out, but the throne room was in the east wing near the main gates. Based on what she could see out the windows, they were heading away from the mountain, out into the depths of the castle that were usually off-limits to outsiders. In fact, it looked like they were taking her into the residential wing, where the princesses had their towers and certain nobles had suites in the castle itself. By the time she figured out exactly where in the castle they were, there was only one place they could be going.

Celestia had requested her in her own private chambers.

Upon reaching the large gold and ivory-encrusted doors at the base of the tower, the guards removed the chains from her shackles, leaving her in what were effectively heavy bracelets and a collar. It would still be enough to keep her from diving through the wall, but now she was fully under her own power again as they pushed open the door, shoved her through, and locked it again behind her. There weren’t any windows on the staircase itself to dive out of, and it looked like the doors into what she presumed were Celestia’s suite were all locked. That meant the only way out was up, presumably to the top where the princess’s sleeping quarters would be. Sure enough, as she walked the staircase in a spiral around the outer wall of the tower, each door into the central shaft was closed and locked, except for the last, which seemed bigger than any of the others since entering the tower. She was a little amazed at how little security there was; there had been plenty of guards and presumably civilian staff throughout the castle and two white pegasi beside the door to the tower, but within the tower it was silent as the grave. Apparently the Princess liked her space. Or, more likely, she had sent the staff away to give them some privacy. Having no options and a certain amount of curiosity regarding the whole thing, Chrysalis pushed the door open and stepped through.

To say Celestia’s bedroom was opulent would devalue monuments worldwide. Even if she did her best to deny it in front of her subjects when she could, it was clear that the princess personally treated herself like the physical goddess she was. Instead of the antiseptic-looking stone Chrysalis had seen everywhere else in the castle, Celestia’s floor was made of beautiful polished mahogany, and the walls were a deep midnight blue that, on closer inspection, was made out of refined veins of lapis lazuli. The ceiling was primarily covered by a huge mural of the sun that seemed to glow under its own power and lit the entire room, and the walls were lined with master-crafted furniture. In one corner was a large perch upon which a phoenix was watching her intently, and in the opposite corner stood a cloudstuff bed big enough for twelve ponies to spend the night and never touch each other. Along the back wall was a large glass door leading onto a marble balcony from which she could see the sun rising, and standing out on it was the reason for all this magnificence.

“I trust my guards treated you well on the way here?” At first glance, Celestia looked more or less like she always did, wearing a gold and white gown and matching golden shoes. However, on closer inspection, she was showing much more skin than she usually did. In fact, Chrysalis could see her legs right up to where they met her panties.

The princess hadn’t even bothered to change out of her nightgown before summoning her.

“Yes, they’re wonderful. Give them all a raise and an extra week’s vacation, they certainly know how to ignore a girl.” Chrysalis was getting more and more annoyed with this whole setup by the minute. Sure, the Princess was right there, but the open sky was right behind her. Surprise her now and by the time she gets her balance she’ll be out in the open-

“Okay, cut it out. You have a terrible poker face for someone as versed in deception as you.” Chrysalis’s plotting was cut short as Celestia turned around and leaned on the balcony railing, smirking slightly at the Queenling’s appearance in the middle of her immaculate room. “You look terrible. Just as one mare to another, let me find you a proper dress.” Chrysalis growled at her, moving one foot back and lowering her center of gravity slightly in preparation for a fight.

“Stay away from me, horse. You think I’ve forgotten our last few encounters?” Celestia sighed and strolled into the room, mostly unconcerned with Chrysalis’s bluster. Her powers were sealed off as much as mortal artifacts could reliably allow, and even from across the room she could see that her heart wasn’t really in it. Poor dear had already resigned herself to her fate, or at least what she expected her fate to be.

“I have not forgotten, no. I actually have most of the surviving pictures of your first assault on my city in my scrapbook somewhere. However, that’s not why you’re here. Right now, I don’t care about any of the atrocities you’ve inflicted on myself or my ponies. This is about you and me.” Chrysalis cocked her head slightly, now significantly more curious than angry, but she didn’t waver in her concentration. If this was a ruse, she wasn’t going to let herself be tricked.

“All right, then, I’ll bite. Why did you bring me here?” Celestia smiled and walked around the queenling, before suddenly resting her arms around her neck and letting her hands hang over her chest as she leaned in to whisper in her ear.

“I want you to work for me.” On reflex, Chrysalis shoved Celestia back and took several steps away from her, looking somewhere between disgusted and confused. Right now, she was more confused; as what was basically the goddess of lust, intimate contact wasn’t really a problem for her. Honestly, she was more surprised Celestia was willing to do anything like that. She knew inhibitions had been lowered among the populace over the last few centuries until there were almost no social taboos in Equestria, but she had for some reason expected their leaders to still hold themselves to a higher standard. Of course, she knew she was deluding herself on that particular point; she had heard rumors of what went on in the castle, and there was even talk of the Princess doing... Things at private events, though by their social nature not much was ever told about them. It was all about the secrecy of the members, after all.

In fact, given what she had heard about the castle staff...

“I’ll just be going back to my cell, then, if that’s the case. I most certainly want NOTHING to do with what your staff gets up to. Thank you, no. Now get out of my way.” Celestia, however, stayed where she was, solidly between Chrysalis and the door and still wearing a little smirk. She still wasn’t taking this seriously!

“Mmm, I don’t think you’ll really be thinking that after too long. After all, this could be a very beneficial relationship for both of us, to say nothing of a certain race currently hiding throughout Equestria.” Now that was enough to get Chrysalis’s attention. The plight of her changelings had weighed on her mind for centuries, and it was likely Celestia knew it. If she had a legitimate idea and was seriously willing to follow up, that could be worth quite a bit to Chrysalis. She squared up and faced her rather than trying to plow through her, which Celestia was perceptive enough to pick up on.

“You have thirty seconds, go ahead.” Celestia smiled properly for the first time, before settling against the door and beginning to speak.

“First, let’s make sure we have a few things right. Your kind feeds primarily off of love, which is far more fulfilling than physical nutrition. You take your love either from within yourself or from someone with whom you’re currently having relations with. I understand you were taking love in that form from Shining Armor while in the guise of Princess Cadance. Most importantly, you can take love you harvest yourself and send it on to your kind, no matter where they are. All of that right?” Chrysalis shrugged and nodded. Fifteen seconds. “I propose to give you love. Not just for you, but enough to feed your entire kind. You will stay here, do nothing but have sex with me, and you will have the luxury of any of the nobles in the castle, and feed your kind. Do we have a deal?” Chrysalis... Didn’t know what to make of it. If she was telling the truth, this could be an utter boon for her kind, possibly for millenia to come. Sure, there was the chance of an awkward double-cross, but what was she going to do, toss her back in the dungeon? That was probably going to happen anyway if she didn’t go through with it, so why not give her the chance? Chrysalis smiled and stepped forward, extending a hand to Celestia to shake with a smile.

“Show me your love.” Celestia gripped her hand and shook it firmly before pulling Chrysalis into a hug, stripping her of the rags she had worn and leaving her standing in her underwear.

“Welcome to my harem.”
> Bureaucracy at its Finest
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

At this point, Chrysalis had been expecting sex, or at least something fairly sexy to happen. She had a princess in her nightie holding her against her body and was in her underwear herself, having pledged her body to Celestia. Pretty much the last thing she expected was to be unceremoniously released and handed a sheaf of paperwork from off of Celestia’s desk.

“Right then, this is going to need to be official. Fill these out, I’ll have one of the maids set up a room in my tower for you when you’re done.” Chrysalis flipped through the file she had been given, which seemed to be a standard job application for the castle servants. She was going to be treated like a normal servant. When Celestia had pitched the job, she had expected something special! She wasn’t going to let the bitch sell her the moon and the stars and then let her shove her into a job any grad student floozy could do! She was about ready to turn and hurl the papers back into Celestia’s face along with what she properly thought of her, but reigned in her emotions just before they got the better of her. At least read the form before using it to burn the castle down. Flipping through, it quickly became clear to her that this was anything but a normal job application.

The first sections were normal enough. Name, education, past experience, all that jazz. About halfway through the second page, though, things started getting strange. Sexual orientation was a little off, but not too abnormal. Cup and band size, that could be for the uniforms, same with panty size. Last four sexual partners... References? Sure. Chrysalis’s increasingly confused brain could handle that. Trying to rate your ability to take anal from one to ten, though, there was no way she could rationalize that, or ass size on the same scale. It looked like Celestia actually had come up with an application specifically for her position. At least, that was what she was going to think. Better than thinking she actually made everyone on staff go through the same application, to say nothing of what she imagined the interview to be like.

