Gel stepped off the train and looked around the station in Canterlot. There were ponies everywhere. He got three steps before one of the royal guard leveled a spear in front of him. "Changelings are not allowed in the city."

It pulled the drone up short. "I was called here by Princess Celestia. I have-"

"A likely story, come on, get your flank back to the camp." The guard infuriated Gel, is this how the other changelings were treated?

"I have a letter from Princess Celestia," Gel reached to the side and started reaching into his pouch when a whole lot of things happened at once.

The train he had just gotten off blew its whistle. A startled pony dropped one end of a heavy box. The box fell and startled another pony who lashed out with their back hooves, hitting the guard.

Gel looked down at the spear now pushed through his side. It broke his anger right up until he saw it had gone through the nice saddle bag Twilight had gotten him. "I am going to the castle now. Will you try and stop me?" His voice was cold, he wasn't sure why, but he hadn't been this angry in his whole life.

"I… oh I didn't mean to… get a doctor!" The guard dropped the spear and looked in a panic. He barely noticed as the changeling he had accidentally run-through just walked away, the spear still poking through him.

There were gasps and exclamations the whole way and it wasn't until Gel reached the castle gates that a pony finally acknowledged him. "Who was it?" They gesture to the spear and offered a hoof for its return. "The princess announced you would be arriving, they all knew you would be here today, sir."

The professionalism and sympathy of the guard made Gel smile again. "Don't go too hard on him, but I bet it will be whoever is missing a spear who was doing duty at the train station." Gel handed the spear over, the weapon pushing out of him with no physical harm. "He didn't actually stab me, but he was pointing his spear when a whole silly set of events led to…" Gel gestured at his damaged satchel.

"Oh you better believe he will get a talking to, he shouldn't have been pointing his spear at anything he didn't want stabbed. Follow me, if you will." The guard turned and walked into the castle, leaving the other gate guard with the spare weapon. "Heard what you did, taking down the mad queen, saving a whole city."

Gel blushed a touch, cursing his continued and strange acquisition of physical pony body-functions. "Mainly the princess' doing, I just kept her safe." It was the truth, well, mostly.

"Princess Celestia is in court right now, you can wait in her sitting room or join the high and mighty for their time in the sun."

The changeling lifted a hoof and wobbled it. "Let's go with sitting room. I don't think I want to be around rich ponies, and hay, what is up with the rule about changelings not being allowed in the city?"

"Precaution, princess doesn't want them putting anypony at risk by possibly overfeeding. They have a little… thing setup, ponies can visit them and come back with a smile plastered on their snouts." The guard didn't sound too put off by the idea, so Gel was happy at least the lost changelings were managing to get by. Gel was directed with a hoof toward a room. "In there, her other highness is already waiting for you."

"Thank you, you are a friendlier face than I hoped to find here, after my initial meeting with the guard." Gel looked down to the ruined saddle bags.

The unicorn stallion winced. "Those from somepony special?"

"Princess Twilight Sparkle." The words brought shock to the guard's features.

"You will have two letters of apology by the end of the day, sir. One for yourself and one to be delivered to the princess." The look was very grave, that Gel received. "If you don't, see me tomorrow, Under-captain Steady Shield." Steady turned and walked off and Gel had the distinct impression that the even-tempered guard was absolutely furious.

"Stop watching him and come in." Luna's voice called and Gel gave a little shrug and stepped into the solarium. Bright light flowed in from a glass ceiling above and to one side Luna was reclining under a large umbrella. "There you are, hero." The mare sounded playful. "We have waited most of the day for this little meeting. Tia will be out soon and we can greet your queen properly." Luna's hoof gestured and Gel saw it.

Black and green, tendrils burrowing down into the ground it lay on, was the huge pod. Gel knew full well what would be within.

"You have a task first, strange hero. We, that is Celestia and I," Gel could sense it was not easy for Luna to stray out of her royal plural, "would ask that you drink from your queen, drain her down until she is a weak little thing and wouldn't be able to break a glass let alone a bubble of force."

The slight shifting of the dark form within the pod held Gel in a trance. "You want me to drain her? The pod will keep her alive, healthy… physically."

