We Two Queens

by Fuzzyfurvert

Rating: mature
Tags: Queen Chrysalis, Romance, Sex, Twilight Sparkle, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Length: 6925

Chrysalis reluctantly resigns herself to the fate of all changeling Queens, but the sudden appearance of Twilight Sparkle offers her a chance no Queen has ever faced - true motherhood.

There are two kinds of Changelings; the mindless drones, and the powerful Queens they serve. Like the lesser insects they resemble, Changeling Hives have only one Queen, the birth of which heralds the demise of the former. Such has been the Changeling way since the beginning of time.

Until Twilight Sparkle intervened.

Published 2015-08-06 20:10:02 UTC
Last updated 2015-08-06 20:10:02 UTC

Chapter 1

We Two Queens

by Fuzzyfurvert

Power, my child, comes in many forms.

Remember this, when you are grown and off to form your own hive. There is power in numbers, power in strength and speed, power in mind and magic. There is power in emotions, particularly love and hate. These will drive you and those around you to do things you didn’t believe you were powerful enough to accomplish. But be wary, these same sources of power can cripple you if you are not careful. Just look at me.

So, it can also be said that there is power in caution, patience, and in planning. Do well in remembering that.

Talk of power sources is all well and good, but without knowing the consequences of that power, what good is it?

Chrysalis, Queen of the Greater Central Equus Hive, tapped the end of the quill she held against the end of her nose. She mulled over the sheet of vellum in front of her, reading the words she’d just written over and over. Should she continue, or was this version doomed to join the growing pile of crumpled sheets that littered her chamber? What was she supposed to write to her offspring that they would be stronger than her? Smarter than her? How did she lay out the pitfalls of life in a single note?

Chrysalis sighed and dropped the vellum on the formed chitin that she thought of as her desk. The sigh morphed into a bitter bark of laughter as the memory of the note her mother had left for her when she’d awoken the first time in this very chamber. It was short, to the point, and the penmanship was...well, not the best, to say the least.

“‘You are a shadow of all I am and one day you too will birth your own killer. Until then, eat well, for it is the only pleasure in this world.’” Chrysalis recited from memory. Her mother had not been a happy creature. She couldn’t blame her really, she’d died after a long and protracted labour birthing a new Queen. Her body serving as her child’s first meal, her knowledge passed down via consumption of her brain. So much quicker than the learning process the ponies favored. So much messier too.

Chrysalis looked back over her shoulder, down her body at the swollen and distended egg sack that was attached to her. It had appeared quiet suddenly after a large meal a few days previous and was now as large as the whole of her body. It limited her movement to her chamber, and only just a few hoofsteps in one direction or another. In a day or two, she would no longer even be able to manage that much. By the end of the week, the cycle would be complete and a new Queen would emerge, picking Chrysalis’s flesh from between her teeth.

She hung her head, turning back to her unfinished note. If she was to die and be consumed, she would at least leave her child better advice than she had been given. Chrysalis lifted the vellum and the quill when there was a sudden flash of light, her eyes blinking away spots and after images. When her vision cleared a second later, she found herself face to face with none other than Twilight Sparkle.

Chrysalis snarled, but she didn’t have the energy to do much more. “What is the meaning of this? I will have you skinned by my drones, you miserable cur!”

“Wait!” Twilight stepped back and held up her hooves. “I come in peace, Chrysalis!”

“And that means what to me?” Chrysalis growled, deep in the back of her throat, her horn starting to glow. “Thinking you can make last minute amends with me? Go tell your Celestia that I will do all I can to have my descendants succeed where I failed in toppling her empire!”

“No, no! That’s why I’m here! I found a book that details how changeling Queens are created...and after the last few attacks on our outer settlement, a patterns started to become clear.” Twilight cleared her throat, her voice lowering. “Celestia doesn’t know I’m here, Chrysalis. I didn’t think I had time to tell her.”

She reached slowly into a saddle bag that she wore on her side and pulled out an old tome. “It says in here that the process is pretty fast once it starts. As soon as I realized that you were taking more love power and taking it more frequently, I figured it was due to your body getting ready to create a new Queen.”

“Well aren’t you the smart one?” Chrysalis let the magic in her horn fizzle. “Do you want a gold star for that? Or maybe you just came to watch this little miracle of nature? New changeling Queens aren’t born everyday.”

“Thank the goddess for that.” Twilight grimaced. “The book says the process is...unpleasant.”