“C’mon, chop chop. The quicker you fill that out, the less likely I am to go fetch one of the maids to occupy myself while you work.” Dammit Celestia. Chrysalis glared at Celestia and leaned over her desk, intending to fill it out as quickly as she could in order to get the whole thing over with. As she picked up a pen and began to write, though, she felt her hand suddenly tingle and she jerked back, instinctively flaring her magic and getting zapped by her collar in turn. She turned to Celestia, rage in her eyes.

“A job like this involves a little sharing, don’t you think? I can’t imagine you didn’t intend to tell me about this, now did you?” Celestia shook her head and smiled, raising both hands in a little surrender. At least she didn’t look like she was trying to kill her, anyway.

“Don’t get too worked up, it’s nothing serious. It’s just there to make sure you tell the truth. I imagine that’ll help on some of the more obscure interests. Go on, try to lie. I certainly don’t plan on lying to you, and, what was it? A job like this involves a little sharing? Indeed.” She smirked and leaned over Chrysalis, her body draping lightly over her rump and back, the contact electrifying Chrysalis’s smooth skin. Sure enough, when she tried to write Celestia’s name as a test, the pen stubbornly refused to move until the angle happened to coincide with her own name. That would make things faster, anyway. She started filling it in quickly and without commentary from the ivory peanut gallery still watching over her shoulder, until she started getting into the more strange parts of the application. She had never had any proper relationships in the past but she’d had more sexual partners than she could count, but with a blush she realized the pen wouldn’t let her move on until she put down Shining Armor’s name in the third space, and she could feel Celestia’s eyebrows raise and her smirk deepen even behind her head. That was probably going to come back and bite her later. Then it came to her intimate measurements, which were a little harder to classify.

“So what are we going for here? I’m a shapeshifter, there’s not a lot I can’t do as far as body proportions go. Anything in particular you like?” Celestia mmm’d at that, thinking it over before idly goosing Chrysalis, nearly making her drop her pen. She worked her hand over her cheek, testing the firmness as well as the size before making her judgement.

“I’d say you could use a little more down there, maybe go for a six on size. Bra is your own to worry about, but I really would prefer at least a C, if not a D or more. Please, this is about you. You can make your own decisions.” Chrysalis sighed and rolled her eyes, slapping down a 36D and six for panties. The paper seemed to agree and let her move on, but that took her even deeper down the rabbit hole. Proud succubus she was, she immediately tried to put down a full ten for anal, but the pen once again refused to budge. Okay, seven. Five. With a resigned sigh and the sound of barely-restrained laughter by her ear, she circled two and moved on, to which Celestia could barely keep from reacting. The great and mighty Chrysalis, reduced to admitting to being nearly a virgin. Hell, most sorority pledges would jump straight up to four after the first night. The idea that she was actually less experienced than most teenage girls was going to hang in Celestia’s fantasies for quite a while.

The rest of the form proceeded without as much issue, although there was a little more awkwardness around the time the paper asked what amount of exhibition she was okay with. Apparently, Celestia believed the Queenling was willing to walk around nude all the time. In her mind, Chrysalis still wasn’t entirely okay with the sexualized nature of the last few centuries, and she considered herself something of a prude in terms of the mortals. As she signed her name, the paper shimmered and disappeared out from under her hands, and the magic she could still feel seemed to be a basic teleportation spell, probably down into the archives. Hopefully it would stay there, but it was becoming increasingly clear that the paperwork was going to be the least of her problems fairly soon. Sure enough, she felt two hands on her shoulders as soon as she finished with it, pulling her away from the desk and turning her around in her chair. Celestia settled into Chrysalis’s lap, her eyes lustful as she gazed into the Queenling’s. Chrysalis, for her part, was a little embarrassed and more than a little ready to roll. The princess had been teasing her nonstop since this whole thing began half an hour before, and if she wasn’t still wearing her bindings from the prison she would’ve jumped her long before this. However, as if the Princess knew what she was thinking, she touched the metal ring on her neck and, with a bolt of magic, it and its brothers fell away from her body, leaving her physically and magically unimpeded for the first time in quite a while.

“Well, this is certainly something. I take it you don’t expect me to run off or try to take over the castle again? I’m not in the mood to right now, but you usually have better judgement than this.” Celestia shrugged and gestured to the door with a cocky smile.

“Try and escape if you want, but don’t think I won’t chase you. If you try, just hope I get you. After all, my sister likes a good hunt just as much as anyone.” For most, that would be quite a threat. For Chrysalis, it certainly wasn’t; she had gone to war with Celestia more than once. Just how bad could her little sister be? First chance she got, she would be spreading her wings and getting as far from this castle as she could, assuming Celestia didn’t keep her end of the deal. Given her attitude, that didn’t seem to be in a whole lot of doubt, but Chrysalis didn’t plan on taking any chances on that particular front. Without another word, once her shackles were gone she reached forward and grabbed the princess, dragging her into a passionate kiss. For once, it was Celestia’s turn to be surprised, at least until Chrysalis broke the kiss several seconds later but kept a hold on her.

“I did your paperwork, and I do believe we had a deal. Am I right?” Celestia growled deep, the passion of the ancient tigress still alive and surging to the surface, and planted her feet on the ground between Chrysalis’s. She physically lifted Chrysalis out of her chair and walked them both across the room, diving in for another hard kiss as she threw them both onto the bed. Her nightgown was the first to go, the back torn open by the fingernails of her partner and shucked off, useless and quickly forgotten. Her breasts finally free of their satin prison, Celestia tore off Chrysalis’s bra and pushed their mounds together, locking their tongues in a fight for dominance as they ground their bodies, now both covered by only the faintest strips of their royal garb. Sure enough, almost as if their minds had merged as much as their bodies were trying to, they both reached up with one leg and hooked a toe through the other’s panties, stripping them off and flinging them onto the floor.

Celestia was the first to move, seemingly driven mad with desire even as Chrysalis sucked it out of her. She grabbed the queenling’s wrists and pulled her hands above her head, holding her chest taut and planting kisses down her neck and sternum before moving onto her breasts. She dove onto the black mounds with a gusto, tongue and lips working one nipple as she massaged the other with the fingers of her free hand and driving Chrysalis absolutely mad with passion. She had been with the best and the worst of mortals, but nothing could prepare her for the passionate expertise of the truly immortal. Celestia had had untold eons to practice her technique and every one of those years of training flowed out as she worked what felt like each individual nerve in Chrysalis’s mounds to release the ultimate amount of pleasure.  Chrys, for her part, writhed under her touch, her back arching up as she pulled more and more of the seemingly endless well of energy out of Celestia. She got her hands free after a moment and pulled herself out from under the princess, taking a second to catch her breath as she smiled and beckoned her on again. This time, though, Celestia didn’t go right in, but lay back away from Chrysalis and spread her legs expectantly. Catching her point, Chrysalis crawled up to her and planted her tongue right into the princess’s muff, taking revenge for the ecstasy Celestia had inflicted on her a moment before.

Immortality, it seemed, hadn’t dulled Celestia’s ability to take any more than it had ever been, and Chrysalis had her own well of experience to draw from. She dove in deep, the tip of her nose occasionally brushing Celestia’s clit and making her spasm in delight as she ran her tongue in circles around her warm inner walls, feeling for anything that brought a little extra out of her and working it mercilessly. Sure enough, within a matter of minutes under Chrysalis’s ministrations, Celestia hit her climax, her love juice flooding Chrys’s unprepared mouth and splattering across her face. Chrysalis sat up, licking her lips and smiling down at Celestia’s used body, who grinned right back up at her.

“Wouldn’t have thought the mighty Princess Celestia to be a hair trigger. I might have to rethink my next plan to conquer you.” Celestia rolled her eyes and sat up, her ephemeral hair managing to look mussed despite the lack of individual strands to be of place.

“As if you’re going to try again. Why mess with a good deal like this?” Chrysalis was loathe to admit it, but she was totally right. She had enough energy to refill her own starved reserves and spread among the hive, letting them feed off of it without having to go after the mortals. If this was what she was going to get on a regular basis, she didn’t have a reason to try and take over Equestria. She had everything she needed already.

“Well, you never know. Maybe this is all just a ruse and I’m trying to get you to let your guard down.”

“You’re a terrible liar, sweetie.” Yeah, fair enough.
> You Thought That Was Bureaucracy? I'll Show You Bureacuracy.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Two weeks had passed since Chrysalis’ induction into the staff at Canterlot Castle, and she was starting to notice things that didn’t quite seem like they should be happening in the seat of Gaia’s greatest empire. Not just that the ruling Princess seemed to be a sex addict, although that was strange enough, but that same sentiment had impressed itself upon almost every aspect of life in the castle, and Canterlot in general. She had heard that the world was a little more free with its sexuality than it had been in the past, but this was beyond what she had expected. Sure, it was fine for the serving mares to wear Prench maid outfits, but it was hard the first few times to not stop and stare when she spotted a stallion in the same outfit, lace panties and all. Maybe spending centuries at a time plotting hadn’t done wonders for Chryssi’s exposure to the current culture after all.