"We know, we want you merely to weaken her while we chat." The princess of the night tilted the umbrella above her, ensuring that the sun would remain from encroaching on her little space. "We don't want a repeat of the wedding, that was quite a shock for Tia."

Gel was standing over the pod, he could see and feel the form within, sleeping, held in a dream that would be beyond perfect. "Okay." Gel agreed and took a deep gulp. Then he took another, metaphysical gulp. The power that the pods fed was always a percentage of what the pony within could supply, and Gel was wobbling on his hooves with the force of it.

"Relax, act as a conduit, let the night have all that." The words came from a dark mouth right beside Gel's head. The oddest thing was the shade followed her and Gel could swear he could see stars twinkling above them. "Feed us."

Gel gave in, he relaxed as Luna's will reached into his own and took hold of the reigns to the conduit. Gel bit down into Chrysalis, he had never savaged a pony before in this way, but rather than tear and rip like most changelings, Luna directed him to latch on firmly and drink. Gel's eyes closed, his form wavered and became distinctly alicorn shaped.

"We can feel what Twilight sees in you, you are a good stallion, strong and willful. But we are the night and the forever it reaches." Gel had no sense of how long they were like that, Luna riding his powers, feeding on the queen changeling, but he was aware of a brightness that suddenly came into the perfect night.

"Lulu, you are not hurting him, I hope. He is a guest in our castle." Luna's power fled from Gel and he half slumped, catching himself with one dark-blue hoof pressed against the pod.

Dark blue surprised the changeling and he quickly inspected himself, finding him to have become a perfect, if smaller, copy of Princess Luna herself. He tried to shift, tried to flow back, but something still held him.

"Luna, let go of him!"

The words, not angry, but certainly not calm had the desired effect and Gel quickly flowed back to looking like a changeling. "Sorry, Princess Celestia." Gel's mouth moved, he wouldn't let himself come between the two. "Princess Luna was trying to help but changeling power is… intoxicating."

Celestia looked at her sister, noting the darkness that was surrounding the mare was a little larger. It took much power to expand the absence of light even a little. "Probably correct, I was going to assist you with that myself. How is the… prisoner?"

Luna backed away from Gel, she worked to try and burn off the power that was within her, telling her she should try to possess and control. It was a struggle that she could win, Twilight herself had given Luna the power to fight this side of herself.

"She is much reduced." The changeling stallion reached toward the pod. "I can drink from her normally, which means the bulk of her power is gone."

"Perfect, can you open it?" Celestia beamed at Gel, sparing a glance to her sister. Luna nodded back.

"Now?" There was a nod from each of the two diarchs. Gel reached to the device and almost recoiled, it was not one of the nicer pods they had used. This one was greedy, it was designed to never give up its captive. "This will take a bit. This pod was meant to house you, Princess Celestia." He began the slow process, disengaging parts of the pod with the instinctual knowledge all changelings had.

The top of the pod opened, Celestia feeling as Luna came to her side. The mare within was still relaxed and out of it, wrapped tight in tentacles and tubes, each seeming to pull tighter as they watched. Then, one by one, the tendrils released and pulled back and soon, Chrysalis was free.

A gold sphere formed around the changeling queen, a sphere that soon ran with clouds of inky black, dotted with stars. Gel stepped back in shock as he saw his hated queen's eyes open.

"Put me back, I must stay in my pod, my home, forever…" Black hooves, formerly mighty enough to have left a broken flagstone in the throne room, pawed weakly at the bubble as Chrysalis tried weakly to get back into the pod.

"That was what she had tried to command us, when I mirrored her magic back at her. She wants to go back in because it is what she told herself to want." Gel explained the situation and Celestia nodded. The white alicorn's horn flared brighter and Gel felt that same ripping disenchantment he had felt when Celestia had removed the queen's power from Long.

The dispelling magic wiped Chrysalis' own enchantment from her mind. She blinked a few times and slumped. "Put me back." She sounded defeated in a whole different way. Gel was a little shocked.

"Why, Chrysalis?" Celestia didn't flinch from holding her bubble in place.

"Why what? I am a bad person, I hurt my children, I made them… made them hurt themselves and others. Put me back, seal me up for a year." The queen pawed at the bubble again, trying to get back down to the pod.