“You could call getting eaten while still breathing that, yes.”

Twilight coughed, turning a little green around the gills. She slipped the book back into its bag and took another step back before taking a seat. She looked at the egg sack for a moment. “How much longer do you have?”

“How am I to tell that? It’s not as if I have experience with this.” Chrysalis rolled her eyes, crossing her hooves in front of herself. “A few days. A week, perhaps.”

“Then I’m not too late!” Twilight smiled fiercely. “Chrysalis, listen, there is a way to break the cycle. You don’t have to die this way.”

“The only way to break the cycle, Sparkle, is to kill me. I thought you were the smart one?”

“No! Listen, I think I figured out a way to save you, but we have to do it now while the connection to your body’s systems is still pliable. Once it hardens, you’ll be locked in and it won’t work.” Twilight leaned forward. “I can do this for you, Chrysalis. I can save you, if you’ll let me.”

“Why should I?” Chrysalis sneered, gesturing at her body. “Why should I let you, let alone trust you? I know very well that vengeance is not the pony way, you don’t hold grudges for long. But why should I trust you? It might be my death sentence, but it is still the future leader of this Hive. How do I know you wouldn’t do something to it? Save me and end the cycle of life changelings have known since the dawn of time all at once.”

“I know you have no reason to trust me, Chrysalis. But if you know ponies so well, you know I mean no harm to an unborn foal...er...larva…” Twilight shrugged. “But I’m the Princess of Friendship now—”

“From one royal to another, congratulations on the ascension, by the way.” Chrysalis sneered, contempt dripping from each word. “At least you ponies have a competent leader now.”

“Thank you.” Twilight narrowed her eyes at Chrysalis,visibly biting back any other response at the jab. It took her a few seconds, but Twilight regained enough of her composure to continue.

“But as Princess of Friendship, I cannot sit idly by while somepony I know suffers. Our peoples have their differences, but I don’t think ponies and changelings could never be allies or friends someday. It has to start somewhere, so why not here and now? Why not with you? Let me help save you, Chrysalis, please.” Twilight tilted her head, watching Chrysalis’ face.

“And what of the nascent Queen?”

“I think the process should leave the egg sack intact and with enough nutrients to last the time it takes for gestation to complete.” Twilight swallowed, turning a little green again as she thought about the processes involved. “We can provide something else as its first meal. Something that isn’t you, obviously. It does change things, I know. But what if this change is for the betterment of all, Chrysalis? Not just you, but your changelings and my ponies? What if breaking the cycle of the Queens is the way forward to a new age of enlightenment and peace?”

Chrysalis frowned and turned that over in her mind. On one hoof, she would get to live. On the other, it went against everything she had ever thought of when it came to the hive’s continuation. There could be all sorts of unforeseen consequences. Her mother’s note surfaced in her mind again. She could be the first Queen to raise a daughter and not be consumed by her. Chrysalis sighed again, looking back and forth between the egg sack and the alicorn. “How would this work?”

“Um...well, it’s an…invasive process.” Twilight eased herself closer to Chrysalis. “I’ll have to trigger a reaction. Sort of force your body to…reallocate resources, as it were.”

“Speak Equuish, or I will have the drones flay you alive.”

Twilight scrunched her nose, her muzzle fighting her. “I-I-I need your...you to um...to react like you’re...mating.”

Chrysalis stared at the alicorn like she’d sprouted a second, third and fourth horn. “Excuse me, what?!”

Twilight opened her mouth, her jaw working but the words steadfastly refused to spill forth for a full minute of inarticulate grunting. Finally, she coughed into her hoof, her blush reaching the tips of her ears. “I need you to...arrive...go...hit the peek?” Twilight waved her hoof about in circles as she searched for the right terminology, her cheeks flushing. “I need you to orgasm, ok? It will cause the muscles in your lower abdomen to tighten and constrict blood flow. At the same time, it will cause the egg sack to contract a little. If I hit the connection at that precise moment, I can separate you from it with minimum damage, then heal you and seal the sack.”

“And the only way this will work...is if I cum?” Chrysalis stared at Twilight, her eyes wide with disbelief. “Are you serious?”