True to her word, Celestia had set her up with a room of her own in the same tower Celestia’s suite was in, and it was honestly the nicest place the queenling had ever had the chance to stay in for any reasonable length of time. Even Cadance’s home wasn’t as nice as the bedroom arranged for her to stay in, to say nothing of the almost absurdly large closet stocked with clothes that felt like they were custom-tailored to her. Not that she ever really had a chance to appreciate them, though; she had a job, and Celestia was hardly ever satisfied for more than an hour, if that. Chrysalis spent most of her time in her underwear, tangled in the sheets, cushions, or whatever else was at hand when the princess jumped her. Even rooms that had no legitimate need for such things had a couch or other reasonably comfortable surface tucked away somewhere, seemingly specifically for impromptu lovemaking with a bored royal.

For the moment, though, none of that would be happening. Rather, Canterlot was hosting a summit of the leaders of the most powerful nations on Gaia, and Chrysalis had been invited along as Celestia’s second now that Cadance was attending in her own right as ruler of the Crystal Empire. The pair were dressed for the conference in their full finery, including Chryssi’s little onyx crown that she had assumed was lost when she had been captured. Apparently, Celestia had kept it in her storage locker in the prison and had been waiting for the right moment to return it, and now the Queen was back in business. Instead of her usual strategically-tattered gown, though, Celestia had decided to get her a new dress, this one made of beautiful black satin with dark green accents running the length of the dress, which led along the curves of her body to her sleeves and the holes on the back that her wings fit through nicely. The material was only slightly darker than her skin rather than being pure black, and looked as if it had been weathered specifically for that effect. There were perfectly-round holes along the sleeves, maintaining her classic look, and her feet were shod in heels of what looked to be carefully carved and smoothed obsidian. All in all, it was an excellent garment, aside from the fact that it had apparently been made for someone about six inches shorter than her. As it was, it barely reached her knees if she pulled on it, and she was going to have to be careful to not flash everyone in attendance when she sat down.

Celestia’s gown was no more modest than her escort’s, and if anything amplified her already impressive cleavage as well as show off her thighs. It was completely sleeveless, and only reached around her neck with as little material as necessary, forming a loose racerback that exposed most of her shoulders and upper back. Instead of her usual huge necklace the same pattern had been worked into the collar, with a large violet gem nestled between her breasts. Her cutie mark was emblazoned on her hip, right about where Chrysalis knew it was on her skin. The trim was, of course, gold, and instead of weaving around her entire body like Chrysalis’ gown hers remained at the edges of the garment, accenting the borders and drawing even more eyes towards her legs and chest, if by some chance they weren’t already there. She wore a pair of dainty golden sandals on her feet, and her legs were completely bare up until they were covered by what supposedly passed for a skirt. Her crown completed the outfit, large and imposing on top of her head. Chrysalis figured it was a minor miracle in itself that the thing hadn’t given her any neck issues in all her years of wearing it.

The pair of royals cut quite the imposing figure together, two beings of beauty and power and grace as the guard parted before them. A few still weren’t used to Chrysalis’ presence in the castle, let alone a seeming position of power, but they all trusted Celestia to know what she was doing and give them orders to match. The pair walked into the conference room that had been appointed for the summit and the doors closed behind them as the elite guards around the circumference of the round room stood at attention. This was the traditional meeting place of the summit ever since it had been established over a thousand years before for when it was held in Canterlot, and the rest of the time it stood empty save for the small, specifically-chosen crew of maids that kept it clean. The hallway that led into it was the only connection to the rest of the castle, and around the door was the only solid wall in the room. The rest of the perimeter was a single huge pane of curved glass, one that had taken dozens of smiths to make and dozens of mages to keep from breaking in the years that followed. It had been a pain to come up with the first time, and Celestia was invested in not having to ever replace it even if a rogue deity attacked the castle. The high, arched ceiling glowed under its own power and was held up by marble pillars spaced evenly around the room.

There was no furniture in the room, save for a table and chairs. The table was centered exactly in the middle of the room, and was large enough to seat a hundred or more ponies. The surface was scarred by wear from previous summits stretching back into antiquity, and yet it still shone with the luster it had when it was first polished by the carpenter that made it. In the center a circular map of Gaia was carved into the wood, accurate down to the last detail. All in all, it put any of the banquet tables in the great hall to shame, and could’ve supported the entire castle staff by itself. However, only twenty-four chairs sat around it, all made of polished mahogany and upholstered in the finest velvet. Each sat in the shadow of one of the great pillars that supported the room, and all were carved exactly the same so that no delegate would have reason to complain about their seat at the table being inferior to any other. Even Celestia and Luna, hosts of the summit, sat upon seats identical to all the rest.

By the time the pair arrived, only four seats were occupied, and even then only by the two sets of delegates that had already been at the castle ahead of time. Nearest the door, Princess Luna reclined with her legs thrown over one arm and her head nestled into the velvet, trying to catch up on the sleep she was going to miss by staying awake all day for the meeting. Next to her was her second, Twilight Sparkle, eager and upright to attend the summit for the first time. Celestia had never brought her along when she was her student, but now Celestia and Luna felt she had enough experience to deserve a seat at the table, even if she was only a second to the elder princess. A third of the way around the table from them Princess Cadance and Shining Armor relaxed, the one having sat as Celestia’s second for decades and the other having stood at the door for quite a few summits himself. Both were used to the way things worked at the table and knew better than to get worked up over it, but both thought it was much more entertaining to watch Twilight get herself worked up over it than to tell her to relax. Celestia and Chrysalis took their seats halfway between the other two pairs, splitting the available seats into thirds and waiting for them to be filled.

They didn’t have to wait long before things started happening. A few minutes after she was settled, Chrysalis was treated to the sight of something gigantic flying over the castle, completely blocking out the sun for several seconds, and a minute after that the doors opened to admit Ishtakhriot, Queen of the Dragons. She had helpfully condensed her shining-white body into something more appropriately-sized for the venue, but even at her smallest she still stood head and shoulders over Celestia, the tallest of everyone else in the room. She was one of the oldest delegates at the conference, having been born at the creation of Gaia along with the Sisters, and the entire dragon race could trace their lineage directly back to her. A second drake, this one jet black, walked in behind her, and the pair took their seats halfway between Chrysalis and Luna. Takh was considered one of the heavy hitters at the conference, having the economic reach as well as the military might to make everyone else at the table wary of fighting her unnecessarily. She wasn’t the greatest among them at either, and the Badlands depended on a steady flow of materials from other lands, but everyone thought it was a much better idea to trade with her than to provoke her into invading instead.

Next through the door were four more beings, the delgates from the Griffons and the Caribou. Lord Cuthbeak and King Blitzen had both only recently been granted seats at the table, and between them they held much of the mountain range around northern Equestria. Cuthbeak’s position was already under scrutiny due to the condition of several of his territories, Griffonstone primary among them, but between his alliance with the Caribou and his support of the Crystal Empire his position hadn’t been revoked yet. Instead of a second of his own race, Blitzen had brought Frændi, queen of the Ice Ponies. Like all of her race she was dark gray, and her horn curved slightly as it tapered to a point. Her race had long been in a treaty with Blitzen’s, and they felt it was only fair that she would accompany him to the talks. She settled in between the Caribou and Princess Cadance, who raised her eyebrows when she saw who she was sitting next to. Frændi smiled when she saw the princess, who could only chuckle ruefully.

“You again, eh? It is good to see you still live and are happy.” Cadance nodded and shook the queen’s hoof with a smile.

“Indeed. Still hoping your warnings were wrong, nice as you are.” Frændi shook her head sadly, a faraway look appearing in her eye for a moment.

“I cannot imagine they could be, my dear princess. Sombra, my  dear, sweet son, he must return someday soon. If the land he ruled has returned, so must he.” The pair sat in silence, both hoping against hope that she was wrong. Even if he was her son, the queen still knew he would be more at peace locked away than he ever had been as a ruler, and the world was better without him. That still didn’t make saying it any easier. 

The pair of them went back to silence, just in time for Duke Crunch of the Diamond Dogs to make his entrance, along with the second whose name none of them could ever remember. For that matter, none of them could even remember why they were even allowed at the table, but in any case they took their seats between Chrysalis and Ishtakhriot.

Pyralis was the next through the door, and his second with him. His kind, the Kirins, were something of an anomaly in the structure of Gaia. Halfbreeds of dragons and ponies, they had been rejected by both for as long as anyone could remember, although Celestia and Equestria would’ve been willing to bury the hatchet if everyone could get past the last few thousand years of bad blood on all sides. Ishtakhriot had no such grace in her for her estranged son, though, and the only thing anyone could remember them agreeing on was the seating at the table. Specifically, that they would be opposite each other, but not so opposite that they would have to look at each other. Not a happy family. 

