Author's Note

Some quick notes, I changed the transition time of "newborn" changelings from fourteen months to fourteen days (and yes the chapter was edited for that change for those you who read the prior chapter before that change), two this chapter is more of the new Chrysalis getting reacquainted with everyone so the sex-related scenes are intentionally short (part of that this is her explaining a few things, so more world and character building from me in regards to Chrysalis).

Also, I think this video could either be Chrysalis's personal theme

One more thing, DEAR MOTHER OF EQUESTRIA THIS IS THE LONGEST CHAPTER I WROTE TO DATE, WHAT IS WRONG ME?

After this chapter will be another three or so chapters before wrap up.

Give your thoughts as always, and if you have any suggestions for potential stuff in the future PM. As I said from the beginning this story is intended to be short. So that's why it might feel a little rushed in a few places.

Mares...Go figure

Chrysalis couldn't believe it, for the past five hours she had been standing and posing for Rarity as the white mare took her measurements while yammering on her body's natural aesthetics...FIVE HOURS of time alone with Rarity, and thanks to said white mare's chatty disposition while taking Chrysalis's measurements, and jotting them down on parchments attached to her clipboard, the now violet changeling mare couldn't even retreat into her memory of her first time with Spike or a daydream of a random sexual scenario with the male dragon.

Finally, Chrysalis decided that she had been patient long enough, at this point she couldn't actually make out what Rarity was saying, her efforts to tune out the mare had resulted in hearing sounds that were just short of being words. “Rarity,” said Chrysalis with an air of authority, “I know you're excited about examining my...features, but to be honest I stopped listening to you hours ago since to me it sounded more like you were talking to yourself more than me. It's been five hours, or at least it feels like it has been.”

“Oh, dreadfully sorry, darling,” said Rarity, “it's just with your natural ability to change your physical properties I was thinking how much of a wonderful asset you could be to the fashion industry, you could act as a body double for any mare who just doesn't have the time to get fitted for a new outfit, or maybe even show clients a look of what the outfit they want would look on them before buying it.”

“You do realize that to most of Equestria I'm still seen as a major criminal, right?”

“Oh posh darling, A little public announcement from Celestia and a few weeks of the news circulating through all the right papers and ponies on how much you changed will bring that to the point of a nonissue, especially when we share who your special somepony is.”

“Or make it loads worse,” said Chrysalis, “if it means Spike has to be hassled by all the wrong sorts then I say don't tell them about our private standing with each other.”

“Darling you've changed, in more ways than one. Most ponies think of changelings as the black bug-like creatures from twelve years ago, not some dragon-like creature.”

“What have you been told about my family?”

“Only that they're brutish and don't have the personalities to backup their physical charm. You on the other hand, my dear are much more cooperative and have the kind of personality that does backup your physical charm.”

“Why thank you, the letter Twilight sent mentioned Rainbow Dash would be in your trio, not Fluttershy, care to explain that one?”

“Um yes, when Twilight said that I would definitely need to see you, seeing as you literally are lacking a wardrobe, she asked for volunteers to accompany me. Pinkie and Rainbow were the fasted to volunteer, all the girls did actually. Twilight decided that Pinkie and Rainbow would accompany me on account they didn't have any prior obligations at the time and could move the fastest with me. However while she was getting ready Rainbow got a note from the Wonderbolts saying she was needed for an upcoming show, so she had to fly to Cloudsdale for practice. Fluttershy still has a bit of an open schedule, and also was concerned about any animals in the area of this tunnel network doing something they shouldn't.”

“Oh, did she tell all the animals to give the colony entrance a wide berth?”

“More or less, yes. Oh, and once you have your new attire all ready to go Twilight wants you to visit her, something about sharing notes.”

“I'd rather play a nice game of chess, it's been ages since I properly played anypony.”

“Really, I expected you to like some brutish sport like wrestling. I meant no offense darling, but last time we saw you was your attempt to claim Canterlot for your hive.”

“Yes, well it was mostly an act, and an improvised one at that, I was doing more as a means of getting my family to ease off of my hive more than anything else.”

“Why is that?”

“They said they would purge my hive if I didn't at least do some kind of conquest, the thing is when your mom is the biggest big shot among the changelings you can't just make a play on a small town that almost nopony knows about. Nope, you gotta go grand, and before my ploy no Changeling queen had dared attack anywhere in Equestria, I had to make it the grandest assault possible, so naturally Canterlot won the invasion list. However not everything goes to plan, my play at pretending to be Mi Amore Cadenza was completely unplanned, in fact, the wedding hadn't even been factored into my original invasion plan. To make matters worse my information team bumbled multiple times. The fact that Cadenza prefers to be called Cadance was only half-substantiated, her special greeting with Twilight was completely ignored, and I had to resort to a mind manipulation spell my mother taught forever ago to keep Shining Armor from spilling the beans. I would have preferred to avoid all of that, the wedding was fortuitous for me, having being told about it only a couple years in advance, but I had been planning my original invasion for nearly twenty years, I had planned to make the actual invasion happen just a few months after the wedding, but my hive had already told my mother so we had to rush it with a modified version of the plan I had been carefully cultivating. However some of my hive fumbled it a bit and at least one was spotted by ponies when they were out of disguise, which put the whole city on lock down with the bulk of my hive outside the city.”

“But you still planned to invade Canterlot for your hive.”

“We were only going to occupy the city for few weeks, scare up a few ponies, maybe trick a few into giving us sizable donations from their personal accounts, say thanks for being good sports to the princesses and leave. We'd have it under our belts that we took Equestria's capital when no other hive had and call it a win, mostly because it would get all the other hives to back off. After all, there's nothing more humiliating to a changeling than being shown what they thought was useless was in fact, a pivotal piece in a victory.”

“Useless? Darling, you are too hard on yourself and your hive.”

“No, I was the soft one, every member of my hive was composed of children my siblings cast aside. They called me the 'defective queen' and many more unsavory things,” her hand went to her abdomen, “all because I was born with the inability to build a hive without a mate.”

“They're mothers, and they're ruthless? Wait, did you say without a mate?”

Chrysalis nodded, “Yes, normally a changeling queen can produce offspring without the aid of a mate, they usually just choose a mate that has properties they want to 'add' to their hive and have intercourse long enough for a first pregnancy and leave their 'mate' behind with no further thoughts on the matter. Every other hive has its core members composed of the children of the queen that founded the hive, she is literally the hive's mother,” she gave a dejected look at Rarity before rubbing her abdomen again, “they see their children as expendable game pieces, I never saw my hive that way. I never got the chance to be a mother before now, I can feel the beginnings of my new hive developing within me. In a few years this place will be swarming with my offspring, and hopefully, we'll have good relations with Equestria by the time the first brood matures enough to leave the forest.”

Rarity smiled and said, “They probably will before your foals arrive.”

“Oh, no, Changelings are born as larva. You see we're first born in bulbous translucent eggs that we call 'egg sacks' and after those are laid it takes a few more months for them to emerge. Once my egg sacks reach a certain point in their development I'll go to the egg chamber and lay them, then position them so they are out of immediate harm's way, of course, I have to make sure the angle is right so the little darlings don't hurt themselves when they hatch.”

Rarity blinked a few times before carefully saying, “Well, I suppose pregnancy wear will still be a good idea.”

“I know it might feel awkward for you, but for me, it's something natural. My little darlings will be born with my properties and their father's, it's funny how things turn out. You see, according to our history the earliest history changeling queens would keep their mates closer, but sometime between then and now the changelings chose to abandon having mates around for just finding something that would amount as a sperm donor and call it a day. I don't know if we've always been so ruthless, reckless and callous, but something my mother did when she modified my development made me caring, cautious and trusting. The persona I played back during the Canterlot invasion was just a ruse, an attempt to make my hive seem like it was like the others. I knew that my hive had a lot of faults, but I put my faith in that hive and told them no matter what I trusted them to follow my lead and watch my back. I didn't think of them any as friends, but I did see them as the kind of family I could put my trust in, and they usually rewarded my trust by going above and beyond what I asked of them. That fight you had in Canterlot with my swarm was actually one of my alternatives, I never intended to execute the swarm contingency in the first place.”

“Well, you did an excellent job of hiding it.”

“I was always the smartest one, every game that involved using my head I came out on top. Chess was always my favorite, I could take pawns and turn them into just about any other unit if I moved them the right way. Of course my sisters didn't care much for me trouncing them at something, there wasn't a month of my early years I can recall that didn't have at least one incident of me being so damaged that my magic suffered or just plain stopped working. I was beaten up by my sisters on a regular basis, and since I was physically weaker than them I just took it. Before you say anything, that sort of thing is common among colonies with more than one new queen developing within them, I was just the focus, if I hadn't been born my sisters would have been regularly assaulting each other, it's a miracle I survived to point where I made my play on Canterlot. You know, it's a coincidence that it was Spike that ended up with me in this tunnel network, and a cruel twist of fate that forced my coming here in the first place.”

“Oh Darling, the circumstances don't matter as much as the special connection you have with that special someone in your life.”

“Um yes,” Chrysalis made sneaky smile, which confused Rarity (at least until the request was made), “Spike said he requested you make me some kinky outfits for some of our more private moments.”

Rarity's whole face flushed crimson as the mare said, “Um, yes, he wasn't particularly clear on those sorts of outfits since they come in a pretty wide variety. I didn't really know that until I started doing a little research on the subject after Spike sent his request, and trust me it was little embarrassing when Applejack found me doing the research, I don't think she would have entirely believed me if I hadn't shown her the letter with Spike's work order.”

“I didn't know about it until I read the response letter and asked just what he asked you to make me.”

“I suppose he wanted it to be a surprise, but without specifics, it almost ruins the gesture. I usually don't make that sort of attire, but I'm willing to give making any outfit once.”

“Well, I decided on a dominatrix outfit that will have your full body blushing.”

“Darling, it might make me feel a little embarrassed, but a full body blush might be p...”

“An outfit that is the most revealing you can make it, basically I want all my goods up for anypony see in the outfit, and I was thinking onyx as an accentuator for my properties, but the gem part was when I was imagining my colors would be a bit lighter, of course, I was thinking of making the outfit white so that might still be work.”

Rarity suddenly saw the outfit in her mind's eye and her whole head went to crimson, “um, yes, d...darling, that would be very scandalous when it comes to outfits,” she shook her head to get the blood to move on, “but a few white outfits with onyx accents does sound lovely, but I really haven't got that many onyx stones in my supply so I try to save them for something really special.”

“The royal wedding twelve years ago wasn't special enough?”

“No, I just didn't start finding the onyx until a few months after the wedding,” the white mare took a look at her clipboard notes, “it looks like all your dimensions are designed to entice stallions to an incredible extent. A bust size that is the area as Princess Celestia and Princess Luna are rumored to be, the kind of thighs a number of models would kill for...”

“Please don't use expressions like that, changelings literally will murder each other for things they want.”

“Oh, sorry dear,” the white mare gave a light cough and continued, “a shapely, yet rather large, rear, I remember when I wanted a bubble plot,” she shook her head a bit, “well toned body and arms, I suppose you get those from Spike's 'contributions',” Chrysalis nodded politely, “and a waist that's well designed for birthing, do you call it that in spite of the fact you'll be laying eggs?”

“No, queens need that particular anatomical piece because it helps to facilitate quick egg laying.”

“Oh, I suppose you don't have deal with many of the pregnancy signs that pony mares do then.”

