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From the image Chrysalis Hive, by Raikoh-illust.

***

This time of the cycle was the most boring. The eggs were laid, resting quietly in the cavities prepared for them. Most of the drones were dead, their purpose served. A select few remained, to bring her food while she recovered from the egg-laying process. These changelings were currently away, scouring the desert that surrounded the hive for small animals to bring to their queen. Chrysalis craved meat right now, protein to replace that which she’d lost to the egg-laying process. And so Chrysalis waited alone in the hive.

Movement was difficult right now. Her body was still sore, muscles aching and joints tender, so she usually spent this time lunging on the sponge floor of her royal quarters. This time, though, Chrysalis forced herself to rise, ignoring the screaming of her body, and move.

Her room was dark and small, the walls and ceiling punctuated with holes that let in some of the electric-green light from the outside. Chrysalis walked through the circular doorway and into the tunnel. These hallways wormed around and throughout the body of the hive like blood vessels, sloping and squirming up the towering bulk with no guidance from those that inhabited its depths. The changelings made the hive their home, but the hive made its own decisions.

Chrysalis stalked the tunnels of the hive, going generally downwards until she reached the egg chamber. The room was expansive, extending deep into the hive, but short. Chrysalis could have scraped the ceiling with her horn if she wanted. The eggs themselves, smell green globes that glowed from within, were scattered about the room. Piles had formed, with ten to fifteen eggs stacked together in a rough pyramid shape. In the very center, Chrysalis could see a pool of liquid that fluoresced the same green as the eggs. The hive created this elixir to nourish the changelings, but after egg-laying, it was all diverted here for the hatchlings to enjoy.

One of the eggs was no longer glowing. Chrysalis levitated it up to her face and stared into it. She could make out the dark shape of her child through the semi-translucent shell, black against the green of the egg. In the floating depths, it turned to face her. Chrysalis laughed, the sound louder in the silence of the hive, and placed the egg on the ground. This one was ready.

As she waited, a dull scratching noise rose from the egg. It grew louder, more insistent, and then the tip of a black horn, still glistening with embryonic fluids, broke through the surface of the shell. It hesitated, then withdrew back into the egg. After a moment, the horn returned, chipping away at the shell around the hole. Chrysalis watched intently.

The newborn changeling, having cut a large hole in the egg, pushed through, squeezing past the jagged edges until it fell unceremoniously to the ground. It mewled weakly, its eyes still shut tight. Its body looked weak, tiny, with no wings and just a stub of a horn. Chrysalis took the foal, slippery and wet, in one leg and walked to the center of the room. She lay down next to the pool, cradling the changeling and cooing to it gently.

The queen dipped a hoof into the green liquid and then withdrew it. She held the hoof over the foal and let some of the nourishing juices slide down into its mouth. “Drink,” Chrysalis said, and she smiled wide, showing all of her fangs. The foal opened its mouth and sucked some of the fluid in. Its face relaxed and it stopped crying.

Once it had drunk its fill, the foal curled up and slept. Chrysalis let it slide to the ground and stood up. Around her, many of the other eggs had gone dark. Soon, the room would be alive with sound and movement, as newborn changelings stumbled and slid their way towards the pool, where they would drink, and grow. This clutch, the product of Shining Armor’s most powerful form of love, would be the strongest Chrysalis had ever birthed. Enhanced strength, intelligence, disguise, better in every way than the brood that preceded them. With them, her next attack on Equestria could not possibly fail.

Chrysalis looked down at the tiny changeling sleeping in the electric-green light of the pool. With her, and her hundreds of sisters, the changelings would defeat the ponies. They would never go hungry again.