Twilight sputtered at Chrysalis’ casual use of crude language. “Well, the only other things that will cause that sort of reaction would be to hurt you, and in your compromised state, I don’t think you would survive a wound and then having the sac removed. There is also the possibility that your body might just give out and pump everything into the egg sack to try and save the new Queen. Believe me, Chrysalis, I ran the numbers. This is the best option.” Twilight looked at her hooves, rubbing one against the back of her ankle. “Please, Chrysalis. I think I can make the separation essentially painless. Plus...you know...you get to…”

“Oh one roll in the mound doesn’t even begin to make up for what you are asking of me, Sparkle.” Chrysalis chuckled morosely. “Save myself by submitting not only to a pony, but an enemy pony at that. Or die as did my mother, and her mother, and her mother before her going back in time immemorial, to feed and ready the next Queen to lead the Hive. What a choice.”

“Please, Chrysalis, if you can barely move now, then by tomorrow it might not be a choice you get to make.” Twilight scooted a little closer, easing her way into range where the changeling Queen could strike. “We may be enemies at the moment, but for your sake, consider what I offer and consider it fast. I don’t want you to die. Not like this.”

“Then rather by your hoof, at a time when you choose?”

“Goddess! No!” Twilight stood suddenly, glaring down at the prone Queen. “We don’t hold grudges, remember? It is not our way, certainly not mine! You scare me witless! I still have nightmares about that night in the mines where you left me and Cadance. I’m doing this because I’m a good pony and I don’t like it when other creatures suffer, alright? That’s all there is to it. I don’t want you to die, especially now that I know the next Queen would have eaten you and absorbed some of your memories!”

“That is the way of the changeling, Twilight Sparkle.”

“But it doesn’t have to be!” The alicorn sighed, breathing out slowly. “I’m serious Chrysalis, this is the only way this will work and it has to be done now. Let’s start a new era of pony and changeling relations.”

“My, but don’t you know how to turn a phrase?” Chrysalis chuckled again, but there was a little true mirth in her jade eyes. She turned slightly, relaxing back onto her side and spread her rear legs wide. The changeling leered. “This is the strangest politics I’ve ever heard of.”

“Um...what are you doing?” Twilight forced herself to look away, her eyes darting around the chamber to land on anything but Chrysalis.

“You need me to get off, Princess, you said so yourself.” The changeling Queen gestured down her torso as if presenting some game show prize. “I can’t reach with the sack still connected to me, but you can. So get to it. Show me what Celestia taught you about pleasing mares.”

Twilight’s blush flared with renewed strength. “Wh-wh-what? Princess Ce-Celestia never...! How...why would you think that?!”

“Oh don’t be dense, Princess. The rumors were all over Canterlot about you two. I was honestly surprised that you weren’t sleeping with her.” Chrysalis laughed again. “Thought I suppose it worked out in the end, hmmm? Now you will only be soiling yourself with a changeling and not cheating on your fillyfriend at the same time.”

Twilight fumed, frowning and chewing at her lip. For a moment she had to remind herself why she was helping Chrysalis. Why saving the caustic changeling was worth her time. “Oh, well what about you then? Will this compromise your relationship with your special somepony...er...some...ling?”

“No. I’ve never had anyone like that.” Chrysalis sighed tiredly.

“Really?” Twilight blinked in surprise, looking back at Chrysalis. “Not even one of the other changelings in your hive?”

“Please. The drones are nearly mindless, acting on my will and basic instinct. It’d be more akin to masturbation than sex with someone I care for.”

“So...then…?” Twilight braved a quick look towards the Queen’s nethers.

“Yep.” Chrysalis leered, her grin spreading from ear to ear. “Not only will you be saving my life, but taking my virginity too! It’s almost like one of your insipid fairytales. Now weren’t you going on about there being little time to do this? Get over here and do...whatever you have to...before I change my mind.”

Twilight took a deep, steadying breath and let it out slowly. She pressed her lips together in determination to see her task through till the end, standing and walking the last few steps over to where Chrysalis was lounging. “Ok...let’s see what we’re working with here.”

“I’m sure you’ll find all the bits where they need to be.” Chrysalis smirked, her voice dropping into a sultry purr. “Of course, if you have any special requests, I can see about doing a little targeted shapeshifting. What are you? A legs mare, or do you like them a little plump in the pussy? I can make mine just as white and pink as Celestia’s, if that’ll do it for you.”

“Would you just drop that!?” Twilight stomped her hoof. “I respect Princess Celestia more than anypony else in this world! I would never even entertain the thought of her in a sexual manner, I don’t give a buck what the rumor mill in Canterlot likes to think!”