“You would be correct, but that doesn't mean my behavior once my little ones are out of me will be pleasant.”

“Of course not darling, it'll probably be unwise to be near you for a while.”

“At least until the chamber attendants have matured enough to handle things.”

“I'm sorry, what?”

“I'll save it all for Twilight, she'll probably be pestering me about it all when I finally drop in for a visit.”

“I suppose you're right darling, will you let Cadance see them?”

“Not all of them, that would take far too long. Months at the very least, I probably won't remember the names as well as I should once we pass the two hundred mark, my old hive already had names and wouldn't stop telling me what they were. Once my little ones come along Spike and I will be responsible for their names.”

“How many are you going to...lay?”

“Since it's my first brood maybe just a couple dozen.”

Rarity's eyes bugged, “Dozen? Darling how will you be able to feed them all.”

“Kind of still working on it,” said Chrysalis with another rub of her tummy, “If we could find an extensive vein of gems that might be able to do it.”

“I thought you fed on love!”

“Love is merely the most sought after emotion, changelings actually naturally feed on any positive emotion, but just happiness or joy always makes most changelings feel like they need more, love is the most satisfying of the emotional spectrum. With that all said since with Spike's contributions my hive will have the same dietary capabilities as him, me included.”

“Oh, then we could just have them eat like any normal pony, Spike can eat anything we can.”

“Oh,” said Chrysalis, suddenly she seemed to space out and started drooling.

A light slap on her arm from Rarity snapped her out, “A lady doesn't drool where others can see her, dear. I don't want to hear what you were thinking about if it has to with your mind drawing some sex stuff.”

“Sorry,” said Chrysalis with an embarrassed smile, “it's just Spike's physique is so yummy, his muscles are just mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmh.”

“Darling I know all about physical attraction, that's what usually draws a mare to her stallion. But if that's all there was to you and Spike you would have acted like your sisters or mother and not even spent all that time chastising yourself or taken the time to try and improve relations with the princesses.”

“Speaking of which, Twilight and Cadance, still not used to hearing myself call her that, seemed a little too accepting of me.”

“Oh,” Rarity giggled, “Twilight's academic curiosity probably overruled everything else, but when she sees you she'll probably snap out of it and give the kind of response you expect from her.”

“And the other alicorn?”

“Cadadnce is the alicorn of love, she's more caring and forgiving than most. She's probably willing to forgive and forget your actions on her special day since she heard you are in love with Spike. But I'm not the authority on that, you should really as ask her yourself.”

“You have all the measurements you need for me, hope that's enough.”

“I do too darling, I just hope I have a mannequin that's close enough to your figure to work with. Putting an outfit together completely on the work table is much harder, and Celestia forbid I put it together on the floor.”

“Changelings only have clothing fill a need, so all of our attire tends to be very generic, even the 'royal attire'. I didn't start thinking about outfits in a more ornate or personal way until I got stuck with Spike.”

“A good thing too, a figure like yours doesn't deserve anything generic, especially since you are royalty and will soon be a mother.”

“What does being a mother have to do with non-generic clothing?”

Rarity gave a mock, and very exaggerated, gasp before saying, “why mothers and mothers-to-be need outfits that accentuate their special glow.”

“To be perfectly honest with you, changelings have only been wearing clothing for the past two-thousand years, before that we went everywhere in the nude regardless of circumstance.”

“What happened two-thousand years ago?”

“Larger hives started moving into regions that required an extra layer to keep us warm, clothing was found to serve that purpose greatly, of course, we stole our outfits back in those days. Before you say anything I had nothing to do with that, my egg wasn't even laid when that practice was put in place, and I never did partake in the practice when I grew old enough to partake in such things. Instead I 'stole' production techniques for clothing and fabrics, the only reason my hive managed to survive for as long as it did with little scrutiny, and no assaults against it, was because we were the first hive to actually produce clothing for hives. We had a good relation with the Silk Queen, she and her hive were especially excited when I revealed they could produce fabrics themselves, we had a good relationship going.”

“Her hive made the fabric and you refined it into clothing, but you kept everything simple to keep production costs to a minimum. Who's the 'Silk Queen'?”

“Queen Arachne, she's the only Queen I'm aware of that's older than my mother, some say she's one of the original Queens. She acquired the aspect of an unknown spider of immense size and so her hive all have spider aspects, and due to the insectoid properties inherent within changelings in a fight with other hives they would have a distinct advantage.”

“You said you had amicable diplomatic ties with Arachne, what changed?”

“We taught them how to make clothes themselves ten years before the Canterlot invasion, it was me anticipating the worst. After we taught Arachne and her hive how to make clothes they completely cut ties with us, I figured that would happen. I don't have that knowledge anymore, and all my notes on the subject are well hidden at another site.”

“I didn't expect you to be quite the entrepreneur!”

“I may not have been as physically capable as other queens, or my hive as powerful as other hives, but I was always smarter and more resourceful. Arachne's hive didn't destroy us after they got the other half of the formula for providing hives with clothing out of respect for our sharing the knowledge, but without them as a potential threat to any hives that attacked mine my hive was in serious trouble, it put additional pressure on us to succeed in the Canterlot invasion.”

“Yes well, we've all decided to put that little debacle behind us.”

“I've told Spike this, but I guess I should just tell everypony, I don't think I told the princesses this yet, but I'm glad that my play on Canterlot failed.”

“It pointed a flaw in your character you want to change?”

“Yes, a failing that to my knowledge afflicts every changeling queen.”

“What's that?”

Chrysalis chuckled, “that's exactly how Spike asked that question?” Rarity cocked her head with interest, “The failing I'm talking about is claiming victory before the final moves are made in the encounter.”

“Well at least you're big enough to admit your flaws,” said Rarity as she used her magic to measure Chrysalis's bosom valley and took quick note of what the tape said. “If everything goes well you should have the bulk of your outfits in a two or three days, the rest should be ready for you to pick up next week.”

___________________________________________

At around the time Chrysalis and Rarity started their measuring session Pinkie was acting oblivious to the fact Spike was nude at around this time, Fluttershy was doing her best to avoid looking at Spike after she had learned that there wasn't so much a mass of rags for him to make an impromptu lowing cloth.

“Nice place ya got,” said Pinkie in her usual chipper voice, “bet you could throw some really great parties with all the space.”

“Once Chrysalis's eggs hatch we'll have some changelings swarming so there won't be as much space, Pinkie,” said Spike.

“Oh, she lays eggs,” said Fluttershy as she kept her eyes away from the dragon, “how long until she lays them? Where will she lay them?”

Spike gave a chuckle and said, “a few weeks if her estimates were accurate, and she'll lay them in one of the egg chambers, those are designed to be pretty spacious.”

“Are we in one now?” Inquired the yellow pegasus.

“No, they're deeper down, we're in one of the 'reception' chambers. Basically, it's a big waiting room near the entrance,” something hit him and he said, “which way to the Castle of the Two Sisters?”

“You mean your new house we made sure to renovate,” said Pinkie, who then paused to mull over something like she was consulting a source of some kind, “a little bit south-east of here, why?”

Spike thanked the pink mare and turned to one of the walls and rapped on it a few times before smiling and beginning to dig into the rock-like substance. In a few minutes, there was a hole big enough for him to slip through with a considerable pile of earth and stone on the floor near his hole's entrance as she moved and dug the hole bigger.

*******************

Two hours later, he thought it would be longer, Spike popped up in the castle courtyard next to an alicorn statue that had been cleaned during the renovations. He smiled to himself for his stroke of genius, Earth dragons had all those great big, streamlined, muscles for effectively moving through the ground as they dug through the earth, their claws were designed to not break or chip against even the hardest stone (he suspected he could probably dig through most gemstones if he weren't careful).

He headed up to the master bedroom, which he claimed as his new personal room given the fact no one else would be living their prior to the incident that brought him to being underground with Chrysalis. He was thankful that he was lazy and left some clothes in a couple of bags, he told himself it was for quickly packing up for a visit and left it at that. He went over to his open bags and pulled out a pair of ocean blue shorts and a pink t-shirt (some stallions would say things that insisted that pink never looked good on a stallion, even if it was said stallion's natural coat, but Spike disagreed, he thought Real Guys Wear Pink because it said they were secure enough in their masculinity that it didn't matter, or could just be that he spent most of his life growing up with mares and never really developed the concept like the other guys had). He carefully pulled on the clothes before heading back to the colony, pulling the statue over his hole as he slid down into it. He made a quick dig expanded part of the tunnel for him to turn around before doing just that and heading back.

Even though it had taken hours to dig to the castle grounds it only took him a few minutes to crawl through the tunnel back. When he returned he said, “You can look now Shy, I have pants on.”

Fluttershy looked him over and confirmed it before saying, “Oh thank goodness, did you find a spare set of clothes in one of the chambers you explored?”

“He dug into the wall,” said Pinkie before pointing to the hole Spike had made.

“I Dug a tunnel to the castle and grabbed some of the clothes I had lying around,” said Spike, “on my way back I moved something heavy over the hole to make sure it wasn't found and no pony or creature fell in.”

“Oh, thanks for thinking of every pony and creature's safety,” said Fluttershy.

“That's all Spike seems to do these days,” said Pinkie, “and now he also has thoughts of getting freaky with Chrysalis.”

“I only started that line of thought a few days ago,” said Spike.

“But you did do her,” said the pink mare.

“Just the once,” retorted Spike, “the rest was just her seeing what kind of foreplay she liked.”

Fluttershy went from demure yellow to furious crimson during the entire exchange of the two, but at the point, Spike finished his last sentence she decided to interject, “Could you two please stop talking about that kind of thing, it's a little embarrassing.”

“I guess a little of Chrysalis is rubbing off on me,” said Spike, “she says that changeling queens that keep their mates nearby, which is a very rare occurrence these days, still practice the tradition of having visible sexual relations during political and social meetings, it's actually considered perfectly acceptable in their culture,” he then muttered, “and I thought she was going to be the only one acquiring habits from their partner, I guess it's because I b...” he suddenly realized the two mares were following his muttering.

“You know what?” Said Pinkie innocently.

“It's not something I can say in Shy's presence, she nearly fainted when she visited during Twi's 'examination' of my matured features; and trust me when I say that half of what Twi said during that time did more than make Shy blush.”

“It's true,” said Fluttershy, “I fainted a few times during that visit.”

Pinkie giggled before saying, “So, how about the grand tour, you probably memorized the map.”

“A bit,” said Spike, “but probably not as much as I should have, we might get turned around or lost a few times, I might even goof on what chamber we're in.”

“That's okay,” said Fluttershy, “we really should leave them alone until Rarity is sure she's done.”

“Alright,” said Spike, “the first room we'll discuss, but not be visiting due to the state of its current occupants, is the Throne Room, that's where the queen entertains her guests; and trust me when I say changelings have a different definition of royalty entertaining guests than we do. Moving on, this chamber is the primary waiting room, now if you'll follow me to our next destination, if you could keep all questions limited to any rooms we find ourselves currently in at the time...” Spike started leading the mares through the colony.

********************************

Five hours later they returned to the 'waiting room' and Spike was said, “Did you really have to ask so many questions in the egg chambers, Shy, you'd probably learn more about all the missing bits of your queries by consulting a source on insects, seeing as Changelings have several insect-like traits.”