Neighpon’s economy was only as powerful as the geography could support, but they did have two things going for them. They were one of the top producers of high-quality gemstones for use in complex rituals, and they had the single most powerful military on Gaia. As it turns out, when everyone and their mother is trying to destroy your entire race for as long as anyone can remember, you get really good at fighting back. Of course, now that everyone knew it the wars had quieted down from everyone except the dragons, and what had been outright hostility had simmered and turned into a nicely calm era of trade and peaceful negotiation. 

Their leader didn’t have time to say anything before the next set of delegates were wheeled in, namely the Seapony Queen and prince. No one was really sure why they had chairs when they were physically unable to use them, but their tanks were wheeled in behind their seats nonetheless. 

The last six delegates arrived at once, all of them in a bit of a rush as none of them wanted to be the reason for holding up the proceedings and making Pyralis and Ishtakhriot stay in the room any longer than necessary. As usual, the Goat Emperor Clive accompanied the Minotaur king on their journey, and they both took their seats along with their seconds while two elderly zebra shamans completed the circle. Celestia leaned forward in her seat, a slight smile on her face as she cocked an eyebrow at the pair of them.

“Zalika, it’s a pleasure to have you rejoin us after your absence at the last meeting. I see that Ra himself isn’t here, and you’re in his seat. Care to fill the rest of us in?” The elder zebra pursed her lips, meeting Celestia’s gaze and holding it. 

“The emperor is unwell today, next year he shall surely come this way.” Celestia’s eyebrows both went up at that; she had known Ra for centuries, and the old sphinx wasn’t the sort to be more than inconvenienced by anything short of a national cataclysm. 

“Apep attacked the royal halls, and it was all Ra could do to drive him past their walls.” Celestia’s eyes narrowed, and a quick search of the Changeling hivemind gave Chrysalis a good idea of what was going on. She wasn’t particularly well versed on the politics of Pudani beyond knowing that Ra was the emperor of a dozen-odd tribes across the land, but her changelings were there and she could see things through their eyes well enough. Ra, sphinx god of light, versus a giant serpent of darkness. None of them had been stupid enough to stay in that warzone, but just from what she could see of the start of the fight she was a little surprised the city was still standing at all.

“A shame, but since he’s still alive I assume he prevailed?” The zebra nodded grimly, but everyone could see what was going on. If Ra couldn’t make it to the summit, chances are he and his nation had been badly damaged enough to remove them from the roster entirely, which generally led to a huge power struggle over the open seats. Still, that was a debate for another year, and no one wanted to consider it until then. There was enough to worry about already.

“Well, the table is filled, so to business.” Pyralis leaned forward and his second passed him several papers. Everyone else did the same, and Chrysalis quickly found herself as little more than part of the scenery as everyone went about their trade negotiations and border disputes and a dozen other things. A few questions were raised as to her attendance, but Celestia firmly insisted that the Changelings had joined into an alliance and Chrysalis would be attending as their representative now that Cadance had vacated that particular seat for one on the other side of the table. That was enough to settle most of the disputes, but Chrysalis was all too aware of the skeptical glares she was getting from a few seats. The grandeur of the whole situation was enough to momentarily make her forget that she was a being of power on her own, but once she realized that she settled in and started working alongside Celestia to further Equestria’s interests as well as keep open bloodshed from breaking out between the delegates. 

Things continued on for several hours, with a few momentary bathroom breaks between rounds of cutthroat negotiation. It was pretty clear that everyone had their own goals at the meeting, but for the life of her Chrysalis couldn’t figure out more than a few of them. Everyone was buying favors and deals from one side and then selling them to another as fast as they could, and only occasionally would anyone look particularly satisfied with anything they had accomplished. Celestia herself had managed to sell and regain the territories around Appleoosa no less than three times already, and everyone else was working at the same pace with their own assets. She was pretty sure Pyralis meant to gain control of the Badland diamond fields from Ishtakhriot and Takh was willing to let them go, but rather than hash things out directly they both seemed to be working around the table. It seemed to be working out pretty well, with both sides collecting quite a few trade deals from their neighbors, but neither seemed to be making any headway toward their actual goals.

Out of everyone, The goat leader Clive had attracted Chrysalis’s attention the most. He had worked out a few token trade deals with his neighbors, but he had kept the lion’s share of his power back for some reason. He wasn’t particularly wealthy as a leader, certainly not one of the heavyweights at the table, but yet he wasn’t moving any of the few extraneous territories he seemed to have little use for. More disturbingly, and something Chrysalis was sure everyone else had noticed as well, when he did make a major play it was for a military alliance. He had already convinced Blitzen to keep the caribou from interfering in anything he did for a year and a day, and had been roundly shut down by Ishtakhriot when he tried the same thing with her. Of course, that meant Pyralis was more than happy to annoy his sweet mother dearest and all-but signed his entire nation into service should the goats need it. This went on for a while, until finally the regent that had attracted everyone’s attention leaned forward on the table, smiling smugly at Princess Celestia.

“Well then, my dear, here we are. Everyone else has made a deal, and now it’s time for you.” Celestia nodded and glanced over at Twilight, who checked the rather copious pile of notes she had been taking and nodded a little enthusiastically.

“It seems I still have plenty to bargain with, even beyond the usual. Let me guess, you’d like to move the rest of your territories for an alliance?” Clive chuckled and shook his head, gesturing around the table at everyone else, who had mostly fallen silent to see where this was going.

“No no, my dear, I have plenty of those. Rather, I’d like to take it the other way.” Celestia quirked an eyebrow, and the other joined it a moment later.

“I want you to hand over every major and minor territory you control to me, including Equestria and this very palace.” Chrysalis shot a glance around the table, and now everyone was wondering what on Gaia this guy thought he had to trade for the full power of what was the overall most powerful nation on the planet.

“And we will receive in return for the most generous offer...?”

“A simple consideration.” The goat smiled and looked her directly in the eye, his gaze sharp and free of anything but pure hatred.

“I won’t kill everyone living in this wretched little nation.”
> No Fighting in the War Room
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

For the first time in longer than anyone could remember, one deal had the full attention of everyone at the table. Clive sat at his end of the table, smiling sweetly at Celestia and Chysalis, both of whom were doing their level best to appear as calm and collected as before. At least, for Chrysalis it was all just keeping face; Celestia honestly didn’t seem any more worried than before. She simply returned his smile, and a few seats over her sister looked like she was trying to strangle down a laugh. Everyone else was in something between alarm and flat-out dread, particularly the three younger ponies at the table. Twilight looked like she was about to have an accident, and her elder siblings looked more insulted and pissed off than anything. Ultimately, Celestia glanced over at Luna and shrugged a little.

“You know, sister, I have a couple of centuries of vacation time saved up anyway...”

“NO. Either you shoot him down now or I shall.” Celestia rolled her eyes and shrugged, lazing back in her chair.

“Much as I appreciate the offer of a stress-free lifestyle, I’m afraid Equestria still needs me. I’ll have to decline, then.” Clive nodded, and then reached into a small case he had brought with him, presumably for paperwork, and pulled out a small ruby etched with arcane symbols. Before he could do anything with it, though, a wave of neon green gel slammed into him, plastering him and his chair against the pillar behind him. Chrysalis was standing on her chair, one arm outstretched and her eyes wide with confusion.

“Seriously, you were just going to let him pull out something to play with immediately after he declared war on you?! How, exactly, did you beat me when I tried to invade?” She walked across the table and kicked the gem aside, the intricate runes scratching as it bounced along the floor. She melted the goo away from Clive’s face to let him breathe and talk, which he thanked her for by spewing a stream of curses against her kind and Celestia until she kicked him in the face. That shut him up quite nicely, and she settled down on the edge of the table facing him with a smile.

“All right, so you want to negotiate with us for our surrender. Here’s my counter-offer: you surrender everything you own and command to us and live as our slave for the rest of your life or I will go find a rock and hit you with it until you do.” The goat scowled and spit in her face, which she neatly dodged and let land on the table behind her.

“Your threats mean nothing to me, worm. My life is insignificant; my kind will tear your heart out for this offense.” Chrysalis nodded along, and when he was done she glanced back at Celestia. Give the princess her due, she picked up her cue quite nicely and her horn lit up as the sun slowly drifted off-course.

“All right, we’ll try it your way. The sun is now drifting closer towards your nation, and it’s going to just get hotter and hotter until you break. You have maybe thirty seconds before the nearest icecap breaks and destroys half your capitol.” Chysalis leaned in towards the goat, who had gone pale at Celestia’s threat.

“Let’s make this completely clear, okay? We don’t need your nation, and we can rebuild it if we decide we want to. You can not, and you will have nothing if we so choose. Accept my most generous offer that doesn’t involve killing you anyway for your idiocy and your family can live on in peace. From what my changelings have told me about your reign, they’d probably be happier living homeless under us than staying under you any longer.” Behind her, Celestia was counting him down on her fingers, and the sun was sliding sideways along the horizon outside the window. As she got down to one hand, he finally broke.