“You would if she asked. We both know that.” Chrysalis’ smirk got wider. “Be honest.”

Twilight grit her teeth, shaking with annoyance until she suddenly calmed and slumped, her face downcast. “Yeah...if she asked.” Twilight looked back up. “Which she never will. Now if you’d stop trying to piss me off, I’m trying to psych myself up to get you off! It’s like you don’t even care that you’ll die if we don’t separate you from the sack.”

Chrysalis’ playful smirk vanished, her voice flattening. “Caring is a liability for us. Even caring about self-preservation is alien to the mindset of changelings. Well…” Chrysalis shrugged, a hint of her smile returning. “To most changelings. I can see the value in it, at least. All of my instincts are telling me to kill you, to provide more nourishment for the lil’ parasite that is consuming me. But I’m holding it back. If can do that, surely you can bring yourself to touch me, Twilight? I can take some other form. I know ponies don’t find me naturally attractive. I don’t bite.”

“Not unless asked? That’s how that quote goes.” Twilight sighed, blowing her breath out through her nose. “I appreciate you’re...holding back on murdering me. Being dead would make it hard to save you.”

She lifted her hoof and reached forward timidly, halting just inches from Chrysalis’ crotch and the narrow slit between two slightly curved plates of chitin. She grit her teeth and forced herself to move the final distance. The plates gave under the pressure of her hoof, softer than Twilight would have ever imagined, though definitely firmer than any pony flesh. The pieces parted and a peek of wet pinkness appeared in the middle of Chrysalis’ crotch. The changeling gasped through clenched teeth, her eyelids fluttering a little.

“Hey...Chrysalis…you don’t have to change for me. I’m made of stronger stuff, I promise.” Twilight swallowed nervously, working her hoof back and forth with tiny motions. She was no expert, sexually speaking, but she knew what she liked. Hopefully it would translate to another mare. “Does this feel ok? I don’t want to hurt you.”

“Y-yeah...that’s good.” Chrysalis took another deep breath, closing her eyes for a moment, her head rolling back. “Little harder...f-faster too. Please.”

The alicorn nodded vaguely, her eyes bouncing back and forth from Chrysalis’ face to her crotch and then down to where the sack attached itself to her. Wow...this feels so weird. I never would have thought to use ‘Chrysalis’ and ‘soft and squishy’ in the same sentence before. She’s just so pliable to the touch...and wet too.

Twilight worked the edge of her hoof deeper between Chrysalis’ chitin plates, fluid leaking from the changeling and coated Twi’s wrist. As she moved more, Twilight idly noted that Chrysalis’ unmodified anatomy shared another common trait with her own. She grinned, flicking the changeling Queen’s clit the same way she liked doing to her own. Chrysalis let out a pleasured moan, her back arching.

Twilight shifted how she was sitting, pushing her own groin into the chamber’s floor. The heat from it was growing by the moment and she couldn’t do any more with her dominant hoof otherwise engaged. “Um...tell me when you get close. I have to time this right so I don’t harm you or the new Queen.”

“Okay...you do that.” Chrysalis panted, biting her lip when Twilight ran the hard edge of her hoof over Chrysalis’ nub. “Ri-right there! Please!”

Twilight redoubled her efforts, speeding up her movements. Her hoof got slicker as Chrysalis continued to leak a copious amount of sweet scented fluid. She started to pant right along with the changeling, her arm getting tired from the quick back and forth and the little circular motions she was using. At the rate she was going, she would tire out before Chrysalis came. Twilight lit her horn and formed a glowing ring around the neck of the egg sack, a few inches from where it was attached to Chrysalis. She tightened it until she could feel the changeling’s pulse and the fluids pumping through it, via the spell’s biofeedback.

With her spell in place, Twilight leaned forward, using her hooves to pry apart Chrysalis’ folds and dive in with her mouth aimed right for the Queen’s nub. She sucked it into her mouth, wrapping her lips around it and running her teeth over it gently. Chrysalis’ body bucked under her, lifting them both off the ground for a second. Chrysalis screamed, and Twilight worked even harder. The changeling was close now and she had to time this exactly right. Twilight buried her muzzle as deeply as she could, her tongue hunting each and every tasty crevice she could reach.

