Queen Chrysalis' Foundation for Volunteer Incubators

“I am continuing to make preparations for the inevitable hatching. My question as to whether I can just try laying it out first still hasn’t been answered. I would much rather squeeze an egg out than have a larvae crawling out of its own accord.” Twilight’s voice grew weary by the second as she dictated to the magic quill writing out her progress report. For the sake of clinging to what little self-respect she had left, every report went into a deep dark box instead of to Celestia.

Another tiny drop of wax rolled out of the candle caldera, sliding down the side until it hardened into a thin streak on its side. By then, the candle was covered in wax streaks.

She’d been sitting there at the table for several hours, more often than not pondering in silence as to what she could possibly dictate. In the end, she just mumbled out whatever coherent crap that came to mind. Her face landed on the desk before her with a soft thud, soon followed by a groan. As if to make it just that much worse, she now felt hungry as well.

“Spike, I don’t suppose we have any oatmeal shakes left? I know I’ve been going through them like Pinkie Pie in Dessertland…” Most of what she said came out in a mumbled noise, half of her mouth pressed into the wood while the other half flapped about aimlessly. The odd feeling in her lower regions continued to grow. As she peeled her face away from the table, it occurred to her that it wasn’t the sensation of hunger she was feeling. More importantly, it wasn’t focused in her stomach.

“Spike?” Silence. The feeling began to turn into pain. She poked at her thigh. “On second thought…” Upon trying to stand up, she nearly slammed her jaw into the desk as a jolt of pain went through her right leg. “Spike! For goodness sake answer me!” Having one leg in aching pain meant she had to hobble her way towards the stairs. Already, she was starting to feel the pain spreading throughout her entire hindquarters.

Spike had a bowl of batter in his paws, which he was scooping into his mouth with the cooking spoon. Twilight’s yelling had only just caught his attention. “Geez, you soundproofed the whole library remember? You could have just poked your head downstairs and-” Twilight slid down the stairs very roughly. She came to a jerking stop at the base, her head shaking violently while her legs kicked around. Bright green veins had formed through her cutie mark and lower belly.

For one of the longest seconds of his life, he stood there in complete shock at the sight in front of him. He reached out a single claw towards one of the veins. Just before touching it, he stepped back again.

“Uh… Princess Celestia, she’ll know what to do.” He began hurrying to the quill and paper he kept nearby. “Oh, right. She’s asleep. Luna will know...” He took another few steps, hesitating again. “She doesn’t even know this is going on to begin with.” A cold feeling formed inside as he realized the only remaining option he had. One he hadn’t expected to even consider. “Queen Chrysalis…”

The thudding of Twilight’s head against the wood was the constant sound that accompanied his frenzied scrawling on the paper. He didn’t even bother rolling it up into a scroll, coating the entire piece in fire as soon as he was done. It fizzled away into neon green. All he could do for the time being was continue to watch as whatever was happening to Twilight continued to happen.

Not even half a minute passed before a bright flash of green light came from behind Spike. Before he could turn, Chrysalis rushed past him to Twilight’s side.

“By the matriarch… Did she eat, drink or touch anything at all?” She turned back to Spike frantically. “Forget whatever reservations you may have, I need to know now!”

“No, not that I know of. She sat up there for the entire afternoon, told me not to go up there until she was done.” He remained silent while Chrysalis carried Twilight over to a lounge she produced from magic. “Is there anything at all I can do to help?”

The Queen looked back at him, filled with confusion and anger. She put it aside for Twilight’s sake. “I need as much Winter’s Kiss as you can gather. What I’m going to do will make her heart explode if she isn’t given a very powerful sedative. If you see the zebra, bring her as well. Oh, and don’t sniff the flowers.”

Spike hurried off as best as he could on tiny legs. The soft patter of his steps soon faded into the dark night.

She closed the door behind him. Now that he wasn’t around, she had a chance to move Twilight’s tail aside to look at the source of her ailment. Every second made her heart race a little more as she magically probed for any sign that the egg inside her was still alive. Not sensing anything, she leaned in just as a small trail of changeling blood began to drip from the vulva. Her eyes widened as the distinct smell entered her nose. “No…”

Her patience ran out. “Twilight, wake up!” She shook Twilight’s shoulders firmly to rouse her. “The egg is dying somehow, I don’t have a clue as to why, since it has never happened before. I can try and save it, but I need your help, otherwise the spell will almost certainly kill you.”

Twilight could do little apart from continue to moan in pain. A few sparks of purple fizzled out of the tip of her horn, nothing more.

“Alright. I just hope Spike will be back in the next minute.” Chrysalis closed her eyes as she rested the tip of her horn onto Twilight’s lower belly. She moved the tail back into a covering position with her hoof in the meantime, keeping her horn focused on building up the spell. “Maybe she was trying to lay the egg and it went wrong. I should’ve made the time to help her...”

She was about to use the spell when Spike burst in again. His arms were filled with frost coated lilies. The air around them turned to mist just from their presence. He was quite clearly chilled by their extreme cold.