“But they also are capable of breeding with almost anything, and in doing so undergo dramatic changes," said Fluttershy, "I mean when you bred with Chrysalis she got a similar color to you in addition to some of your physique and some of your other physical traits.”

“And when we go at it again some of my mental traits,” said Spike, “that's just how changelings are.”

“Can they read minds?” Said Pinkie.

“No,” said Spike flatly, “they can read the emotions of other beings and determine the best way to approach them based on that, they also don't feed exclusively on love.”

“Really?” Said both mares simultaneously.

Spike gave a chuckle before saying, “Yep, they naturally can feed on positive emotions, love is just the most...filling, and now that Chrysalis has taken on my properties she adopted my diet on top of her own.”

“Ooh, does that mean she likes my sweets now?” Said Pinkie.

“No idea,” said Spike.

“Spiky,” came Rarity's voice, “Chrysi's measuring is all done. The two entered the room, which caused Fluttershy to start blushing furiously due to the fact Chrysalis still didn't have anything to cover up.

“And proper etiquette says it's impolite to dress yourself, and not your special mare,” said Chrysalis in a teasing tone devoid of contempt or malice.

“Didn't know where to go to pick up your things, babe,” said Spike, “it's just a short dig to my stuff anyway.”

“Short dig?” Said Rarity, “you dug your way to the castle? In the Everfree!”

“It only took two hours to dig my way there, and few minutes for the return trip,” said Spike, “of course I went for the minimalistic approach with my clothes. Just shorts and a shirt, no underwear.”

Chrysalis licked her lips and coyly said, “What makes you think I'd allow you to continue that pointless act?”

“What, gonna make a decree that underwear is forbidden in the colony's territory?”

“Yes,” Chrysalis purred, “such a restraining article has no place in my domain.”

Rarity and Fluttershy both had their cheeks go to scarlet, Spike said, “I think you're all exempt from that rule today.”

“Yes,” said Chrysalis with more regal tone, “but upon your next return you are to...”

“I believe the current common vernacular is 'go commando', sweet stuff,” said Spike.

“Ah, yes thank you, honey,” said Chrysalis, “upon the rising of the next sun all ponies, changelings, dragons, and other visitors are to 'go commando' so long as they are within the territory that is this colony. Also, since Spike dug a tunnel to the castle in this forest, and seeing as he is technically a member of the hive, the castle, and all its grounds will now be considered part of the hive. Thanks for starting the primary tunnel, honey,” she gave Spike a peck on Spike's snout, “once the larva reach far enough in their post-hatch development we'll begin proper expansion.”

“Anytime, babe,” said Spike before pulling her over and giving her a deep kiss on the lips, and making their tongues have another wrestling match.

“And that's our cue to leave girls,” said Rarity, “come on, let's go.” With that, the three mares made their departure.

“Now, where were we?” Purred Chrysalis a few minutes after the mares had departed.

"In the Throne Room with Your Horn Trying New 'Punishments' For Me,” growled Spike as they made their way back to the throne room, "speaking of which, I've been a naughty dragon, I think my 'Mistress' needs to step up my 'Punishment', don't you?”

“Oh, most definitely,” purred Chrysalis as they returned to the Throne Room, “but after this 'session' we are heading to the castle, I want to see what we can do to make it more hive friendly.”

***********************************************************

Four days later Spike and Chrysalis were in the chamber designated as her private one. She didn't have a four poster bed like the one they had put in the master bedroom of the former Castle of the Two Sisters, which meant neither of them could really be tied down as long as they were in the colony proper. Spike had told her he wouldn't be needing the bed for long and she could claim it since after another growth spurt his mass would probably be too great for a bed, Chrysalis had never been so glad she had been born a shape shifter before she heard that.

Chrysalis was lying on the bed while Spike was over her ramming his rod into her pussy, he only agreed to return to sexual activities that involved pounding her once she had told him that the developing eggs in her were designed to be resilient to blunt strikes and the only sharp things that could pierce them from outside were probably his claws. The changeling queen was screaming ecstasy as she was once again sexual stimulated.

“I see our queen hasn't had enough 'punishment' for her transgressions,” growled Spike erotically before picking her up and rotating her on his member to face the same direction as him before he took her legs to keep her from falling on off him and squeezed her legs so hard that Chrysalis felt pain with her pleasure as the Spike's claws barely penetrated her epidermis. He then rammed her into the wall as he continued to nail her and roughly pounded the dark violet mare.

Chrysalis said nothing as Spike continued to pound her. Spike's long tongue caressed her neck and before gently wrapping around her chin and turning her moaning face before diving his tongue into her mouth a split second before a sensual kiss with her, their tongues once again dancing in their own erotic embrace. He continued to push her against the wall as her hips gyrated on his hips. Another load spurted into her womb, which over the past few days had actually changed to be larger (the pleasure from the change that night had knocked her right out for what seemed to her to be hours). Spike then threw them both on the bed with him on top, while they were still kissing (keeping her her entire lower half of the bed). After removing his hands from her legs as impromptu supports he started spanking her just rough enough to leave light pink marks that indicated where his hands and struck her plot, Chrysalis moaned erotically the entire time.

Spike broke from the throws of passion, pulling away from Chrysalis out of a force of habit more than anything else, causing one last great moan to escape Chrysalis's lips as she opened her eyes to see why her lover had broken their erotic embrace. A puff of dragon's fire forming a scroll gave her the answer she needed. “Looks like your new casual wear, formal wear, and sleep wear is ready,” said Spike after scanning the Scroll, “Rarity would like to know where you want to meet to pick up your things.”

“Tell her I'll meet her at the castle, it's less hassle than her coming into the colony proper. Tell her to just to bring a small armful of casual clothes, I'll get dressed and join her on the return trip to Ponyville, figure I'll get as many things out of the way as possible as soon as possible.”

“That's probably for the best,” said Spike.

“And you really need to work on your bedroom assertiveness, your erotic talk is fine, but your execution is horrible.”

Spike gave a blush as he left the room and said, “Sorry, babe.”

Of all the creatures for me to fall for it had to be a dragon that's more assertive in his fantasies than in real life, but mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmh when he gets rough it is definitely divine, she fondled her breasts a bit, a nine-hour marathon of rough pleasure is always going to be appreciated by me, and the best part is I only feel sore for a handful of minutes before we can get right back at it. I am so glad he keeps a 'small' stash of gems at the palace, feeding him would be difficult under the circumstances. She snapped out of her thoughts when she felt a large mass of her saliva fall on to her breast, I should probably clean up, it would the polite thing to...when did I start thinking like that? I never considered the polite thing do before now, did I? I always considered the most effective and efficient way to do things. Oh, some of Spike's personality traits crossed over and are already asserting themselves, well better head for that shower now, I need to clean up after a hot night of sex, how is it that I managed to get a total of seven hours of sleep between noon yesterday and now? No, wait, it's just the energy I gained from Spike's love defusing into body's physical regulating system. I am going to be spending so much time with Twilight, it'll be fun to compare notes with somepony who shares a sense of intellectual quandary. I can't believe I sent that note to Twilight saying where I hid my notebooks, I told her not to read them,but chances are she's already trying to, good thing I wrote them in code and embedded a cipher spell into the ink of almost every entry before it dried.

Chrysalis headed for the restroom and started her shower, the warm water caressed her form as she let it wash over her and after a minute of just enjoying the feel of the water she used her magic to bring up the soap and work up a fine lather all over her body before putting the soap away and letting the water rinse the suds off of her body, she would have used shampoo or conditioner if they were present in the room as well, she thought about how to remedy that, then blinked a few times when she realized the old her wouldn't have really cared about such things.

After taking her time to make sure she was fully dry, something that was at least still a hold over from her old self, she left the room.

“Hey,” said Spike as he caught her in the hall, “I sent that note to Rarity, she'll see you in a few hours,” he took a quick whiff of the air, “you bathed, guess that means you're heading to the castle.”

Chrysalis nodded and gave him a peck on the cheek before heading to the tunnel. “Good to hear,” said Spike as she left, “I'll see you in Ponyville, Twi said she needs my help with something.” She was thankful that Spike had considerably more mass than her, 'in all the right ways', so her movement through the tunnel only slightly undid her work to clean herself, which surprisingly caused her to be irritated.

********************************

It had been almost four hours since her arrival to wait at the castle, in that time she had done a little additional exploring. She didn't find anything of interest, except the traps in the castle seemed to be designed for amusement instead of security. Chrysalis found herself meditating in the courtyard after an hour, which was something she was sure the old her would never do, because for a changeling to be out in the open and not be moving usually meant certain doom, she had learned that lesson very early on from her sisters. She also used the opportunity to clean herself for a half hour in the tub (which had been specially made to hold Spike).

“Sorry to keep you waiting, darling,” came Rarity's voice, thus pulling her out of her meditation, “I had to spend more time than my client than I anticipated, then I had to decide which pieces of the attire I made for you would be best. Not to mention I had to change for a hike through the forest.”

Chrysalis saw the ivory mare come into view, this time she was wearing a dark green shirt with light blue shorts with a pair of dark pink hiking boots and was carrying three clothing bags. Chrysalis just shook her head as she wondered how so much of her prior personality had changed. Her mother had 'weeded' out her friendly demeanor only for it to kick the mean aspect of her to the curb, she couldn't believe just how nice she was now.

Once Rarity got close enough she gave a dramatic gasp and said, “You got you washed up for our meeting!”

“Twice,” said Chrysalis, “once after my morning 'special time' with Spike and the second time after I got a little dust and dirt on myself on the trip here a few hours ago. It's funny; before I ended up with Spike I saw cleaning myself off before going to meet others was a pointless endeavor, I would just clean myself off when I noticed either a dust build up that couldn't be ignored or make a show of myself.”

“Like you did at the wedding?” Said Rarity.

“I'm never going to live that down, am I?” Said Chrysalis with a wince.

“Not until Cadance formally states your transgressions at her wedding are forgiven in more than a letter.”

“She's furious with me, I know. I wouldn't be surprised if she wanted to do something drastic like make me do some demeaning acts for her or duel for the right to reclaim my innocence.”

“I'm sure she won't be that drastic,” said Rarity as she handed the bags to Chrysalis, “go try them on in private, dear, I think I found a way to make your new natural look work, I just hope your relationship with Spike hasn't given you the fashion sense of a rat, some of his early ideas of outfits without Twilight's help nearly gave me heart attacks, it turned out his fashion sense was worse hers.”

“I worked with clothing for changelings, remember, at the very least I'll only have the fashion sense of a dragonfly or cat, both of which have a sense of taste better than any rodents.”

Rarity giggled and shooed the changeling into a room before using her magic to close the door behind Chrysalis. Chrysalis pulled up a sky blue blouse with an orange dragonfly adorning the front and back (which also had open slits for her back) and slid it on after she tossed the contents of the bags on the bed in the room, she then slid on a pair of dark yellow pants with a small swarm of violet ladybugs seeming to crawl around the legs. She then tossed the rest in the bags and opened the door with her magic and walked out with bags in her hands.

“Fabulous darling,” said Rarity, “your sense of aesthetics could use some work, but at least you can go in public without looking like you are lacking some fashion sense. If you want you could change to look like a pegasus.”

“I appreciate the sentiments, but I don't want to hide anymore and would rather just face fate with some sense of dignity. The only ones who don't deserve that courtesy are my mother and sisters, and I intend to cut my ties with them like I should have a long time ago.”