Chrysalis thrashed, her core twisting at the sensations the pony was sending through her. Her mind felt foggy in the most pleasurable way she could ever imagine. While the act of sex wasn’t unknown to her, she’d pretended to do the deed enough times with her pony victims plenty enough. She’d never been on the receiving end, certainly not in her natural form. She didn’t know it could feel so good, so much like floating and disconnected from the world. Yet, she could feel every move and breath from Twilight Sparkle. The young pony princess pulsed with friendship strong enough to border on love, her earlier trepidation and self doubt gone. The sweet taste of Twilight’s emotions played against her tongue just as strongly as Twilight’s tongue played against her clit.

She was getting closer, she could feel all the muscles in her lower body tightening. Suddenly, the sensation of Twilight’s lips and tongue were replaced with the sharp and hard edges of her teeth scraping against her overly sensitive nub. That did it for her and it felt like every muscle in her body spasmed at the same time. She cried out, reaching blindly for Twilight when everything went black.

It was several hours later when Chrysalis opened her eyes.

She could feel the hive drifting off to sleep around her. She pushed herself into a seated position, her body strangely tired and alive with some sort of electric feeling. Next to her, the princess, Twilight lay unconscious. The pony was covered in ichor, splattered from hoof to horn. On Twilight’s other side, the egg sack that contained her offspring sat where it had been before the blackout, its tapered end now closed off with freshly grown flesh.

Chrysalis reached over the snoring alicorn and touched the lightly glowing, bioluminescent mass. It was still warm, still alive and her daughter safe within it. Twilight had done exactly as she said she would. She would live to see her child born and enter a new phase in changeling evolution.

“I do believe I will need to change my name to Empress Chrysalis.” She murmured quietly to herself. She looked down at Twilight. “I could end you now...you’d never feel a thing.”

Chrysalis sighed, shaking her head. “I can’t though. I owe you too much, little Princess. I don’t know if I can pay you back...but I will try.”

She settled down next to Twilight, curling her body along the pony’s. Twilight’s snoring quieted and she sighed contently, bringing an odd smile to Chrysalis’ lips. She smoothed back a strand of Twilight’s mane out of the sleeping pony’s face. “You know, I wonder if in all your studies about my kind, you came across when changelings do mate, it’s for life? Hmm?” Twilight didn’t respond, but she did snuggle a little more against Chrysalis’ side.

“Normally, that would mean I just kill the drone and be done with it. Tie up loose ends. But...hey, it’s a new era for us, right? Time to shed the old ways, hmm?” She smiled, her horn glowing green as she lifted her discarded note and quill from earlier.

Power, my child, comes in many guises.

When fate sees fit to send you something, or someone, worthy of your time, give it. Don’t let yourself be held back by fear or tradition. Savor power that is freely given to you by others. It is not the changeling way, but perhaps it is time that it became our way.

Twilight groaned, her eyes opening slowly as she struggled back to consciousness. Her head and horn hurt, the later seeming to throb in time with her heartbeat. She’d used a massive amount of magic to save Chrysalis and the egg sack. Cutting flesh and vital cardiovascular systems and then re-stitching them together took almost insane amounts of focus and practice to do it and not kill or cripple whatever the magic was being used on. If it weren’t for the fluid and morphic nature of changeling bodies, she would have never even attempted what she’d done to Chrysalis.

Thinking the Queen’s name jolted Twilight fully awake. She was still in Chrysalis’ chamber in the hive, where nopony else knew she was, groggy and temporarily without her magic.

“Crud!” Twilight grunted, pushing herself up until she was sitting. The motion made her head hurt more and her body felt like it had run a mile and then fallen down a flight of stairs. Her coat was caked with dried...something. It felt heavy and tacky against her skin.

Twilight breathed a sigh of relief when she spotted the egg sack, its glow still strong and vibrant. The end where she had sealed it looked perfectly normal now. In a few days a new Queen would emerge from it, but this time, there would be a proper meal waiting on it. Not it’s own mother. Twilight groaned, moving her head to look around. Besides herself, the chamber was empty.

The movement brought her attention once again to her horn. It felt oddly heavy upon her brow. She reached up, feeling it gingerly with her hoof. It too—like most of her—was covered in the sticky substance, but something thicker was there as well. It was hard and heavy, similar to Chrysalis’s chitin in texture. She tried to pry it off, but it held fast.

Well...buck. As if I needed anymore bad news! I seem to have an inhibitor on my horn! Twilight groaned again, struggling with the thing on her horn. Even if she wasn’t completely exhausted, the inhibitor would keep her from working even the smallest spell. “And after I saved her life, of all things!”