“Fine, fine. You win, you monster. Just don’t destroy my nation.” Celestia smiled and the sun suddenly jumped back onto its normal course while Chrysalis rubbed the goat’s head.

“There, was that so hard?” The goat growled and tried to bite her fingers, but she just flicked his nose and released him from her goo, which promptly led to him falling on his face and re-bloodying his nose from earlier. Two guards walked up at Celestia’s gesture and grabbed Clive by both arms, dragging him out of the conference room as he continued screaming obscenities at everyone in attendance. The door slammed shut behind him with a very final-sounding bang, and Chrysalis walked back to her seat with a slight smile on her face even as the other council members all watched and muttered among themselves.

“Is she even allowed to do that?”

“I mean, he did basically declare war on them.”

“Make a note to never do anything like that to Equestria.”

“Think I overdid it?” Chrysalis sat down and leaned over to Celestia with a slightly worried frown, and the sight of everyone else in the room watching her warily was not helping.

“Are you kidding? I probably would’ve just hurled him off the side of the city and called it a day. What are you planning on doing with him, anyway?” Honestly, she hadn’t actually thought that far ahead, and so she just shrugged with a slight chuckle that she immediately regretted.

“We’ll think of something, I figure.” Celestia finally followed Chrysalis’s gaze around the room at everyone else and figured out what was running through her head. She spun back around in her seat to face the table and gestured around at everyone.

“Given the way today is going, I don’t feel it would be inappropriate to move that we adjourn here and reconvene in two days time to let everyone reconsider their options now that Clive is no longer a member of the council. All in favor?” There was an immediate round of assent from all parties, and the speed at which most of the B-list monarchs packed up and got out of the room was a little astonishing. Even among the heavyweights of the world there were a few slightly worried glances from beings that were more powerful than Chrysalis herself. She had made quite an impression, it seemed, and within five minutes she and Celestia were alone in their chairs.

“Well, you’re probably never going to hear the end of this, but I don’t expect anyone is going to try to change it.” The princess kicked her shoes off and put her feet up on the table with a slight smile. “I haven’t seen them that afraid in years, not since the Nightmare incident. Negotiations are going to be super easy for the next couple decades, though. I figure I should probably thank you for that.” Chrysalis chuckled at the thought of everyone scared stiff when the meeting reconvened, but that still wasn’t addressing the biggest issue they had now.

“What do we do with Clive now? I mean, he’s probably not going to be the happiest slave. Or willing. He’ll probably try to kill us in our sleep, really.” Celestia shrugged and fiddled with the hem of her dress a little, all the while keeping a bored expression on her face.

“We can go see him in a bit, and if he is unhappy we can always toss him in the dungeon for a while. He’ll probably break easily, too. Maybe a month down there, stripped, chained, and a vibrating egg up his ass. Once he’s docile we can put him through the same school most of the serving staff goes to, with a focus on anal and oral. Sound fair?” Chrysalis honestly wasn’t particularly surprised Celestia had an entire school dedicated to what was essentially whoring, but the fact that she was being so casual about stripping a young stallion of  his rights and turning him into a completely submissive servant was a little disturbing to her. The entire idea was disturbing, really, and it took her a long moment just to process it. Clearly, it wasn’t hard to read her expressions from her face, because Celestia took one look at her and shook her head with a slight sigh.

“It’s either that or we chain him to the bed and rape him for the rest of his life. Believe me, Pyralis wouldn’t give him the chance to enjoy it, or anyone else interested in taking pets. Either we do this or we just slit his throat and break our word.” Right... Taking him as a slave was something of a position they had to honor, given the circumstances. Chrysalis didn’t really see anything for it except to deprive the poor guy of his entire life.

“Well, or we could set him up with a little two-bed suite on the edge of the grounds where I put everyone I don’t really like but can’t set loose on the world. Blueblood could use a roommate, I’m sure.” Well, um. Yeah, that would work. Chrysalis had met the pompous idiot once while she was posing as Cadance for the wedding, and for a brief moment she figured he would quickly come to prefer the ritualistic assrape over trying to share a kitchen with him. Given the smirk Celestia was wearing at thought, she was likely thinking the same thing.

“Or we could do that. Security is tight enough there to handle him, I imagine?” Celestia waved a hand dismissively and got up from her seat before offering Chrysalis a hand. She took it and rose with grace, and the pair of them made the long walk around the enormous table together towards the door.

“Of course. Blueblood doesn’t even realize he’s essentially under house arrest, and the guards are stripping Clive of anything interesting he might have on him as well as neutralizing his natural abilities.” When she saw Chrysalis’s shocked face, she quickly added, “Indefinitely but not permanently, don’t worry. We’re not in the horn and wing-cutting business here. We have a team of biomages tasked with determining any and all of his powers and placing mental blocks around them. He still has them to be reconnected, he’s just incapable of knowing how to use them until we say otherwise.” That was tough but fair in Chrysalis’s eyes, although she still considered heading down to the dungeons to make sure he was being treated properly. Then again, he was a genocidal asshole, so she wasn’t entirely sure what ‘proper’ was in his case.

At any rate, Chrysalis figured there wasn’t anything she could do for the goat, and she wasn’t particularly inclined to try, and so she stayed dutifully at Celestia’s side as they left the meeting room behind. Given the way things had gone she imagined she was going to need to learn her part a little better if she wanted to be more than set dressing and actually get something done, but part of her was telling her that she already had everyone’s respect after her little show.

“So, how about tonight, then?” She glanced over at Celestia, who was now chewing on her upper lip adorably and waggled her eyebrows at Chrysalis. The queenling smiled back and bared her fangs, looking more like a wolf than an insect.

“I’m hungry. You’re hungry?” Celestia nodded, and the princess paused a moment right there in the hallway to pull loose the large knot at the back of her neck that had been holding her dress up, and the entire garment obligingly fell to her feet. She stepped out of it and a maid scurried out of nowhere and gathered the garment up, letting Celestia walk around without such inconveniences as bending over to pick it up or carry it to the proper receptacle.

By her standards, Celestia was still surprisingly modest; she was wearing full-coverage panties made of shimmering golden silk and a matching bra, and around her supermodel stomach was an unstained white corset. She wore no stockings, and she had left her shoes in the conference room earlier. They would probably turn up the same time as her dress, given the staff. For anyone normal, walking around in public in such attire would be scandalous indeed, but Chrysalis had come to accept that in the modern Equestria panties were the new black. She had gone a long time only checking in with the changelings she had working directly for her, but now that she was connecting to the entire hive mind she could see that nearly everyone in Equestria, stallion and mare alike, had adopted Celestia’s loose fashion sense and looser inhibitions. There was a world of smut outside the door, and she didn’t even pretend to understand it. All she knew was she had a princess to satisfy, and so far that was taking all of her attention and then some.

With a smile on her face and a song in her heart Chrysalis followed after her scantily-dressed mistress up to the bedroom. After all that had happened and all that was likely to come in the future negotiations, both immortals were in dire need of some relaxation and very little rest. There would be time to sleep when they were dead, and for the moment they had something much more important on their minds. The next round of meetings wasn’t scheduled for two days, after all.
> High-Stakes Negotiation
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Hey, wake up already. C’mon sweetcheeks, the day’s a’wasting!”

Chrysalis rolled over and blearily opened her eyes, and from the huge sun mural on the ceiling glowing under its own power she could tell she was in Celestia’s bed with her. Unusually, though, she was still fully dressed in her gown from the summit, and Celestia was already up and at her desk.

“Took you long enough. Thought you were dead for a minute there.” Chrysalis sat up and scooted over to the edge of the bed before standing and popping her joints.

“Mmm... How long was I out?”

“Maybe six hours, maybe a little more. You fell asleep on my shoulder right after the meeting.” Chryssi blinked at that, a little surprised that she was even capable of such a thing. She had really let her militaristic discipline go since joining with Celestia...

“The war’s actually happening, then? That wasn’t just a dream?” Celestia chuckled, shook her head, and held out a couple papers to her. She took them and at a quick glance they looked like the total and unconditional surrender of the goats. That solved that, for sure. She sat back down on the bed and dropped the papers onto the sheets next to her, and after a moment Celestia thumped down beside her.

“Yeah, that was a little weird. Not like we couldn’t have taken him, though, not with three princesses and you. How’s the whole ‘power your entire race off of my fetishes’ thing going, anyway?”

“You have more love in you than we could’ve ever imagined, really. I haven’t had any complaints about malnourishment since we started this little thing, and I have more power in me than I can ever remember in the past. Not sure how long it’ll last if I start drawing on it, but at the moment this is even more powerful than Shining Armor’s love for Cadance.” Celestia smiled and lay down, cuddling up against the changeling.

“Care for a top-off?” She reached down and hiked up Chrysalis’s dress, and when she tugged on her panties Chrysalis squeaked in crimson-faced protest.