“Dragons don’t like cold… much.” He shuffled over and dropped the flowers into a pile next to them. Once relieved of the stinging cold, he recovered quickly. “I’ll go find Zecora then. Girl stuff I’m not supposed to see and whatnot.”

Chrysalis turned back to Twilight as soon as the door closed. Her horn was still charged. “Alright. This is going to hurt no matter what I do.” A small portion of her magic concentration lifted one of the flowers above Twilight’s nose. The rest began to flow into the tip of her horn. A tiny drop of green liquid began to form. As it grew, she lowered it closer to Twilight’s coat. “Here goes.” The liquid flowed around the tip of her horn and hardened into a shiny cap. Magical energy began to radiate from it.

Her eyes closed as she leaned in, touching the green tip through the soft layer of fur to her skin. A gasp from Twilight caused Chrysalis to hesitate for just a moment. She took the moment to breathe, then plunged her horn in.

The soundproofing proved its worth at that moment.

There was no physical wound. The liquefied changeling magic that capped her horn allowed her to part Twilight’s flesh without actually cutting her open. It didn’t make the process any less painful however. And she couldn’t apply the whiff of Winter’s Kiss until the spell itself was activated. Twilight was paralyzed by that point, her weak screams eating away at the changeling’s concentration.

Just a little deeper, and this will be over... She reached the outer surface of the womb. Pausing for just a second, she shook the flower once.

Twilight calmed down upon inhaling the first whiff of icy pollen that passed her nose. Gasps of pain faded into barely audible inhalation. The changeling blood leaking into her body slowed in its advance.

“Okay, nothing to it… Spell that’s probably never been done before, but alicorns are pretty tough.” A layer of fiery green magic began spreading out from the base of her horn. The green glow on Twilight’s belly grew brighter as it approached. Every slowing beat of her heart reverberated through her body into the tip of the horn buried inside her.

In the moment before the spell found its mark, she braced herself for the inevitable energy release. She hadn’t really considered the effects it would have on herself until that moment. In fact, she hadn’t thought about anything but saving Twilight from the moment Spike’s message came through.

The spell entered Twilight at that moment. For the briefest of seconds, nothing happened. In the next instant, Chrysalis was rocketed into the opposite wall, Twilight giving a very loud cry as her barely beating heart was jolted hard by the spell.

Almost an hour passed before Spike burst in, Zecora right behind him with several different remedies in tow. Both moved right to Twilight’s side, leaving Chrysalis in her dazed state. As it happened, Spike was too worried to say anything. Zecora on the other hand was far more controlled in her response…

“This foul sickness that has consumed her body, clearly the work that has been done is utterly shoddy.” She immediately began applying a green paste to Twilight’s belly. A red liquid that vaporized on contact with the paste followed.

Chrysalis watched them through her eyelids. She was still drained from the spell, but not unable to defend herself if Zecora decided to become a changeling hunter on a whim. It was a chance to recover at the very least.

Spike’s voice broke her brief moment of silence.

“Uh… what about Fluttershy?”

The deepest of chasms opened up inside to swallow her shrinking heart. Each beat slowed, her mind reaching a standstill as the full force of what he had reminded her of came to bear.

In a movement so quick that normal ponies couldn’t possibly match with their heavier bodies, she went from a slumped position to dashing out through the door before Spike had time to turn around.

It was very dark outside, and normally she wouldn’t be using her dwindling magic to speed her towards the cottage under such treacherous circumstances. Whether she wanted to admit it or not, she was foregoing all common sense on the growing fear of what would be waiting for her at the end.

No light was visible through the curtains of the cottage. If Fluttershy had passed out before lighting the candles, her condition would have certainly been far worse. Her speed gave out as she reached the path up to the front door. Winded, she struggled towards it with aching steps.

“Fluttershy?” She pushed the door open weakly. Not a single living being stirred. Angel was in Canterlot with Rarity and the other pets for some sort of show, and Pierinae had gone to Manehattan for a spa treatment where no-one knew she was a changeling princess. Fluttershy was alone for the entire week.

Chrysalis smacked into the wall next to the stairs. Her heavy breathing was the only sound to fill the entire place. If Fluttershy had been on the way to visit her forest friends when she had been struck down, there was very little hope of finding her alone. Much as the thought made her feel cold, summoning the help of the Princesses was quickly becoming her only option.

A sick gurgle came as she pushed herself up onto her hooves again. “They’ll probably rip the hive out themselves for this…” She closed her eyes to send a message out when a low moan grabbed her attention. It had come from the kitchen.

Stumbling in the general direction of the kitchen, she leaned against the doorway to steady herself as she looked for a candle to light. One was smouldering away next to a half-prepared sandwich. Acting on that hint, she focused on the floor just beneath it. In a mass of green veins was Fluttershy’s limp body. A pool of changeling blood and dead larvae lay just behind her.

She couldn’t tell if Fluttershy was even breathing. And she was so weak herself at that point that trying any sort of spell would certainly fail. The only thing left to try was non-magical revival. As she leaned in to begin pressing her chest, the smell of blood made her recoil for a moment. It suddenly hit her that there was another smell mixed in. A very distinctive odour, one that she hadn’t encountered for over a hundred years…

Matriarch venom.