Her headache receded quickly enough, but the more the ache of arcane exhaustion faded, the more she was aware of the inhibitor. Twilight ducked her head down to the floor, practically sitting on her own face, and tried to get one of her rear hooves up to her horn and press against the smooth piece of chitin.

“What on Equus...are you doing?”

Twilight froze at the sound of Chrysalis’ voice. She hadn’t heard the changeling return and it suddenly occurred to her what her position on the floor must look like. She kicked her legs and flipped over onto her back, and found the changeling Queen standing over her, one eyebrow raised. “When did you get back?!”

Chrysalis smirked. “Just now. If you need to take care of your own desires that much, I can help out.” She lowered her voice to a sultry purr. “I do owe you.”

“Hey, yeah!” Twilight rolled over, keeping her eyes on Chrysalis. “What’s the big deal, huh? I saved your life! Why did you put an inhibitor on my horn?” The alicorn rose to her hooves, her mouth set in an unhappy line. “Have you no shred of gratitude?”

“Gratitude?” Chrysalis blinked in surprise. “Twilight...Princess, I didn’t mean—”

“This seems pretty dang intentional to me!” Twilight tapped her horn for emphasis. “I saved your life and the life of your child, Chrysalis. I’m drained! I couldn’t levitate a feather if I wanted to, and you still slapped this on me while I was out cold!”

“I didn’t want you to leave.”

“I just told you I couldn’t! It’s not like the hive has windows for me to fly out of!” Twilight flapped her wings, sending up a small puff of a breeze to swirl around the chamber. She glared at Chrysalis, opening her mouth to say more when she noticed that there was a large platter floating in Chrysalis’ green aura, just behind the Queen. The platter was covered in daisies, daffodils, rose petals, lilies and lavender. She looked back at Chrysalis and was surprised to see the normally haughty Queen seemed genuinely upset at Twilight’s outburst.

Chrysalis brought the platter around and set it on the floor between them. “I...I wanted to start paying you back, Twilight. You’ve given me something that no one else would have, all out of the kindness of your heart. I woke up a while ago and I thought you’d be hungry after using so much magic. I don’t normally keep pony food, so I had to go collect some and I didn’t want you to leave while I was gone. That’s why I put it on you.”

Chrysalis flicked her web-mane out of her eyes and the chitin gripping Twilight’s horn loosened at her silent command. It fell from the Princess a moment later. She took a seat opposite of Twilight and nudged the platter forward. “I hope I got the right things.”

Twilight sighed when the inhibitor fell off, watching Chrysalis closely. She stared when the Queen sat, standing there for a few seconds before she took her own seat. “I don’t usually eat flowers raw, but it works. I...I am famished. Thank you.”

She pulled the platter of food closer and grabbed some of the rose petals, stuffing them into her mouth in a manner unbecoming of a Princess of Equestria. Twilight chewed at the soft petals, swallowing her first mouthful a moment later. “So...where do we go from here?”

“I wish I knew.” Chrysalis turned, looking at her egg sack for a moment. “This is uncharted territory for me...for my kind. I will be the first Queen to survive the birth of the next. I get to be a parent, I suppose.” She glanced back at Twilight, her voice soft. “And then there is the issue of us.”

“‘Us?’” Twilight mumbled through a hoof-ful of lavender leaves. She swallowed it down, wiping her muzzle. “What about us?”

“Perhaps, Princess Sparkle, you are unaware that changelings, when we do breed between Hives, it is for life?” Chrysalis smirked when the pony’s pupils shrunk to pinpoints. “What you did, besides saving my life, amounts to a marriage proposal. Well...more like the proposal, ceremony, and honeymoon consummation all rolled into one.”

“What!?”

“Yes, I do suppose that changeling efficiency sometimes does take away from some of the fun parts.” Chrysalis grinned, watching the mare across from her gag on her lavender. “Though I think once the new Queen is safely hatched, we can go on a honeymoon that’s more in the pony style! Wouldn’t that be fun...” She leaned forward, her voice dropping even lower to just a bare whisper. “My dear wife?”

Twilight coughed, sputtering as she tried to catch her breath and ground herself. Married? To her? This...this can’t be right! She covered her muzzle with both hooves to keep from spitting out her food, swallowing it to clear her airway. “B-b-but! We can’t be m-married! There are all sorts of reasons that wouldn’t be a good thing! What will I tell the other Princesses? Or my friends? Oh goddess...what will I tell my parents?”