“Right, right. Forgot you were still wearing a thong.” Of course, that just meant that when Celestia yanked on the front of her panties again Chrysalis couldn’t help but shriek and grab Celestia’s wrist with both hands.

“Hey! Cuttit out!” While she had her mouth open, Celestia took the advantage and pressed her mouth against hers, kissing her fiercely and nearly shoving her tongue down the changeling’s throat in her lustful drive. Without conscious encouragement Chrysalis’s hands both went to the bottom of Celestia’s gown and yanked it up, dragging it up around her neck and forcing her to break the kiss as Chrysalis pulled the garment over her head and tossed it aside to lie in the corner, unnecessary for what was to come. The queen pulled her own dress off immediately after and, in the rustle of cloth and the pounding of her heart, she didn’t notice the sound of the balcony door sliding open. Celestia caught the sound, but dismissed it completely from her mind until a moment later, when a long silver knife was shoved between her wings.

“Can I help you?” Celestia disentangled herself from Chrysalis and rolled over to face her assailant, the deadly blade dragging along her flesh as she did and not leaving so much as a ruffled feather. The stallion holding the knife dropped it and turned to escape, but a gesture from Celestia slammed the door shut in his face. He wasn’t much to look at, a dark-gray unicorn with a burnt-red mane and tail dressed in all-black tactical gear. There was an insignia on his right sleeve that Chrysalis recognized as the emblem of her own guard, but from several redesigns in the past. Likely something he found in a surplus store to get past the outermost castle security. The stallion remained silent in the face of what he expected to be certain doom but met the princess’s eyes nonetheless as she stood up, towering over him with Chrysalis sitting up on the bed with a bemused smirk on her face.

“I am Janus Blackflame, Captain of Her Majesty’s Royal Army. My warmare number is-“ Celestia cut him off with a wave of her hand, and in something of a delayed reaction her bra, the strap cut by the failed assassination, slid down her arms and gave the poor colt one of the best views in the world. His eyes widened, just for a moment, before he returned to reciting his rank and number.

“No, not how this works. You are not one of my guards, and your half-assed attempt to dress up as one is frankly kind of insulting. However, as you might’ve not known, wearing that uniform without proper authorization qualifies you as a spy. As a spy caught in Equestria, your life is forfeit immediately, without trial.” Blackflame blanched and faltered, and after a moment gave it up completely.

“Very well, then. If my life is forfeit, I intend to face my demise with honor.” Celestia picked up the knife he had attacked her with and gripped it loosely in one hand, and the stallion spread his arms slightly and closed his eyes to await the death he rightfully deserved.

A moment later, he opened one eye in confusion at the sound of tearing cloth rather than his own death rattle, and he blinked several times as Celestia cut his armor and shirt right off of him. She smiled devilishly as she worked, and behind her Chrysalis had both of her eyebrows raised as well.

“What, you thought your life being forfeit meant you would die? There’s no way I would waste a nice slab of stallion by killing you off. I own you now; I have ideas that are much more fun than all of that. Lots of ideas.” With the last word she tore his belt in half with her bare hands and yanked his pants down to his ankles, and now Chrysalis was wearing an equally devious grin as she started rummaging through one of Celestia’s cabinets. A moment later she tossed the princess a locking steel collar, which she affixed around the neck of her bewildered slave and snapped into place with a very final-sounding click.

“W-what do you think you’re doing?! You’ll be crucified for this! Lord Clive will-“

“Clive is in a dungeon far below here where he will not be doing much of anything for a good long while. I’m guessing you’re his backup plan for if he didn’t call in?” Blackflame’s knees were knocking and he looked like he might have an accident by the time she was done, and both mares were fairly certain he was what they thought he was. Celestia grabbed him by the arm and casually tossed him fifteen feet onto the bed, where Chrysalis was only too happy to join him and drag him into her embrace.

“Don’t think of this as an ending, though. Think of it as a new beginning in the service of your loving princess. I did, and it worked out rather well for me.” He tried to shake himself out of her grasp, but stopped as soon as she wrapped one hand around a certain area of his boxers and gently pressed her pointed fingernails against his flesh through the thin cloth. She wasn’t actually going to do anything, not like that at least, but it was certainly enough to cut off his fight-or-flight instincts. Besides, there were parts of his mind and body that didn’t care if he was about to die. All they were interested in were the soft body he was being held against, the hand around his genitals, and the topless beauty watching him with amusement. Chrysalis chuckled as she felt him harden within his underwear, and she promptly tore the last garment protecting his modesty off and tossed it aside, ruined.

Just because Chrysalis was busy having her fun with their new pet, though, didn’t mean Celestia wasn’t going to be left out. She crawled up the bed, giving him a lovely view of her assets bobbing with each movement, and licked his lips while Chrys held him steady. He certainly seemed ready enough to accept whatever they planned on doing to him, and she slowly lowered her head, kissing down his chest and stomach until her face was resting level with his balls. Chrysalis could feel him suck in a breath as she just barely licked his shaft, and she was fairly sure he was going to explode if she didn’t stop teasing him already. Sadly, it was not to be.

“Tell me you want this.” Celestia exhaled gently onto the sensitive organ, but it seemed the assassin still had some level of pride left and refused to speak. He was not about to let his prey become his master, no matter how much of him really, really wanted her to.

“Life here will be so much better for you than it was working under Clive, you know.” Chrysalis reached up with the hand she had been gripping his crotch with and stroked his hair lazily with a smile as Celestia continued seductively whispering persuasions at him. “Every luxury you could ask, all for a life of service to two lovely ladies~” He grunted as she punctuated it with another lick, this one a little longer, and his cock throbbed for more attention. He glared at her, but it was only one more hot breath on his shaft to push him over the edge and he mumbled something out.

“What was that? I didn’t quite catch that.” He glared even harder, but this time opened his mouth properly to speak.

“Urgh... I want it...”

“Excellent.” Celestia licked him again, this time from the base to the tip, and as her tongue reached his head she opened her mouth and started to suckle at him, just the very tip of his cock. Still, just by his reaction Chrysalis could tell she knew what she was doing. He spasmed in her grasp, and his breath quickly grew into rough ragged panting despite Celestia not even moving her head, simply toying with the last quarter-inch of his cock. She slid her head down a little further every few seconds, and Blackflame’s reactions only grew more and more until she had his entire cock in her mouth and he was too out of it to notice Chrysalis had stopped holding him in place and was now fingering herself to the sight.

Celestia still didn’t start working him like he probably would’ve liked, but Chrysalis doubted he had the presence of mind to really care. His breath was coming in ragged gasps when she allowed him to have one at all, and while he was only in that state for maybe ten or twenty seconds it doubtlessly felt like an eternity to the lucky colt. Soon enough, though, Celestia pushed him over the edge into a full climax, and she swallowed every last drop like it was the sweetest wine. Once he was well and truly done she pulled her mouth off of him, keeping suction until the last second when she broke contact with a soft ‘pop’ and sat back to look at him, sweating and panting as he rested his head between Chrysalis’s mounds.

“So, what do you think? Want to be our new toy?” Chrysalis probably would’ve been more jealous, but seeing as Celestia was giving her equal billing as herself she couldn’t exactly complain. Blackflame nodded immediately, his cock still twitching as it half-softened. Of course, it didn’t seem like he would be getting off so soon. Celestia glanced up with Chrysalis, and the changeling couldn’t help but be a little afraid of what her mistress had planned for them.

“You’re still basically an anal virgin, aren’t you?” Gulp. “Why not let Janus here have a little fun with you now that I’ve got mine?” Chrysalis hadn’t been expecting this, but much as neither of them acted like it she did work for Celestia. She pulled herself out from behind Blackflame and was a little uncertain as to how  to proceed, but of course the princess was right there to help her along. She pulled her half off of the bed and Janus, eager as any stallion to have a little funtime with a demigod, gripped her thong and pulled it down off of her before lining his cock up with her coal-black cheeks. Celestia helpfully kicked Chrysalis’s legs apart to keep her open as well as prevent her from putting any of her weight on them, while the former assassin hardened up.

“You’re sure this is going to be fine?” Chrysalis was now more than a little worried, but Celestia patted her head condescendingly with a slight smile. Naturally, this did nothing to improve her mood, but it did distract her slightly when Blackflame shoved his cock without any fanfare into her asshole. As an immortal, Chrysalis was effectively immune to just about all physical attack, and her natural adaptive abilities as a changeling helped shore up what minor weaknesses she did have. Any mortal would’ve had their flesh torn by Blackflame’s un-lubed cock, but when hers wouldn’t break under any stress it was one of the strangest feelings Chrysalis had ever experienced. She squeezed down on him nearly tight enough to cut off blood flow, which meant that his continued thrusting was forcing her tense muscle into positions it was never naturally meant to experience. Again, normally painful, but as he worked her over Chrysalis couldn’t help but enjoy it immensely.