“You shouldn't say that about family, they're very important. I couldn't think of doing something so drastic to my parents or sister.”

“How many sibling do you have?”

“One, what's that have to...”

“Who's the elder?”

“Me.”

“Count yourself lucky, I was the youngest of four daughters, and was always the punching bag for my elder siblings when things didn't go their way. Things never got better between us, only worse.”

“It couldn't have been...”

“I wasn't exaggerating about my early years with my sisters when we spoke four days ago, that was my regular routine. My mother wasn't much better, imagine if you will how princess Celestia is towards you and most other ponies,” Rarity took the time to pull up what she new about Princess Celestia and nodded, “now replace her love of sweets with a ravenous desire for meat and replace her motherly aura with a vicious murderous intent, that is my mother.”

Rarity made a motion to show she was feeling ill before saying, “But you turned out so nice.”

“That's some of Spike's personality overlaying onto me, sweetheart, but there was a time in my early years that I was a friendly little sweetie, mom did a pretty good job of tearing that aspect of me to shreds by the time I was into my early teens, at least I'm pretty sure, my early years have gotten pretty jumbled over the years.”

“Oh, how did that happen?”

Chrysalis held up her hand and said, “I'll be sharing it all with Twilight, you can listen in if you want.”

“Of course, darling, let's get going.”

****************************************

One walk through the forest, and Ponyville, they came up to Twilight's castle. When Chrysalis had sputtered about how it didn't match the aesthetic of the town upon seeing the castle when it came into view, Rarity gave the changeling a quick explanation about the circumstances that led to the castle's emergence. On the way to the castle, Chrysalis got some odd looks from the town's residents, but that was all.

The two trotted up to the door and gave it a knock, they heard Rainbow's brash voice say, “I hear ya, be there in a moment.”

The door opened a few seconds later to reveal a cyan pegasus mare with rainbow colored hair in a black workout outfit and track shoes with what Chrysalis estimated to be a B cup bosom. “Rainbow, darling,” said Rarity with a bit of surprise, “I thought you were in Cloudsdale practicing with the Wonderbolts.”

“Yeah,” said Rainbow, “we were in the middle practicing our moves when some jerk sent a message that the show was canceled, we kept going until we got official confirmation the show had been canceled. Somepony triple booked some events that day and the event we were supposed to show to got axed, so here I am."

“The price of show business,” said Chrysalis, “at least you don't have to worry about the politics end of it all just yet.”

“I thought they were joking when I heard you were a lot nicer,” said Rainbow, “I also dig the new look, it makes ya look cool. You can drop the disguise when ya get in here.”

“That'll be a bit easier than you think, especially since this is my new default,” said Chrysalis.

“How that happen? Must be quite the story,” said Rainbow as she let the two in and closed the door behind them, “Rares, did ya tell her who's vistin' right now?”

“No, darling,” said Rarity, “I thought it best for all parties to have a bit of a surprise.”

Chrysalis just gave the two mares a confused look before massaging her abdomen a bit, “...are you crazy? She practically ruined the whole event,” came Shining Armor's voice as they came up on the throne room, Chrysalis sighed and just resigned herself for what was to come next and hoped no one would make a shot at her abdomen.

“Oh, Shiny, don't worry,” came Cadance's voice, “I may have sounded forgiving in my letter to her, but there's still something I need to do in order for the scales to be balanced.”

The three entered the throne room to see Twilight, Cadance and Shining Armor standing next to a set of six thrones. Shining noticed their entrance and faster than anyone thought he could he rushed over to Chrysalis and punched her in the chest sending the changeling queen staggering back a few feet before falling onto her back. “That's for turning me into your bucking puppet, and it's better than you deserve.”

Shining was in a royal guard dress uniform, Cadance was in a blue dress with an open back. Twilight was wearing a dark orange blouse with forest green pants.

“You're right,” said Chrysalis as she returned to a standing position, “you can keep hitting me until you feel better, I won't resist or fight it, although I will guard against shots at certain areas, more out instinct than some sense of preservation.”

“Weren't expecting that, were you Shiny,” said Twilight with a grin, “turns out when Changelings breed with other creatures they take on some of their traits. Do you remember who she had sexual relations with?”

“Your dragon assistant, Spike,” said Shining, “that's why she has the purple exterior and different wing design.”

“I also got some of his personality traits,” retorted Chrysalis, “if I hadn't I would have foregone the clothes and done everything in my power to prevent you from striking me, I do have similar physical properties to him now, that includes the strength and claws. Basically, as I am now you could consider me a changeling/dragon hybrid.”

“That explains the lack of flying into the wall,” muttered Shining Armor.

At this point Cadance sauntered over to Chrysalis and slapped her face before fixing the changeling queen with a stern look on the face before evenly saying, “That was for nearly ruining my relationship with Shining Armor,” she then gave Chrysalis a peck on the cheek, to the surprise of everyone in the room, “and that's for being big enough to face whatever punishments we had in store for you,” she took a glance at Chrysalis's abdomen, “how are the little ones coming?”

“Should be ready for laying in a few weeks,” said Chrysalis, this earned her confused looks from everyone in the room.

“Maybe you should start from the beginning,” said Twilight, “let's get comfortable in the library and I can get my note taking materials, I have Spike in there trying to decipher your notebooks.”

Chrysalis smirked and said, “I have cipher spells on them, only I can read them,” they all headed for the library, “no matter what code you use to try breaking them the spell will make any translation come out utter gibberish, especially if you try to crack whatever code you think the books gave you after you got through the first code. I admit some of my earlier journals might have you getting some of the words right, but that's only because I cast the unrefined cipher spells on them when I was still very young. I found out about them, but never found any instructions on how to cast them so I had to generate my own.”

Twilight twitched, Cadance and Shining gave each other looks that told that they knew what was coming next. “You know a spell that lets you hide information in plain sight?”

“Four actually,” said Chrysalis as she settled into a chair, “but you want to learn about changelings and my history, I'll touch on cipher spells when I do that. I would be more than happy to teach them to you later on. Huh, that is definitely something the old me would never do, guess it's the traits that Spike passed on to me doing that.”

Shining groaned while Twilight and Cadance giggled. Twilight floated several blank notebooks, quills and ink wells over to her and set them down on the table next to her. Chrysalis looked around a bit and noticed an array of Daring Do poster that dotted the walls.

“First thing in this learning experience,” said Twilight as her friends filed in and took seats that made them feel comfortable. “How were you different from other changeling queens before you ended up breeding with Spike?” Embarrassed looks could be seen on the faces Fluttershy and Rarity.

Chrysalis chuckled and said, “Going right for the deep end I see, the short answer is my mother made a few adjustments to me when she turned me into a queen.”

“Turned you into a queen? Care to explain that one for us,” said Cadance.

Chrysalis took a deep sigh, “Changeling queens lay egg sacks that each contain a singular changeling, now usually the chemical mixture that the developing changeling is floating within, kind of like a foal in amniotic fluid for ponies, determines what kind of worker a changeling will be, and even their gender to a lesser extent. Changelings hives usually have a twenty to one ratio, by the way, one male for every twenty females. Although in rather amusing, maybe ironic, twist changeling males are more docile than the females, which are usually highly aggressive towards anything that is not of their hive. Anyway, queens can use their magic to change the chemical composition to guarantee a certain kind of changeling hatches from a specific egg sack. However to make a queen they need to inject a certain chemical mix into the egg sack, my mother added a bit more than that when she injected the queen chemical mixture into my sack, but it had a few side-effects she didn't like.”

“Where does the queen keep the queen chemical?” Inquired Twilight.

“Near the tip of the horn in a special chamber that only responds to a specific magic signal that is specific to the changeling.”

“Oh I see...did you say, changeling? The queen isn't the only one with the feature?”

“In the early days of the changelings the loss of the queen was always an inevitability, in those days hives were under far more danger than they are now, so as a fail safe we adapted the property of having every changeling be able to turn an egg sack into a new queen, although for worker changelings that will likely result in giving their life for the hive, you could call it an evolutionary holdover.”

“Fascinating,” said Twilight as she jotted it all down in one of her notebooks, “so what was the extra addition your mother made to your egg sack?”

“She increased the level of the chemical type for intellectual capacity, but the cost of the change was the chemical responsible for aggressiveness was diminished along with some of the chemicals responsible for some minor physical traits. When I came out I had brighter eyes and my carapace was less lustrous when compared to my sisters. I was an inquisitive and friendly little larva. Mom liked the inquisitiveness, hated the generally friendly nature, in her opinion a changeling should never be that 'nice or sweet', in all honesty, it was probably more like I was a curious pony foal in a changeling body. By the time I was fifteen mom had managed to 'weed' all the nice out of me, but I still lacked the aggression or ambition of my sisters. I was physically inferior to them, and they never missed an opportunity to 'demonstrate' that sort of thing, but mentally I was superior to them. I took to my magic studies much faster and more efficiently than them, all games of strategy I came out on top, even games like hide-and-seek I proved to be better at, all because those games were far more cerebral than everything else. However everything has a trade off, my carapace was slower to strengthen itself, thus my shell was rather soft for the first three decades of my life, and my ability to heal was slower than that of my siblings, what took them a couple of hours to get over took me almost a week to heal.”

“What was your mother trying to do? Make a better changeling?” Said Shining Armor.

“Yes,” said Chrysalis flatly, “if it had been my mother or any of my siblings instead of me as the cause of your wedding being disrupted chances are Canterlot wouldn't be standing now and the majority of Equestria's pony population would be comatose while what was left of those that fled would be meeting varying results against their opponents. Vespa is particularly ruthless and her wasp aspects mean that her hive can sting anypony into paralysis or death, Culicidae would probably have ended up drinking all the alicorns dry, and I don't mean their special stock,” everypony in the room shivered, “fact of the matter is that I was your best case scenario when it came to a changeling invasion, and due to changeling etiquette, which might as well be a joke most of the time, states that after an attack movement is made no other queen can issue the same attack plan regardless of the original attempt's outcome, it's more of an unwritten law of the changelings, it has more to do with pride than politics, only the queen that made the original attack attempt can repeat, and since failed attempts tend to lead to the extermination of a hive by other hives that can sometimes prove difficult. In short, my failed play on Canterlot actually saved Equestria from further changeling attacks.”

“And now you're turning over a new leaf trying to become an official Equestrian citizen, and trying to take steps so your new hive is also that sort of thing,” said Rainbow Dash, “I'm cool with all that, but I still want to deck ya, but since this is Twi's house I've been holding myself back.”

“Shining Armor decked me the moment he saw me,” said Chrysalis, “if it will make you feel better I'll let you deck me as well, just avoid my gut.”

“Um, why?” Asked Rainbow.

“It's where the beginnings of her new hive are growing, darling,” Rarity, “and just a reminder, in case you didn't hear or forgot, Spike's the father.”

Chrysalis nodded and rubbed her abdomen again, “I was called the defective queen growing up, all because I seem to have the inability to grow a hive without a mate.”

“Care to explain how that works,” said Twilight with a curious look at Chrysalis.

“Changeling queens usually have the ability to grow their hives without a mate, we typically only mate with other creatures to add in additional aspects to give our hives properties that aren't found in other hives, my sisters had all done that by the time I was around twenty years old, but for some reason I could never bring myself to partake in the practice, it's one of the reasons I was constantly called a failure of a queen. Despite their apparent superiority with new aspects, it was my cunning that saved me from them, I had an amicable relation with one of the major hives, which is why they couldn't just try to destroy my hive outright.”