Chrysalis shrugged. “Whatever you want. I don’t see any reason this would be a bad thing. Together, you and I will usher in a new era for changelings across the world!” She smiled and reached over to cup Twilight’s chin. “We will rule as two Queens, you and I. Our drones will build us whatever we need to raise my daughter.”

Twilight pulled back from Chrysalis. “You talk like I’m staying here with you.” She shook her head. “I can’t do that. I have duties now! I honestly would like to study how things develop for you and the next Queen...but, I can’t just stay here with you, Chrysalis, marriage or not.”

Chrysalis was quiet, watching Twilight. After a moment, she tilted her head, the teasing tone from her voice gone. “How long will it take you to recover your magic? The Hive is far from the nearest pony village.”

Twilight sighed, looking down at her hooves. “I don’t know. It’s been a long time since I’ve been this spent. If I over exert myself too soon afterward, I could hurt myself.” She glanced at the glowing egg sack out the corner of her eye. “It’ll be a few days, I think. Before it’s safe.”

The changeling nodded, following Twilight’s gaze. A few days time and she would have a fresh young Queen on her hooves. “Twilight...I know that you have no reason to trust me, no matter what has passed between us. Trust...is an odd thing to me, but I know it is important to you and your kind. You value it. You said yourself that you are a good pony, and I believe that. But I would like you to stay here until she hatches. I can at least provide you with a dry place to sleep and food.”

Chrysalis smiled, nudging the platter between them. “I’ll even cook it from now on. Though no promises on how good it might be.”

Twilight snorted at that. She sighed again, resting back on her haunches. “You know, I would never have imagined having a peaceful conversation with you just a few weeks ago. But...here we are.” She frowned, idly drawing circles with the edge of one hoof against the chitinous floor of the chamber. “I still don’t know what to think about you. You frightened me back in Canterlot and I was glad your hive was completely relocated. Then a few weeks ago I started reading up on changeling magic and biology to chase away the nightmares with cold hard facts. Then, all of a sudden, it becomes clear what is about to happen from the pattern of your attacks and raids on the outer communities. I wasn’t scared of you for a little while, Chrysalis. I became scared for you.”

She pulled her legs in close, wrapping her wings around herself. “The whole thing sounded horrible. I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy, so I couldn’t stand by and let it happen to you. Then...well...all this happened. And now I don’t know what I’m supposed to feel.”

“For all the emotions I have feasted on, all the mimicry, and all the games I’ve played over the years with you ponies, never have I came across one that cared about changelings as anything other than monsters or pests.” Chrysalis’ green eyes searched Twilight’s purple ones. “But I can taste it on you, Twilight. You care. I don’t know why, but you care about my kind. My instincts still tell me that you are food, that the new Queen needs to feed on flesh. But I wonder...if we are truly bringing about a new era for changelings...what would happen if she was raised on true positive emotions? If I can hold back my instinct, can her instinct be changed? Would that mean an ending to the hostility between us?”

“I was listening to you before, when you asked me these things, Twilight, and I have given them a lot of thought in the last few hours.” Chrysalis tucked her legs comfortably under herself. “You continue to offer me choices and options I would not have ever imagined having. When Celestia rose the sun this morning, I was getting ready to die. Now I won’t need to. All thanks to you. But I don’t know what to do or how to act. I’m not a pony like you, so maybe I will never know how to be around your kind, but I want better for my child. I want her to know love and friendship, not just know what they taste like.”

Twilight studied Chrysalis, looking the Queen over. “What are you proposing?”

Chrysalis kept her eyes downcast, focusing on the middle distance between her and the floor of the chamber. Her diaphanous wings buzzed lightly against her back for a moment, stirring the air around them. “I wasn’t joking earlier. We are bound now. We could raise her…” She paused, glancing at the egg sack again. “We could raise her together, as two Queens, Twilight. Outside the Hive. We could raise her as a pony.”

“Why would you give up on generations of tradition, though?” Twilight tilted her head. “I can see the potential benefit there, but it serves ponykind more than changelings, doesn’t it? I mean...wouldn’t this basically be domestication? Pony culture replacing changeling tradition?”

The changeling Queen laughed at that. “Tradition...what an idiotic term. As if we picked the things we do!”

“I’m just trying to be sensitive, Chrysalis, please. Surely there must be some part of changeling life that you don’t want to lose?”