“Urgh... Whatever you do, don’t stop!” It was her turn to start panting as he bore down on her, pistoning into her as fast as he could, each tiny variation in the surface of his penis catching on her sphincter and yanking it out of place  before letting it pop back to where it was supposed to be. She didn’t need Celestia’s assistance in presenting herself to him now, and she was honestly wondering why she had never done more of this in all her centuries of life. Hanging around with ponies instead of trying to enslave them was doing wonders for her worldview, it seemed.

As Blackflame worked she could feel a wetness spreading down her legs, and a moment later she could feel Celestia’s coarse tongue get to work fixing that. Between the princess lapping at her folds and the rod buried in her tush Chrys was giving Celestia all the liquid she would need all day, and within minutes she clenched down on both intrusions and sprayed over her face with an ecstatic cry. That proved to be too much stimulation for Blackflame as well, and he shot his load deep into her with his hips pressed against her beautiful ass. They stayed like that for a long moment, her chest resting on the bed and him bent over her with his groin carnally attached to her before he dragged it out, still dry where he wasn’t wet with his own seed. Chrysalis rolled over and lay on the bed, panting and smiling like a total idiot.

“Yeah, we’re totally keeping him. That was... Yeah.” Celestia hopped up onto the bed to snuggle with her, and a moment later Blackflame joined the pair of them in a little love pile.

“Well, maybe not all the time. We can get him a position on the staff as something he might enjoy. Maybe as a fixture in the mares’ shower in the guard barracks.” He chuckled at the idea, but certainly didn’t like the thought of dozens of fit, horny warmares working his cock every day. This whole suicide mission seemed to be turning out quite well for him after all.

“Yeah, he’d probably enjoy that. You said we had work to do earlier?” Chrysalis nuzzled Celestia, who paused for a moment before her eyes lit up in realization.

“Right! Right, working. Given their proximity to the goat kingdom, I wanted your help putting together a more comprehensive guard for the Crystal Empire. Just a crew to help with the leadership transition, you know the deal. Cadance and Shining will be going up next week with a brigade they can quarter there indefinitely, but we’ll need something for right now to keep the populace calm. You have any of yours in the area that you can reach?” Celestia sat up and walked back over to her desk, before turning and tossing a leash at the pair still lying on the bed.

“C’mon, get that on him. We can run him down to the barracks and install him, then we can get to doing what we need to.” Chrysalis locked the end of the rope around Blackflame’s collar and the stallion stood up with her, staying close at their sides as the trio headed out of the bedroom at last.

All things considered, for Blackflame this seemed like an excellent start to the day.

> Code: Lavender
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Remind me again, why are we doing this?" Chrysalis sat across from Celestia in one of the less ostentatious meeting rooms in the castle, the one bored and annoyed while the other had her feet kicked up on the oak table and was playing with her perfectly-manicured fingernails.

"Chryssi, my dear, I really would rather not find out what Twilight thinks of you living here in the castle as nearly my equal if we don't tell her up-front. The darling is quite brilliant, but sometimes she can fly off the handle quite spectacularly and do something rash without all the facts. I just want her to come meet you, the new you, while I'm here to prevent such an event from taking place when she inevitably stumbles across you in the castle." Chrysalis rolled her eyes and crossed her arms, glaring at Celestia like a rather slow child.

"You do remember that we were both at the grand summit together, right? I can't imagine she didn't notice the spectacle I caused."

"You haven't known Twilight for as long as I have, and I don't fault you for underestimating her skill with tunnel vision. She has a rather stunning ability to focus so hard on her work that she completely blocks out everything around her, and she was quite surprised when I told her about Clive's little outburst at all." Well, from what Chrysalis had seen of the lavender unicorn, she had been the most focused character at the table, and thinking back she honestly wasn't that surprised to find out that she had been too busy working on her spreadsheet to notice a major war being narrowly avoided ten feet away.

"I suppose that seems reasonable. Still, I've danced that dance with your student in the past, and I could handle whatever she had. It was that abominable niece of yours that gave me actual problems. I still don't see that this meeting is all that necessary." Celestia scowled slightly at the slur against Cadance but didn't make a fight of it; she understood Chrysalis was still adjusting to life as one of the good guys, and she was willing to give her her space as long as she was still playing nice.

"I know we can subdue her, but I would rather not have to replace half the castle after her little panic attack. It was hard enough rebuilding Ponyville last time something like this wasn't handled properly." Well, that seemed like a fair point, at any rate, or at least it seemed pragmatic enough to sound like the Celestia Chrysalis knew was hiding under the omnisexual maniac's skin. While dealing with the fallout from Clive's capture, Chrysalis had come to understand that the chessmaster that had beaten the queenling in multiple battles before was no less sharp for her current lavish lifestyle. Much the opposite, even; life in the castle had honed Celestia's political wit to all-time heights, and Chrysalis had no doubt that even if she were to return to evil and go against her, she might win the battle but Celestia would definitely win the war. It would certainly be a feat to surprise her with anything.

"Anyway, my darling queen, I believe we have more interesting things to talk about." Celestia put her golden shoes back down on the floor and leaned forward on the table, resting her head on her hands and peering intently at Chrysalis.

"There are many things I've wondered about you for quite some time, and I'm hoping now you might be a little more forthcoming about a few of the answers. That gel you use, for example. I know you seem to be able to produce it naturally, or conjure it, but I've never been able to figure out just how it works. I don't suppose you could explain to a bored lover?" Chrysalis blinked and shrugged, somewhat at a loss for words. Not because she didn't want to tell Celestia, more that she honestly wasn't sure what to say. She raised a hand and with the slightest effort of will tiny channels of green liquid began to run down from her fingertips and drip along her arm.

"Never really did know a whole lot about it myself; it's something of a species thing, I know that much for sure. Beyond that I've tried studying it, but it seems to absorb magic and once it hardens I can only get rid of it by naturally absorbing it. Enough magic from an outside source can vaporize it completely, but if it gets around your horn, as you might know, it shuts you down hard." She couldn't help but smirk at the thought of Celestia, gelled completely up and hanging from the ceiling. Good times. "I mean, you've got a fresh set of eyes, you can take a look at it. Here, hold still." She extended a hand and shot a band of it at the princess, letting it stick to the back of her hand for easier examination than just sticking it awkwardly to the table.

Twilight pushed the door open just then, and it wasn't hard to see where it all went wrong. Celestia had invited her in to talk about a matter of national security, and when she arrived Chrysalis was standing across the table from her, already apparently halfway through gumming the princess up in one of her signature slime cocoons. The confusion and terror on her face was more than obvious to Chrysalis, and when she tried to raise her hands to placate the mare she only succeeded in accidentally covering Celestia's entire head in goo. Celestia clawed at her face, thankfully still able to breathe through the goo, and Twilight was quite certain she'd seen more than enough.

Before Chrysalis could do any more damage she found herself on the bad end of a magenta bolt of raw energy, the impact of which hurled her off her feet and into the far wall. by the time she regained her bearings Twilight was long gone and the gel had worked its narcotic power on Celestia, leaving her dazed and disoriented even after Chrysalis pulled it off of her. She wouldn't be any help for an hour or two, and Chrysalis had a sneaking suspicion Twilight would be able to do more than enough damage in that time.

The Queenling's fears proved well-founded as, not more than a minute after she had run out of the room searching for the unicorn Chrysalis heard the emergency alarms going off around the castle and city that signalled the beginning of Canterlot's evacuation and the Royal Guard's call to battle. Chrysalis knew the guards posed no threat to her, but in deference to Celestia's affection for them she was rather disinclined to maim and kill them by the squadron as she had done in the years before taking up the guise of Princess Cadance.

Thankfully, though, it seemed things wouldn't have to come to that. Around the castle her employment hadn't exactly been any sort of secret, and when the first group of guards came around the corner with swords at the ready they ran right past her in search of some ancient evil that wasn't on the payroll. In fact, Chrysalis was amazed at how few second glances she got from the staff and guards alike. It seemed word traveled quickly in the barracks.

Ultimately, though, it seemed the karma Chrysalis had built up had run out when she came into the grand foyer of the castle and found several dozen of the oldest and most experienced guards set up in a defensive line around the doors while the staff made their exit. At the front of the group was miss Sparkle herself, along with the grizzled old Pegasus that had taken Shining Armor's role as Captain of the Guard when he and Cadance had run off to the far north. Thankfully, he and Chrysalis had met a few times in the past, and he relaxed visibly when he saw her even as Twilight tensed for a fight.

"At ease, lads, it looks like the cavalry's arrived. Good day, your majesty." He stepped forward and smartly saluted her with his sword, and behind him Twilight looked like she was about to have an aneurysm.