“Who was that?” said Twilight with a vested interest.

“She called her 'Queen Arachne',” said Rarity.

A gasp was heard in the direction of the door.

Chrysalis seemed to be oblivious of the gasp when she said, “Yes, but our agreement came to an end when I gave her the other half of the recipe for making clothes.”

Celestia's voice came through with a tremble, “You had an alliance of agreement with Arachne, one of the most terrifying changeling queens to exist?”

Luna's voice then followed up, “How fortuitous that your ties with her are at an end.”

“We never had any ties, to begin with,” said Chrysalis, “just some string on the table that was arranged to look as so, that's how most changeling alliances are. She's the only one my mother, Queen Cicada, is truly afraid of.”

“Cicada? I thought she was brought to an end centuries ago,” said Celestia, “Luna and I displayed why it was foolish for her hive to challenge us by turning most of her army into brackets and blocks of ice.”

“Unfortunately such displays of power are not intimidation to Changeling Queens,” said Chrysalis, “I'm the only queen that hasn't seen her hive as completely expendable, every other queen has the mindset of 'I can just make more' when it comes to their hive, keep in mind most of a changeling hive is usually the children of the queen.”

“Wait,” said Applejack, “yer sayin' thair all some kinda really big family, an' most queens don't really care whut 'appens ta thair children?”

“Basically, yes,” said Chrysalis, “but because of my inability to develop new changelings independently, and my more caring nature, I built up my hive with all the children my siblings cast away, my whole hive was composed of my nieces and nephews. When my offspring finally come along I'm going to make sure I never toss any of them aside,” she rubbed her abdomen a bit, “they're all going to be my greatest achievement, I'm finally going to experience what is like to be a mother. I know it will be hard work, especially since by this time next year I'll probably end up bringing forth a few hundred new changelings.”

“Hundred?” Came Spike's surprised voice, “I'm going to be the father of hundreds of hybrid changelings?”

“Maybe a few thousand, honey,” said Chrysalis, “it takes a lot to keep a hive going, but from what I've been able to glean from the layout of the current colony it can a hive around fourteen hundred changelings at most, to keep things more economical I'll try to keep things to around half that many in the number of active changelings,” the ground shook as the sound of Spike fainting and hitting the floor reached them, "he's probably overwhelmed with all the names the little darlings will be needing, every one of my changelings needs a name, it's a quirk of mine.”

“Wait,” said Twilight, “you said naming your changelings is 'a quirk'? Care to explain that one.”

“Oh, well,” Chrysalis started to blush a bit, “queens usually only name their offspring that are queens, the rest get a very sterile number as their designation like 'number fourteen of brood one hundred thirty-nine', but every queen has a little quirk that lets you know something about her hive. My quirk was seeing all fourteen thousand of my hive's members as individuals, so each got their own name.”

“Fourteen...thousand?” Squeaked Fluttershy, “you had a lot of nieces and nephews.”

Chrysalis gave a despondent look and in a crestfallen voice said, “most of them didn't survive the purge as we escaped the changelings of the other hives, we were whittled down to a few hundred when we built our colony in the badlands. Now they're all gone, not one of the changelings I called my true family remains,” she started crying.

“I think I we've learned enough on that subject for now, we clearly went down a line of dialogue that upset her, and who knows what that could do to her offspring.”

***********************************************

It was three hours later and the only ones left the library were Chrysalis, Celestia, Luna, Twilight, Rarity, and Cadance. Rarity floated over a cup of warm herbal tea to Chrysalis. “I don't know about changeling children darling, but for pregnant mares, it is advised to avoid anything with caffeine, so this is just a simple herbal blend I found that helps to calm the nerves without the added kick of that dreadful chemical.”

Chrysalis took the cup in her hands, feeling the warmth and said, “Thank you, touching on still fresh, painful memories is hard on me.”

“From the way you distinguished yourself from other queens, as deplorable they truly are,” said Luna, “you've more than proven it was all for what you thought was the best. Although, I am curious why you chose to Canterlot as your assault point.”

The mare's all looked at Chrysalis, Cadance had a hint of displeasure in her voice when she said, “Yes, why did you choose the city and my wedding as your attack points?”

“One, I never intended to disrupt any royal weddings,” said Chrysalis, “I had been planning my assault for almost twenty years before I heard about your wedding plans two years in advance, I chose to ignore it in favor my original plan at he time, didn't even entertain the idea of crashing the wedding, but then I got wind of it a few months in advance that it was really happening, and after I heard who some of VIPs were I did a rushed alteration of the original plan. It was sloppy, I am not afraid to admit that, especially since I was working on incomplete information, something I thoroughly despise.”

“Wait, what was the original plan?” Inquired Cadance.

“My information network caught wind that Princess Celestia was having a new complex dedicated to the history of all of Equestria's citizens, the original plan was after the plans neared completion and the call for workers for the complex went out we'd fill the bulk of the work force and add in our own special compartments, then when the love of the citizens was reaching its zenith at the dedication ceremony we'd spring from our hidden chambers and reveal ourselves within the crowd after I cast a spell would only keep only the strongest of wills from being oblivious to the fact we had presence there, we'd force the Princess to confront us in what would appear to be an unflattering light causing the crowd to lose faith and love in her and have an increased sense of love and admiration for us after she had been driven off we'd feed of the surge of love and admiration that crowd had for us. Just my luck that I got word the whole project got scrapped the week before the wedding, that put added pressure on my hive since crashing the wedding was originally just supposed to be a side project that would hopefully drive an added need for a show of solidarity to the nation, but instead us crashing the wedding became the invasion event. The main reason I went a power crazy after besting Celestia in a battle of magic,” she shot the ivory alicorn an apologetic smile, “was because I had never experienced anything like that before, in a battle of raw power duking it out my sisters won every single time and defeating one of the few ponies my mother said she was wary of kind of went to my head a bit faster than it should have.”

“Okay, that might not be forgivable, but at least it's understandable,” said Celestia.

“Why do you keep calling Spike 'honey'? That just confuses me,” said Twilight.

“I honestly don't know,” said Chrysalis, “it just feels like something I should do.”

“I've avoided your dreams thus far,” said Luna, “it has more to do with the distinct properties of changeling hives, but with your permission We would like to take a look your dreams, and perhaps the truth of your history through your memories.”

“I have no problem with that, if Twilight had suggested copying my memories to everypony here I would worry for their sanity, seeing as it's over a thousand years worth of memories, some of the more recent ones are very intimate. I would not want to subject Twilight to any memories that could cause issues with her and Spike, seeing as they view each other as siblings. The only ones I would know that can surely handle over a thousand years worth of memories are Princess Celestia and Princess Luna.”

“Oh, that's actually a good point,” said Twilight, “could we compare notes on some things, at least for now?”

“I don't see why not,” said Chrysalis floating over one of her notebooks from where Spike had been, she smiled and said, “this is the notebook from when I did my early observations and theories on dragons, it needs some updating since I gathered some wondrous new data,” she licked her lips seductively and continued with “mmmmmmmmmmmh, yes such wonderful data.”

Twilight gave a little blush and said, “I hardly think the bulk of information gathered on my little brother would be applicable in an academic setting,” she floated down one of her books on dragons, “let's first compare your observations to those of officially recognized authorities on the subject and see what lines up and then we can enter into a discussion about how you and the experts came to your conclusions.”

Luna, Celestia, Cadance and Rarity rose from their chairs without a word and began to leave the room, it seemed that Twilight and Chrysalis would be at it for a while.

***********************************

Six hours had passed since the two had apparently entered a geek zone, Dinky just went about reorganizing Twilight's calendar without a word when she noticed Twilight and Chrysalis deep in discussion, and both seeming to enjoy their moment of bouncing theories off of another intellectual. When Flash returned home and noticed the two were having a moment he just huffed a comment about mares and went to the dining hall and told the kitchen staff to make him three large pots of coffee and get him a really big mug. Flash had returned home at hour four of the intellectual moment.

Twilight and Chrysalis trotted into the dining hall to indulge in a late night snack after they noticed the time. “Hi, my darling shield,” said Twilight with a peck on Flash's cheek.” The blue nightwear clad stallion gave a little smile.

“No, you're not getting any,” said Flash, “I specifically told the kitchen staff to not give you any kind of coffee and only serve you teas that Rarity authorizes.”

Twilight gave a pouty face, “Come on honey, just a sip, I just need to be up for a few hours to compare notes.”

Not even meeting Twilight's gaze Flash said, “That tactic stopped working three years ago, magic girl.”

“Why isn't Twilight allowed any of the described beverages? Does she abuse them?” Inquired Chrysalis.

“Well, Twi does have a history of abusing 'pick me up' type beverages,” said Flash, “but the real reason is Twi and I learned she's now carrying our foal as of two days ago.”

“I'm barely a month along, or at least that's what the doctors say, and their medical spells can tell the development of my baby better than several of the latest machines.”

“Spike's in his old room, fast asleep,” said Flash, “go cuddle your dragon already, he probably feels neglected because you spent hours talking academic stuff with Twilight.”

Chrysalis just nodded two the two and said, “How do I get to his room?”

“Up the stairs to the residential level,” said Twilight, “sixth room on the right, if you get confused just look for door with gems and dragon fire carved into it.”

Chrysalis dashed up the stairs, after the sound of her ascending the stairs seemed to end Flash said, “Okay, the kids are tucked in, the staff is will be tucked in within the hour and we're all alone for a few hours, what do you want to do first?”

“Let's start coming up with names for this darling,” said Twilight with a few taps of her tummy.”

“I'm not getting any bed action until the baby comes along, am I?”

“I had my suspicions, and wanted to wait until a bulge that couldn't be explained as fat made itself known, but you had to push for a doctor's visit,” said Twilight with a teasing voice, “the least I can do is show you what it's like when the mystery is undone.”

Flash sighed and said, “If it turns out to be a colt how about...”

***********************************

Chrysalis awoke to Spike's embrace with their faces mere inches form each other, his tail wrapped around her legs. He was facing the ceiling with her on top with his member sunk into her vagina yet again, she hadn't really done more than stick his 'sword' in her 'scabbard', it wasn't any fun with one-half of the partnership lacking enough consciousness to give some manner of response that didn't seem to be automated. She blinked a few times before using her magic to gently ease Spike away from her, she slipped on her clothes from the day before (a crime in Rarity's opinion) and made her way to the entrance (which was where she had left her bags with the clothes Rarity had crafted for her). Chrysalis grabbed a blue shirt and white pants from the bags and headed to bathroom to shower.

As she let the warm water caress her she searched for the soap and worked up a good collection of suds all over her body, she then found the shampoo (which was also conditioner and scented like roses) and worked up fine lather in her mane and tail. After rinsing herself off, the feel of cleaning herself was more exhilarating than she thought, she thoroughly dried herself off she pulled on her fresh clothes, a pair of navy blue shorts and a forest green shirt, and came down the stairs to see Fluttershy at the foot of the stairs, the pink maned yellow pegasus was in a sky blue shirt t-shirt and a forest green skirt with three pink butterflies near the hem.

“Oh, Fluttershy, are you looking for Twilight or Spike? I know Spike's not up yet, I don't think Twilight is either.”

“Um, actually,” said Fluttershy, “I'm here to see you, also Rainbow's outside waiting to deck you.”