“I’m not losing it.” Chrysalis shook her head, her voice growing quiet again. “I’m giving it up. If we want to have a culture worth holding on to, we’d need a true culture worth honoring. Something that I think I can at least give my daughter a chance at. With your help.”

Twilight kept her mouth closed, but questions played through her mind at lightspeed. Situations, possibilities, and alternate paths unfurled before her. It would be the greatest research project in history. The most altruistic task any pony could hope to pursue. Her hooves itched at the thought of the studying and recording of a life of a changeling raised by ponies. But a small voice in her mind advised caution, and reminded her of an important detail in the mix.

“But,” Twilight clicked her tongue against the roof of her mouth, “what about...us? You and I? Would we really be the new Queen’s parents? Like, for real?” She looked away from Chrysalis, suddenly self-conscious. “Like a real couple?”

“If you want...I wouldn’t mind.” Chrysalis sighed sounding tired. “We don’t have to do...what we did before. I’m okay with keeping it platonic from here or out. But if I’m honest...I wouldn’t mind trying it again. You, uh, aren’t so bad with your tongue. Celestia doesn’t know what she’s missing out on.”

The Princess rolled her eyes. “Can you at least promise me you’ll keep the teasing me about my unresolved sexual tension with Princess Celestia to a bare minimum?”

“You would deny me such a rich source of comedy?” Chrysalis mock scoffed. “You are too cruel!”

Twilight fixed her in place with a deadpan glare. “Bare minimum! Or you can bet your backside this’ll be a sexless marriage.” She sighed, lowering herself to rest on her belly, tucking her hooves in. “Please, Chrysalis?”

“Oh, all right...” Chrysalis yawned, her head lowering, but she smiled. “So you’re saying if I manage to keep it down, there might be a chance to do that stuff again with you?”

“Well...I guess. T-that’s what married couples do, right?” Twilight flustered, her muzzle wrinkling. “I mean, we’re both consenting adults…” She clamped her mouth shut, her cheeks getting brighter, when she lowered her head until her chin was nearly on the floor. “So, can you really do that targeted semi-shapeshifting you mentioned?”

Chrysalis mirrored Twilight, her long muzzle coming to a rest on the chamber floor. She nodded awkwardly. “Yeah. Anything you want. Except stallion parts. That just feels weird. But if you want me to help you out with the pent up sexual tension for your mentor, I can.” She leered at Twilight for a moment, and then seemed to catch herself and frowned. “Sorry...force of habit.”

Twilight blew her breath out through her nose, whickering at the Queen. “I’ll let it slide this time. That’s not what I meant though.”

“Oh did you mean if I could mimic your friends? Or maybe Princess Luna?” Chrysalis’ eyes lit up, her fatigue vanishing for a moment in her teasing. Earlier in her life, Twilight would have thought the changeling’s tone sinister or malicious, but now it just sounded like Chrysalis enjoyed her own brand of humor. “My my, but the newest Equestrian Princess is a kinky girl!”

Twilight reached out and put her hoof on Chrysalis’ snout, silencing the Queen. “What I meant was a simple curiousity if partial transformations were possible! My books on changeling biology and magic never mentioned it. Besides...I liked it...you...how you are down there.” Twilight’s blush warmed her cheeks again. “You don’t have to change for me.”

Chrysalis smirked, speaking around the purple hoof in her face. “I’m sure I’ll like how you are down there too, when I get the chance to repay that.” Twilight sputtered and stammered, which prompted Chrysalis to laugh again. “Oh, Twilight Sparkle, I think I am going to enjoy this new era together with you if it’s going to continue to be this easy to set you off!”

The alicorn grumbled unintelligibly under her breath, her legs stretching out comfortably. Twilight yawned, resting her head on her forehooves. She could feel sleep starting to drag at her mind, but she couldn’t help but picture herself playing the part of mother to a young changeling Queen. Part of her was surprised at how alright the rest of her seemed to be with the idea. Another part of her reminded herself that she’d always dreamed of marrying royalty someday. That it seemed to be a Queen and not a Princess was oddly less of an issue than she might have imagined.

Across from her, Chrysalis was getting comfortable, her eyes mostly closed, but watching her back. Twilight watched the Queen curl up slightly, her breathing getting deeper and steady. Keeping her own eyes open was getting harder. Twilight yawned again, the last of her energy fading with it and restful sleep took her and Chrysalis both.