"Wha- no, you're working for her?! No... She's replaced you all, hasn't she? You're all changelings!" Even as the Captain turned to her in confusion Twilight was preparing a spell, and from her place on the stairs Chrysalis was only able to protect the stallion by throwing her own body into the path of Twilight's attack. It stung, to say the least, and the bolt utterly ruined her favorite dress, but as the light cleared from Twilight's eyes Chrysalis loomed over her, essentially none the worse for wear. At this point the queenling felt quite justified in being annoyed with Celestia's trigger-happy protégé, but before she could coat her in gel and carry her off to the dungeon to calm down the mare's horn sparked to life once more and in a blinding flash she vanished and reappeared on the balcony high above. She turned and ran back into the depths of the castle, and Chrysalis couldn't help but mutter some very un-queenly things as she spread her wings and flew after her.

By the time she caught back up with Twilight, Chrysalis had to admit she was impressed with the unicorn's speed. She had half-run, half-teleported around the entire palace, always just a few steps ahead of Chrysalis, but now their race was over. The queen stood at one end of the hallway and Twilight stood at the other, the doors to the vault where the Elements of Harmony were kept looming large behind her. Sure, Celestia trusted Chrysalis, but even that had its limits and that meant her magical signature hadn't been attuned to the wards around this particular tower. She didn't need a key, though, to understand there was the energy of a small star built up in this particular lock, which made her just a little nervous when her arcane senses picked up on the enormous ball of destructive power Twilight was drawing together in her horn. Something was telling her the key to this particular lock wasn't a crate of psychic dynamite.

"Twilight Sparkle! Please, don't do this!" Twilight paused in her incantation and slowly turned around, and Chrysalis took half a step back when she saw the half-insane rage in Twilight’s eyes.

“You want me to stop? You want me to not hurt you? Well, what do you fucking think Princess Celestia wanted when you attacked her?!” The power around Twilight started to build again, faster now as it was fueled by her righteous fury.

“Twilight, I never intended any harm to come to your teacher! What happened today was an accident!” Even as she tried to talk her down Chrysalis began building her own power into the best shield she could come up with. She wasn’t a mage on par with the Princesses, but the years of staying alive had taught her a trick or two. Besides, it wasn’t like she was exactly spoiled for options at the moment. Her goo wouldn’t get anywhere near the mare with the amount of power she was holding, and she wasn’t about to rush her for fear of her blowing the spell early. Predicaments like this were why she much preferred to hide in the shadows and only reveal herself when she had already won.

“Miss Sparkle, if you destroy that door then we all burn no matter what! I know you know there’s enough power in those wards to blow half the mountain into ash, and the city evacuation would take another hour at best!” Chrysalis steeled herself for what was to come. If nothing else, she would at least be able to contain the blast to the castle. The princesses might survive, particularly since Luna hadn’t put in an appearance yet and was still more than likely at full power, but it looked like this was the final chapter for the Changeling queen. Not a bad way to go, all things considered.

“Enough lies, monster! I’m going to get the Elements and send you back to Tartarus where you belong!” Chrysalis put up the best shield she could muster around the castle and closed her eyes as Twilight drew the spell to the tip of her horn and fiired a blindingly white lance of energy at the vault door.

After several seconds of waiting she blinked her eyes open, confused to why she hadn’t been atomized in the arcane inferno. The color had totally washed out of the hallway, leaving the entire place silent and still as a tomb. The stained glass windows had all turned grayscale, as well as the grand golden door set with enormous gems that was the target of Twilight’s fury. The mare herself looked like she had been turned to stone by the same effect, and her bolt of power somehow stopped dead several feet from the door.

“Huh, didn’t think anypony else could resist my power. You must really be as strong as Celestia said.” Chrysalis whirled around and came face-to-face with two mares in full royal armor, both quite conspicuous in that they were the only colored things in a washed-out world. Princess Luna she knew on sight, but she had never met the batpony guard at her side. Of course, it wasn’t hard to see why. The mare was easily six inches taller than the princess, and a cursory glance at her with her arcane senses nearly knocked the queenling off her feet. Princess Luna looked like the same magical supernova as her sister, and Chrysalis had been expecting that, but this new mare had a power well as strong as Chryssi herself, and between the three of them plus Twilight the magical buildup in the room was almost tangible.

“So, I don’t think we’ve ever been formally introduced. I am Dutchess High Orbit the Third, queen of the Nosferatu, Mistress of Time, and Lunar Consort.” She smiled and extended a hand to shake but pulled it back when a bit of color seeped back into the world and the magic missile jerked forward a few feet before she could get it under control again. Luna walked up to it and her horn sparked to life as she extended a hand into the energy field. When she drew it back after a fraction of a second, her gauntlet was sizzling hot, and she quirked both eyebrows at the frozen Twilight.

“Hm... I must say, my sister’s student is far more powerful than we had expected. Still, it wouldn’t do to let her think she’s on our level just yet.” The princess walked around in between the vault and Twilight’s spell, and when Orbit lowered her hands and colored flooded back into the world she met the spell head-on. As the explosive light faded Twilight stared in bewildered shock at the princess that had seemingly appeared out of nowhere and taken the full brunt of her spell without flinching even as her armor was obliterated along with everything else she was wearing. Now she had Luna in front of her and Chrysalis behind her, and the mare’s ears lay flat back against her head as the princess approached her.

“Twilight Sparkle. We are going to need to have a very long talk in my private chambers.”

“Eep.”

==========

Two hours later, Chrysalis sat down at Celestia’s bedside in the castle’s infirmary with a pot of tea and two cups. Life in Canterlot had returned to normal shockingly quickly after the All Clear had been sounded, and the castle itself was fully operating again within an hour. They must have some seriously effective drills, Chrysalis mused, or maybe national calamity was just that routine in Equestria. Either way, all had returned to normal aside from the princess on bed rest.

“I keep telling them I feel fine, but apparently the doctors think there might be lingering effects of getting a load of Changeling goo in the face. Oh, thank you.” Celestia poured herself a cup and Chrysalis rolled her eyes at the crude innuendo, and she was pretty sure the effects actually had worn off and Celestia was just taking advantage of the moment when she wasn’t expected to act like a proper goddess. It wasn’t like she ever really did anyway, but it’s the thought that counts.

“I’m guessing they don’t want you studying it without adult supervision anymore?” Now it was Celestia’s turn to roll her eyes in return, even if she did nod a little sheepishly.

“Apparently doing it myself is an ‘unacceptable risk to my health and safety,’” Celestia said while making air quotes with her fingers. “Please, it’s not as if I haven’t taken on dragons in the heart of a volcano before, to say nothing of you completely encasing me in goo in the past. Lab testing is just too dangerous, I suppose.”

“Well, you could always just make it a research project for your number one student.” Chrysalis paused and glanced around, only just now noticing the conspicuous absence. “Where is Twilight, anyway? I’d have thought she would be waiting on your every whim while you’re in sickbay.” Celestia grimaced slightly and shrugged, glancing out the window as she did towards one of the castle towers.

“My sister and her favored pet have decided to handle her discipline themselves, even though I don’t exactly approve of Luna’s methods.” Even as she said it, though, she couldn’t help keep a wistful smirk from crossing the corners of her eyes. “They certainly are memorable, though. I doubt the poor darling will be able to sit for a week.” It took Chrysalis a moment to figure out what Celestia was saying, but when she got it her wings fluttered out and her jet-black carapace turned magenta in an instant. Celestia giggled at her utterly adorable reaction and leaned over to kiss her nose while her defenses were down.

“Don’t worry, I don’t plan on replacing you. After all, I’ve been wanting to see how that ridged horn feels ever since the first time I let you capture me. You have no idea how disappointed I was when you didn’t collar me and take me as a trophy of war.” She waggled her eyebrows and licked the queenling’s cheek, eliciting a fresh burst of crimson across Chrysalis’ face. “I wouldn’t have even fought back that hard.”

“Down, girl! Even with Equestria how it is I’m reasonably certain the doctor doesn’t want you jumping me in the middle of his medical wing.” Celestia nodded with a scowl as she looked back out the window, now not happy at all even as she sipped her tea.

“Indeed, and he wants me coming in for checks and I have to sleep here until he’s satisfied. Don’t worry, though, I’ve set you up with a bed downstairs in the royal harem chambers so you don’t get lonely in the meantime.”

“Hang on, you have an entire harem and you never told me?!” Chrysalis went from somber to indignant in an instant, already wondering just how many ponies Celestia had been sleeping with while letting her think she was special.

“Chryssi, calm down. You’ve been living here for what, a month? Do you really think I let all of this,” she gestured to herself in a slow, seductive motion, “go untapped until you turned up in my dungeon?” Chrysalis had to admit she hadn’t really thought of it like that, and gave a noncommittal shrug to that effect. “Besides, they do much more than just amuse me. I’ll have one of my best mares explain things to you. I think you’ll get along; I’m told she’s considered the greatest whore in the world.”

For reasons she couldn’t explain, Chrysalis suddenly felt a chill run down her spine.