“I told her she was free to do so,” said Chrysalis, “to be fair I deserve worse, regardless of what drove me to those actions twelve years ago.”

“You're going to be a mother, you even admitted you already think you might be carrying, you shouldn't subject yourself to such punishments.”

Chrysalis smiled as she came up next to the yellow pegasus, “I know your heart always seems to find the right place, but the egg sacks I lay are designed to take more punishment than whatever ms Rainbow Dash can throw my way.”

“Yes, well her husband is probably waiting to give you a little extra roughing, he's a Wonderbolt as well.”

Blinking a few times Chrysalis said, “I heard about her marriage to Soarin, they make a cute couple. Before you say anything, my hive didn't send any of its members to attend that event, I considered it and shot down the act.”

“Um, why?”

“I learned from the Canterlot wedding that if any of your friends or you were in attendance at he wedding, which was highly likely seeing as it was one of your closest friends getting married, then some of you would try to be on alert member of my hive and we couldn't take the chance that one of our diminished hive were discovered before they gathered enough positive emotional energy to dispense amongst the hive. After all, we left a very poor, if somewhat accurate, impression regarding changelings. I told you all yesterday that my hive was a best case scenario, that wasn't an exaggeration.”

“I suppose, you said you had three older sisters, but you only named two of them, who's the third?”

“Nymph,” said Chrysalis flatly with hint of irritation.

“Her name doesn't sound all that frightening.”

“She bred with a water monster of some kind, I still don't know what it was supposed to look like or what was called, all I know is she came back blue. Nymph is regarded as the most beautiful of us, so much so that my sisters and mother have claimed that no matter the species they are entrapped by her beauty. She's a vicious menace to anything in the water, period.”

“Oh, um, is her coat color like Rainbow's?”

“No, Rainbow has a much lighter coat,” the sound of a door opening and slight chastisement from Applejack to Rainbow was heard, Rainbow gave a rather shallow retort.

“Oh, how much lighter?”

“Rainbow is the sky, a graceful beauty few can obtain and many admire. Nymph's coloration is a deep blue, she may look pretty from afar or close up, but her callous and vicious personality always bleed through in her voice no matter what form she takes. She's about as far from Rainbow as you can get, ugly as sin on the inside with a case of chronic backstabbing disorder and willingness to sell anyone else out if she thinks it could give her an edge.”

“What's your honest thoughts on Rainbow, now that being with Spike has changed you for the better?”

“She's beautiful on the inside and outside, loyal almost to a fault, but only to ponies she believes earned it. To her loyalty comes with trust, if she can't trust you how can she have loyalty to you? I probably haven't done anything to earn her trust or loyalty, it will probably happen in time, but chances are it will be weeks or months before she places that kind of faith in me.”

“Well said, suguarcube,” came Applejack's voice, “sorry uhbout listenin' en, Ah usually don't okay eavesdroppin', but en this case Ah thought et might be worth et.” The orange mare came into view wearing blue jean shorts and a red plaid shirt with her signature stetson. Beside her was Rainbow Dash in a dark green two-piece athletic outfit.

“I heard Rainbow open the door to eavesdrop on us, and your little 'whisper-shout' debate,” said Chrysalis, “I don't mind too much, besides that's how I had my hive basically operate, there will be changes when the little darlings finally come along.”

“Ah heard ya yesterday, a few hundred little ones, ya 'ave designs on uh big family.”

“By changeling standards, it's actually kind of small, it is quite common for hives to have populations that exceed two-thousand individual members.”

“What's the largest hive your aware of?” Inquired Rainbow, “I'm still gonna deck ya for the wedding, but at least it won't be as bad as the next set of changelings that show their sorry flanks here.”

“That would be my mother,” said Chrysalis flatly, “with a total hive population of three hundred thousand nine eighty-six the last time I checked her hive requires multiple colony sites to function effectively, and yes she sees every one of those changelings as fodder for her ambitions. The next largest is Arachne's hive with a little over twenty-thousand individual members as of my last check.”

“Oh, that is a lot of flanks ta bust up, even if I did move at max speed I probably wouldn't get a chance ta deck your old lady, huh?”

“Basically,” said Chrysalis, “if you want to hit me then hit me already.”

“Et's not polite ta hit tha guest uh a princess en 'er home,” said Applejack sternly.

“Yes, well you have to forgive my lack of understanding on that part,” said Chrysalis, “I'm aware of that particular ethic, but such things are a bit foreign to changelings. We'll observe and respect the policies like that, but we just don't fully understand that sort of thing. Believe it or not it is actually perfectly valid for a queen to get hit in her own throne room, with numerous attendants, of course it's also perfectly acceptable for the queen to partake in open acts of intimacy in the throne room, that are probably left behind closed doors.” Fluttershy and Applejack blushed a bit at this revelation, Chrysalis continued, "the fact is changelings have a lot of very open ended rules because of the potential traits that they pick up from their mates, most of which are either left alone after they got the queen pregnant or have her hive end said mate, to cut back on the demand for resources. Neither of those practices appealed to me at any point in my life, I made the conscious decision to share my life and hive with my mate, which just happened to turn out to be Spike. Changeling queens stopped the practice a long time ago, at least that's what I was told. Of course, my foalhood years were torture as well.”

“What were you like when you were young?” Said Fluttershy.

“I had the curiosity and dedication to knowledge that Twilight seems to have had most of her life and the sweet disposition that Fluttershy holds.” Everypony locked up as they tried to process a school age Chrysalis being nice and studious.”

“Uh, what happened?” said Rainbow.

“My mother decided to 'weed' the nice out of me and mostly succeeded before I reached the age of twenty, by that time I was a cold calculating creature that was callous to everything that wasn't my hive, mom still didn't like that I treated my hive's members as indispensable creatures, and only further infuriated her by giving them names that denoted personality instead of the cold clinical naming that every other hive uses. A lot of stuff flies in changeling culture, but queens tend take offense to non-queens in hives having names.”

“Seriously, you can just trot up to a changeling queen in her own place and deck her?”

“Yeah, pretty much,” said Chrysalis, “if you feel the need to deck me for our relationship to move to another point then by all means go for it.”

“Well, if she insists, I don't think Twi would mind since I was told I could do just that,” said Rainbow Dash before balling her hand into a fist and punching Chrysalis in the face with all her might. Chrysalis fell backwards onto the floor and Rainbow started shaking her hand with it showing some minor swelling where it had connected with Chrysalis.

“Are you okay darlings,” said Rarity as she helped Chrysalis up with a disapproving look at Rainbow Dash.

“Fine,” said Rainbow and Chrysalis simultaneously, they quickly looked at each other and Rainbow helped the changeling up the rest of the way.

“You really do have the guts to take the licks from everypony that wants a piece of you, huh?” Said Rainbow.

“Yep,” said Chrysalis, “I was decked by Shining Armor when I got here, I fully expected that; slapped by Princess Cadance, I expected a bit more than that from her, and decked by you just now. Honestly speaking I expected Applejack to give me a good hit too, and I'm still expecting Twilight to deal out some kind of...” a magical blast hit her from behind causing her to spin a bit before falling on her back again before everypony.

Twilight trotted up in her blue nightgown bearing her mark with a smirk on her face as she said, “Glad you said all that in front of me, I was wondering when I'd get an appropriate time to show my thoughts on your past transgressions. I'm glad you want to square away with all of us, I'm sure Princess Celestia will have something prepared for you in private to show her 'appreciation' for everything your hive did at the wedding.”

“Ah'm not tha kinda gal ta go deckin' folks,” said Applejack as she helped Chrysalis up, but Ah do want reparations fer all tha backhanded compliments ya had fer mah family's recipes bein' fit fer uh weddin'.”

“How long do you want my hard labor in whatever you want?” Said Chrysalis, “You seem the type to think that old fashion manual labor is just what a pony needs to set things strait with others and themselves.”

“Well, shucks darlin',” said Applejack, “ya read me lahk Twi reads uh book. Two weeks, and ya 'ave ta sleep en tha barn until Ah say otherwise, just 'cause ya got muscles lahk Spike don't mean ya how ta properly use them.”

“That seems amicable,” said Chrysalis, “speaking of which, I was actually thinking of having some of my brood help out your farm when they mature enough, you don't have to pay them or me anything, I just want to make my hive a productive set of neighbors and helping your family out on their farm seems like a decent start.”

“Thank ya kindly,” said Applejack, “it would go a long way ta show this hive is much different than tha one ya called on twelve years ago.”

“If you want you can even name some of my offspring, I'm pretty sure Spike and I can't come up with names for all of them. In fact,” she turned to face Twilight, “Twilight, your friends and family are all welcome to give a few names to my brood whenever you want.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” said Rainbow Dash, “you're letting us actually name some of your children?”

“Yes, but their egg sacks won't be reading for laying for a few weeks,” said Chrysalis, “then we have to wait a few months for the larva inside to mature enough to hatch, the first brood will need me their to catch them as they 'hatch'.”

“Why is that?” Inquired Fluttershy.

“We actually talked about that at length last night as part of our discussion,” said Twilight, “changeling egg sacks are stuck to the walls and ceilings because it's actually safer for them there, not only does it keep them from getting trampled as members of the hive mill about but it also helps them to regulate the heat of the sacks better to ensure the developing larva isn't so hot or cold it ends up causing their vital functions to go awry or cause death.”

“So, what did you need me for Fluttershy?” Said Chrysalis.

“Oh, um, you have some bug like characteristics and behaviors, right?”

“Yes, but most of those are now overwritten by Spike's dragon aspects,” said Chrysalis.

“Oh, well some of my animal friends like eating some varieties of bugs, but we're having trouble finding them.”

“I think I can help with that,” said Chrysalis, “after I help you with this I'll tell Spike about my new arrangement with Applejack and start working out the finer details, I suppose ms Apple wants me to start first thing tomorrow, if that's the case I'll get everything I can ready and set up for my new temporary sleeping arrangements tonight.”

Applejack raised an eyebrow and said, “Ah expected a bit more o' uh struggle, Ah guess that stuff abou' ya taking on some of Spike's temperament wa' more true than Ah thought. Ya used ta be tha proud type, Ah can tell that much, but now yer more along tha lines o' tha agreeable sort.”

*********************************************

An hour and a half later Chrysalis and Fluttershy were trotting through the Everfree Forest. “Alright,” said Chrysalis, “where have you been looking for bugs?”

“All the usual places that always seem to have lots of bugs,” said Fluttershy, “under rocks, in the mud near ponds, Froggy Bottom Bog, but for some reason I just can't find any of the bugs my animal friends want to eat, I know I made sure to only get a few and leave each place alone for a few months before returning, because bugs are animals too, just not the kind many ponies are willing to acknowledge.”

“Well, at least you have the right policy,” said Chrysalis, “have you ever trotted rotting stumps or logs?”

“Um, no,” I don't really see them all that often, and my animal friends say they don't like the smell of those sorts of places, and neither do I.”

“Rotting wood is one of the best places for insects to call home,” said Chrysalis with a smirk, “it's like a bug version of Canterlot or Manehattan, there's a lot of variety to a rotting piece of wood. While rot is seen as a bad thing with most other things, this is a case of it being very good.”

They kept going until a pungent smell filled both their noses, “I think we might near a rotting log,” said Fluttershy, “once we find it and I find which bugs are living there I'll come back with the proper tools to get a few for my flying friends.”