Gel tilted his head, this had to be a trap, a trick, what did she plan?

"Please, I hate being me, I hate being me as much as you hate me being me. Put me in, let me be happy for the first time in my life… let me… let me forget, let me be somepony else…" The big queen was crying.

"Put her back." Gel was surprised at who spoke. Himself. "Please, she isn't under the spell, she wants this." His hoof lifted and rested on the edge of the pod, careful of the more active tendrils within. Without the calming release commands of Gel's, the pod was hungry for another occupant again.

Luna bowed her head, followed shortly after by Celestia.

"Very well, Chrysalis, you may have your end. The dark queen will die today and, in a year and a day, a new pony will be born here." Celestia's words rang with an air of unstoppable promise akin to the movement of the sun.

"Thank you." Chrysalis smiled, her fangs making it a less than beautiful expression, but as the bubble of force deposited her back into the green goop, she looked to Gel. "Sorry, son."

The tentacles were greedy to have their host back. They gagged and stuffed the queen, pulling her down, trapping her wings, hooves and neck, dragging her back to her slumber within only for the lid to close back down on it.

Gel couldn't stop the tears, his hoof lifted and resting on the pod. "Mother… I will be waiting for you, when you are reborn."

Feathery wings touched the stallion and he turned, finding both Luna and Celestia urging him up. "Come, brave stallion, prince of changelings. You have some things to right." Luna's tone was a lot more supportive than when she had ridden his will. Gel had to wonder how much of Chrysalis was just too much power?

Gel turned and moved with them. "I want my ponies able to enter the city."

"Granted." Celestia walked with him, her sister on the other side of the strange changeling. "But I want some system in place so ponies are not overfed from."

"Something will be worked out to our satisfaction." Gel's mind ran, he had to think fast and deep, he was playing a game with a princess and the lives of his people was one of his playing pieces. He dared not lose it.

"Some are not… Chrysalis did too much to them, they will need to be cared for." Celestia had wept when she heard about that, they were the drones that Chrysalis had ridden too hard, all they had been at the end was her will driving them, without it they were barely there.

Gel looked at the alicorn in surprise. "I didn't know all of it, I will need to see my ponies before we talk more." He wanted to be more assertive, his time with Twilight had helped that side of him, but with what Luna had done he knew it would take a little time away from the royal sisters to get his full faculties back. "I will return in a day, we can agree to terms then."

Celestia smiled. This stallion would be perfect. He was already a hero to not just the changelings but some of her own ponies too, if she could get him to step up and guide his ponies then this would be a smoother transition than she could have ever hoped for.

"So your name is Sleek Guise? I like it." Cherry's hoof lifted and brushed down the shoulder of the changeling mare. "I might still call you Leaves, from time to time, just ignore this silly filly."

Sleek snuggled in and hugged her former wife. It had seemed a lifetime ago, when they were married. It was only meant to be a tryst to maintain her cover but, to the changeling's shock, she had fallen deeply for the pegasus. "I can put up with that. So, a pod?"

Cherry nodded and blushed. "I like it… I really like it."

"Now that is something a changeling likes to hear from their mate. Tell you what, you can't go in today, but tomorrow, we go into a pod together."

Cherry's eyes widened and she found herself nodding. "That… that would… would we feel… oh…"

Sleek giggled and kissed the mare on the nose. The smell that was suddenly on the air reminded the changeling of how worked up her lover could get. "Okay, so no feeding today, but what about some private time?"

The deep-red colored pegasus mare nodded, her mind racing. "First… as I remember you…"

A flash of fire poured upwards from Sleek's hooves, flowing up her body to her head. There was a cute dun-colored earth pony mare in her place, with the most vivid purple mane.

"That's my girl." Cherry wrapped her wife in a wing and the pair retired to a private room.

Author's Note

Darn you Chrysalis, you made me cry while writing. I had written half a page, nigh-on 300 words, of her raging and coming from her daze angry. But it felt wrong. The meek, lost pony, wanting to not 'be the bad monster' just felt... right. All the feelz, none of the clop, sorry mares and gentlestallions, I will have more naughty stuff next chapter.

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