“Just remember that each type of rot has a different collection of bugs calling it home,” said Chrysalis as they came up on mass of rotting stumps and logs the size and width of a dining table, “and it looks like our first one of this venture is effectively a super city.”

Taking a closer look the two saw what amounted to a massive community of different sort of bugs, both hovered over the collection with their wings. Fluttershy seemed to be going over the whole assortment with a critical eye and taking mental note of certain locations within the massive collection of rotting wood pieces. They both left the forest after that and Fluttershy thanked Chrysalis for her help.

*******************************

A few minutes after leaving the Everfree Chrysalis was back at Twilight's castle and Spike was already up. He was in a blue shirt with white shorts. Chrysalis smiled as she trotted into the dining all and first saw him downing a bowl of cereal that basically amounted to the entire box worth of the food item.

“Hi honey,” said Chrysalis with a peck on his cheek, “Applejack wants me to make amends by help out on the farm for a couple of weeks, so I'll down there starting work down there tomorrow, I'll be packing everything up to get ready to sleep down there tonight in a few minutes.”

“Well, our early time of fun together had to end at some point,” said Spike with a hint of disappointment.

“Don't worry, the honeymoon will be quite memorable,” said Chrysalis with a seductive lick of his cheek and neck, “I'm sure we'll both make sure of that.”

“What about the kids?” Inquired Spike, “we'll have a few trotting around by the time that happens, right?”

“The first brood always takes the longest to hatch,” said Chrysalis, “we'll have a few weeks at the very least to enjoy some semblance of early married life.”

Spike turned to face her and said, “Well that's nice.”

Chrysalis licked her lips before his face and said, “What made you think a brood galloping about was getting you out of the extracurriculars I've got planned for you.”

“Ugh, can you two not do your pre-bedroom banter in front of me," said Twilight (still in her night gown), "especially when you both know that it will be more than a couple of days apart. Spike, I thought you at least knew that much!”

“The banter is all her,” said Spike after breaking eye contact with Chrysalis and meeting Twilight's gaze, “she just figured I opened up for that one. I guess it must be a cultural thing.”

“Can't use that as an excuse for everything,” said Twilight as she reached for the orange juice, “and I miss my coffee.”

“Hey, you're going to be a mother,” said Spike, “that should be making you happy.”

“Spike,” said Chrysalis, “she is happy, it's just that she's also annoyed that her usual habits have to be mitigated for an extended period of time, I'll probably be worse than this when the eggs are laid.”

“Thank you,” said Twilight, “somepony who explained it so everypony can understand.”

“Well, I'm off,” said Chrysalis, “I have some things that need to get squared away by sundown,” she gave Spike a peck on the cheek and was out the door.

“I didn't think I would find myself saying this,” said Twilight, “but I'm not sure if I like her like this or when we thought she was just a villain that threatened our homes.”

*****************************

Chrysalis was moving through the town on her way to the farm to work out the particulars when she nearly bumped into Pinkie Pie. “Oh, sorry, Pinkie,” I didn't see you there.” The pink mare in question was wearing a maroon shirt with cotton candy blue pants and a forest blue top hat that had her pet alligator riding on it.

“It's okay,” said Pinkie in a chipper voice, “but we really should throw you a party, everypony needs to get to know the new you.”

“I think we should give them the time to get used to the idea I'm so close and nonthreatening before we throw anything like that,” said Chrysalis, “but if you want to help you could ask Rarity to get whatever work outfits she's put together for me to Sweet Apple Acres, I have to work off the mistrust Applejack and her family have for me for the next couple of weeks starting tomorrow and I'll start spending the night where she says I need tonight so I can start things off early as possible.”

“Okie Dokie,” said Pinkie before bouncing off.

“Oh, and if you want I'll make some time for you once I'm done hammering out all the details with Applejack.”

“Yay,” came Pinkie's voice from somewhere Chrysalis couldn't discern.

After looking around a bit Chrysalis thought, If she was nowhere near me how did she manage to be so loud in my ears? After her little musing, she continued with making her way to Sweet Apple Acres.

When she arrived she was met by a yellow mare with a red mane in blue coveralls adorning an apple with a green plaid a green plaid shirt and a pink bow in her hair. The mare was just staring at her in surprise.

“Hi,” said Chrysalis in a genuinely respectful tone, “I'm here to see Applejack about repaying a debt I owe... miss, are you alright?”

“AJ said ya were different, but Ah didn't expect with tha new look ya'd also have an attitude similar ta Spike.”

“It's a changeling thing, miss,” said Chrysalis, “if the original plan of my hive had happened I don't suppose things would be this civil.”

“Why's that?” Came Applejack's voice, as she came up to greet Chrysalis she said, “Bloom, et's not nice ta stare at uh guest like that. Did ya at least intraduce yerself befer ya gawked?”

“Nope,” said Chrysalis, “so, she was one of the flower fillies at the wedding... Apple Bloom, right?”

“Ya actually remembered mah name?” Said Apple Bloom with surprise.

“And your friends,” said Chrysalis, “Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo, I believe. Before you ask, it's a quirk of mine. I did name all fourteen thousand members of my original hive, and manged to remember the names at least nine-hundred at any given time, I know keeping track of that many is a bit of a pain, but I loved it none the less. So, what's a few more names in my memory list?”

Apple Bloom and Applejack just stared with surprise, Applejack had heard it before, but she had just figured Chrysalis had exaggerated a bit on hive sizes to make things sound more impressive, now that the changeling queen was closer to her she could tell that Chrysalis was telling the honest truth.

“If Ah remember right, yer carrying,” said Applejack, “were ya serious when ya made that offer?”

“What offer? Ah hope et isn't somethin' foul,” said Apple Bloom.

“I just told your sister and her friends that their friends and family could name one of my children if they want after I lay my egg sacks,” said Chrysalis with a rub on her abdomen, “MS Apple.”

“Yes,” said the sisters in unison, Chrysalis facepalmed.

“MS, Applejack, we have business arrangements to discuss regarding how I am to best compensate you for my poor manners twelve years ago.”

“Indeed,” said Applejack, “now whut was that part abou' this bein' not as civil like.”

“The orchestrator of the ritual that resulted in Spike and I being in my new colony grounds, a magic worker I named Spell Cocoon, initially planned on utilizing your brother as a means to regrow the hive, I told him to change the target male immediately. I had no intention of being forced to breed with a male that already has a mate, he was selected solely for his physical prowess, I would have wanted nothing to do with him even if he were not in a committed romantic relationship.”

“Well, et's nice ta hear ya got some sense ta ya,” said Applejack, “just why wouldn't ya 'ave considered mah brother ef 'e were still single.”

“One of my sisters is red, and she literally drinks blood, his color on changelings would keep causing some very bad memories to assault me. And can you honestly say you can imagine me in your brother's colors without wanting to cause me physical harm?”

“Eenope,” said the sisters simultaneously.

“Ah'm glad et was Spike ya ended up with,” said Applejack as she led Chrysalis on to the farm with Apple Bloom at her side, “he needed somepony ta help take his mind offa Rarity, and ta be honest Ah think yer matchin' 'is scales is much better than when we saw ya at Cadance's weddin'.”

“Agreed,” said Apple Bloom, “ya got plans ta marry Spike?”

“Yes, but only after I've managed to reconcile with everypony that needs it from me, and let folks get used to the new me a bit,” said Chrysalis, "I'll be meeting up with Pinkie later, I wonder what she's got planned for me, and when I do I'll probably discuss my marital plans with her.”

Applejack and Apple Bloom did a full stop before Applejack said, “Yer actually plannin' on marryin' Spike?”

“Well, I always planned on spending the rest of my life with my mate,” said Chrysalis without missing a beat, “I might as well do the whole legal end of things to minimize problems for the two of us, but honestly I'd spend the rest of my life tied to him without that sort of thing. I've told you before that I'm an oddity among changelings; if it were any other queen they'd have ridden him once or twice and left for parts unknown, but me, I always planned on spending the rest of my life with my mate. My sisters laughed at me, saying it was a pointless act, and my mother said it was one of the most disgraceful acts a changeling could perform.”

“Sounds more like ya were thinkin' abou' doin' what ya could fer family,” said Apple Bloom, “and yah got sisters?”

“Believe et or not Bloom, she's actually the youngest of four," said Applejack, "and she's always been tha nice one.”

“Ah heard, one uh her sisters really does drink blood,” said Apple Bloom with a shudder, “what abou' tha other two?”

“Vespa would rather sting you, literally, than have any semblance of a civil conversation and Nymph is more likely to try and drown you than actually help you down at the swimming hole,” said Chrysalis in a matter-of-fact voice, "at least I'm civil enough to give you a sporting chance, and I always preferred playing games than actually doing anything to cause any physical harm, yes I was prone to do a few things that could mentally scare some folks, but by my family's standards that was being overly nice, they always thought you weren't living up to your potential if there weren't any scars or bruises on your targets to show your progress.”

“So they like ta roughhouse, that don't sound ta bad ta me,” said Apple Bloom.

“That was when they played 'nice' with each other,” responded Chrysalis, “when they 'played' those sorts of things with me I ended up with broken limbs that would definitely land me a few nights in the hospital if I were a pony. And they said they were doing me a favor by doing all that, I was their favorite punching bag when I was your age,” she gave a mournful look to Apple Bloom to emphasize her point.

It took the Apple siblings a long moment to process this before Applejack said, “Tha' is no way ta treat yer kin.”

“That's how changeling ilk are,” said Chrysalis, “there wasn't a month that went by I didn't have damage worthy of a reckless foal, the difference being the damage to my body was a result of my sisters showing me their 'appreciation', I would have been content to just be playing games like chess or studying my spells, but my sisters would 'insist' on making sure I 'got some exercise', which usually ended with me beaten and literally broken on the floor or against the wall, my private chambers didn't even give me an offer of solitude.”

“Et's like if Shining armor was vicious and had no sense of personal space,” commented Applejack.

“No,” said Chrysalis, “that would a step up from how my sisters treated me, and to make things worse my mother endorsed that kind behavior from them and chastised me for my behavior. Now Applejack, about those arrangements.”

“Oh, righ', you'll be spendin' yer nights in tha barn until tha family agrees ya di' enough ta warrant usin' one uh tha spare rooms. But ya 'ave a debt ta tha Apple family ta pay, once ya've come close to payin' et off we'll see abou' ya payin' off some uh tha share we feel ya did ta tha ponies uh Canterlot.”

“That seems more than fair,” said Chrysalis, “I might try to shave off some of the interest I built up as well.”

“Will she really be sleepin' in tha barn? Ya just said she's carr...what did she mean by egg sacks an' namin' one uh 'er foals?”

“Talk ta Twilight abou' et,” said Applejack, “she's got et all recorded.”

“Okay, thanks, sis, later,” said Apple Bloom before she was off.

“You know where she's going, right,” said Chrysalis with a sense of certainty.

“Eeyup,” said Applejack as they made their way to somewhere more comfortable to conduct business, “now, yer duties on tha farm will start wid...”

*********************************************

A five hour lecture on what was expected from those working on the farm from with twenty-minute intermission, which involved Granny Smith giving Chrysalis a good smack and three minute lecture on respecting the efforts of others, before Chrysalis told both mares she had every intention following whatever instructions they had to the letter. That statement caught both off guard a bit, and got her a nod of approval from the elderly mare.

After the lectures, and a few discussions with the Apple family, Chrysalis decided to head back to where she left her bags to gather them, after a quick stop off at Suguarcube Corner for some face time with Pinkie Pie. She had every intention of laying the groundwork for making amends with those she wronged, and Pinkie was definitely on the list.

The moment she walked in she was assaulted by pink, a lot of pink, and when the pink cleared from her eyes she found herself holding a chocolate cupcake with mint frosting. Before taking a bite she noticed some glittering bits of purple crystal in the frosting and said, “Pinkie, are there amethyst shards in the frosting?”

“The rest of cupcake batter too,” giggled Pinkie, “I made really big batch for you and Spike.”

“So, you don't have any displeasure to express towards me?”

“Oh, I got that all out of my system after I saw you again, yes I felt angry towards you and your hive, but holding grudge towards somepony who's remorseful towards crashing a party isn't my style. If you still didn't feel bad about ruining the party then you would meet my not-so-nice side.”

“It's okay Pinkie,” said Chrysalis, “if you feel a need to hit me for our relationship to move on go for it, but you might want to do it outside, we don't want to damage anything in here.”

“Okie Dokie Loki,” said Pinkie before bouncing out of the building with Chrysalis sauntering close behind. Once they were in an alley near the shop, but out the casual view of everyone Pinkie said, “Thanks for saying that I could, and sorry in advance for what comes next.” She suddenly pulled her party cannon from seemingly nowhere, Chrysalis was too busy trying figure that one out to actually pay attention to what followed, and blasted Chrysalis with said firearm. Chrysalis was knocked over to a laying position and when she got back up she was somehow in a pink party dress with Pinkie's cutie mark on the chest and the words 'All is Forgiven' in blue and green stitching in the design of saltwater taffy.

Looking herself over the changeling queen said, “When did you have Rarity make this?”

“I had her prioritize it soon as we got back,” said Pinkie with a smile.

Chrysalis then noticed she had still been holding the cupcake Pinkie had given her, and it was completely untouched. She just decided to not think about it and bit into the confection. She immediately stuffed the rest into her mouth and slowly chewed the sweet. For some reason, the gem embedded in the sweet had a tangy sensation that worked well with the chocolate and mint flavors that were also in her mouth. After her careful chewing and giving a graceful swallow that would do Rarity proud Chrysalis hugged the pink mare for a few minutes and resumed her trot to Twilight's castle. Pinkie giggled and thanked Chrysalis for taking the time to try and reconcile with her.

As she continued on her way back she heard Rainbow Dash Behind her saying, “Well, that dispelled a buncha my doubts about the new you. If you were the same 'queen' we encountered twelve years ago you wouldn't be trying to go through all this effort, or do that thing you just did with Pinkie.”

Chrysalis turned around to see the cyan mare, still in her black track suit, hovering just high enough to be eye level with Chrysalis. “But you still don't trust me, do you? I wouldn't blame you if that is the case,” said Chrysalis.

“Of course, I got doubts we can trust ya, your somepony who orchestrated the near ruin of Princess Cadance's wedding with Twilight's brother.”

“It's funny you say that,” said Chrysalis, “I think the princess has somehow found it in herself to forgive me for all my transgressions, which is something I certainly don't think I deserve this early on, but it looks like Shining Armor still doubts my sincerity. You and him are wary of my change, and to be honest, there's nothing I know of that can be said or done to alleviate those doubts. Now if you will excuse, me I have to collect my bags and return to Sweet Apple Acres.”

“What for?”

“Ask your friend Applejack. I'll tell you that my mother considered me a failed experiment and was waiting for an excuse to terminate me.”

“That seems cold, callous and unemotional."

“That's how changeling queens are, Rainbow,” said Chrysalis with a hint of despondence to her voice.

“And you're gonna say you were always different.”

“By pony standards, I was all of those things, my mother succeeded in making me that way in spite of my less than desirable properties, but by changeling standards, I was just shy of all of those things. I'm not going try and make excuses, especially to you or your friends, and I honestly think that at least one pony unwilling to fully reconcile with me is fair. When I was little I was more like your friend Twilight with a few hints of your friends Pinkie and Fluttershy, and maybe a touch you and Rarity.”

Rainbow stared at Chrysalis with a skeptical look, Chrysalis continued with, “If it makes you feel better I could share some my memories with all of you, but it's been so long I can just estimate my age range. A few nights ago I recalled some of my earlier days, but to be honest it felt a little jumbled, almost as if my mind had compressed certain things and focused my mind to thinking I was at around a specific age. My most recently recovered memory had me feeling like I was seven years or so, but I couldn't tell you if that was true or I was closer to ten or four years of age for some of the stuff in the memory. Truth be told I never really kept a diary or journal, or even made the effort to maintain my memories. It feels like I should change all that now,” she brought her hand to her abdomen again, “at least when it comes to everything that's happened in the past month or so.”

“You were obviously doing okay in the badlands, what changed all that?”

“Something that preys on creatures like changelings, it ate some of my hive and it's still there waiting for something to come along so it can eat them.”

“I thought your biggest threat was other hives that don't like you.”

“To an extent that is true,” Chrysalis shivered, “but there are some things far more terrifying than another queen out for my blood or that of some other queen.”

“Like what?”

“Ask the princesses,” and wit that Chrysalis turned around and continued on her way to Twilight's castle.

*********************************

A few minutes later she arrived back at the castle to see Spike already holding her bags. “Hi, sweetheart,” she said when she got close before taking the bags in her hold and giving the dragon a kiss with extra tongue action then pulling away with a little string of saliva connecting their mouths, both licked away the bridge simultaneously in the same manner.

“Okay,” Twilight whispered to Flash as she and he watched, “it's creepy enough that Queen Chrysalis looks more like Spike now, not to mention I just saw the two snorkel each other publicly like it was the most natural thing in the world, but she seems to have some of the exact same mannerisms as Spike as well. I doubt it all has to do with the changeling adopting aspects of their partner we discussed.”

“Well that energy blast you gave her this morning was more you getting some frustration out, she actually told you she was fine with it beforehand, right?”

“She said it to Rainbow, while in front of me, we haven't talked again yet.”

“You like her, I can tell. Aside from residual aggression towards her for nearly messing your brother's wedding that is. She didn't even try to mess with any of the weddings of your friends, or ours.”

“I know, but I'm still on guard with her, changelings can be tricky. But looking at her fawning over Spike with what appears to be legitimate affection just doesn't compute.”

“Did you take into account that she's probably being honest with everyone.”

“Yes, but just doesn't make sense, she's actually trying to make amends, but something just isn't sitting right with me.”

“You know we can hear you, right?” Said Chrysalis as she came up next to Twilight and Flash, “If you want you can look at some of my memories, but I guess I'll have to help you so you don't hurt yourself.”

“And have you cherry pick potential false memories,” said Twilight with indignation, “no thank you.”

“I said help, not show,” said Chrysalis, “I know a spell called the Memory Hall, it's a spell that allows you or one 'target' of your choosing to wander through the memories of a chosen entity nearby, I couldn't decide what memories you witness anymore you could decide what your dream tonight is, but I must warn you the spell has its risks.”

“Like what?” Said Flash with concern, “will it affect her health?”

“Physically, no,” said Chrysalis, “mentally or emotionally, yes. You see one of the big risks in the spell is you aren't guarded against the emotions associated with any of the memories you witness. Now Twilight, for your own safety I recommend you go back at at least a month, seeing as anything more recent than that might mentally scar you when it comes to Spike, because some memories are in fact fantasies and daydreams.”

Twilight took a moment before nodding and saying, “Will the memories be clearly marked? So I can tell which are safe.”

“Hard to say,” said Chrysalis, “your mind will shape how the hall and portals within are structured, you could end up in vast open field with doors that seem to be out of place and each bearing an icon that tells you all you what the memory relates too, or a narrow hallway with minimal lighting and doors of different composition with no indicators of any kind, or something else entirely. The point is the spell is formed as much by my mind as it is yours, although since we seem to have had similar mindsets at some point it's possible the spell will take the form that you're thinking it will.”

“Um, could you just teach it to me? That might be better for us,” said Twilight.

Chrysalis smiled and said, “it took me almost a month to learn that spell, but since you're an alicorn and have a talent for magic you might just be able to learn it by the end of the day. It seems I've already reconciled with most of your friends,” Flash giggled at this seeing as Chrysalis still was wearing the dress that Pinkie's party cannon had put on her, “let's head to the study so that I can write it all out for you and guide you through the spell's operation. Also when you cast the spell you always seem to end up in the region the corresponds with the most recent memory, usually one that is closest in terms the physical time you cast the spell, beyond that you'll need to let experience be your real teacher.”

“That's fine with me,” said Twilight, “does the spell have a built-in safeguard, or is it up to the caster when it's time to leave?”

“That's a variable I can't really vouch on,” said Chrysalis as they made their way to the study, once there Twilight used her magic to bring out a six big chalkboards complete with a handy supply of chalk.

Chrysalis lit up her magic and started writing out everything on three of the boards before turning to talk to her audience as the chalk kept going, “While the spell is called Memory Hall that's not quite accurate, it's more like a spell that lets the somepony visit nearly all the memories of anyone they want, within reason, with the gateways and their holding ground taking a form that is determined by the caster and the one the spell is being cast on. One of the spell's quirks is that just because you saw the 'hallway' of somepony one way on one trip doesn't mean it'll be that way when you use the spell on them again, much like the mind is a chaotic storm that seems to impose order the 'field' for the one entering the territory created by the spell will never have a consistent form to it, the only reason the spell has the name it does is because the first event of the spell actually being used had the caster finding herself in a hallway with gateways to memories of the pony she targeted with the spell.”

“Was it a changeling that created the spell?” Inquired Twilight.

“No,” said Chrysalis, “the one created the spell was unicorn mare almost seven thousand years ago, she created it by sheer happenstance. However, all her memories of the spell were stolen by a changeling spell collector, who then locked all memories tied to the spell itself and the spell before the mare passed on. I don't know which queen the collector belonged to, and the name of the mare was never passed on. This is one of the few spells that changelings actually have openly shared with each other, but we also have a rule against sharing it with ponies, a rule I'm breaking of my own volition as part of my attempt to make things right with everypony.”

“Wait, if changelings openly share the spell with on another that must mean it has some other faults you haven't mentioned, why would they share that spell openly? The way you said it changeling hives don't trust each other.”

“That's because you're right, on all accounts. The reason why this spell,” the formulas for the spell finished writing out on the boards, Twilight started copying them, "is because anyone targeted by the spell can terminate it at any time, usually that means you need to be aware of the spell's existence, but I have been told that on more than one occasion ponies that were targeted the spell managed to destabilize the spell in some way.”

“Can you provide examples?”

“Moving outside the casting range of the user,” one of the blank board suddenly showed an image of a changeling within a bubble that showed a pegasus moving out the bubble, “due to the almost erratic nature of the spell several mid to high range spells can disrupt it, “the boards showed a unicorn charging their horn to cast a big spell, “and to top it off if the will of the target is strong enough they'll just buck you out without even knowing you were there, to begin with,” the boards displayed an earth pony standing under a tree, “of course you also need to factor in things like magic resistance, like the kind found amongst several varieties of matured dragons.”

Twilight scribbled down all this in her notes before saying, “Actually, for a spell like this, I figured there might be concerns like this. And you're just going to willingly let me in and see what's happened?”

Chrysalis nodded before saying, “Now the first thing you need to know about this spell is...”