Princess Cadance hummed softly to herself, as she lay on her side in her and Shining Armor's plush bed, her back propped up by fluffy pillows and an open book in front of her. She idly rubbed at her bulging stomach with a hoof, smiling warmly whenever the tiny lives within made their presence known with shifts and kicks.

She and Shiny had decided, upon Flurry Heart's first birthday, that they had more than enough room in their hearts - and castle, for that matter - for more tiny hooves trotting around. And now, in just two months, they would have two more little foals to care for, if their castle physician's examinations were correct. But considering the size of Cadance's bulging belly, and her appetite, they had little reason to doubt his assessment.

Cadance smiled warmly. "I can hardly wait until I can see you two," she mused. "Though I would appreciate it if you didn't try to freeze the entire Empire like your big sister did!"

The sound of the bedroom doors unlatching and opening interrupted her monologue, and she turned her head to see just who walked into her bedchambers so brazenly - but she perked up instantly when the pony who strutted in was none other than her dear husband.

"Shiny! I thought you were running drills until late?"

Shining Armor grinned at her. "The benefits of rank, baby, is that when I feel my Princess needs some personal attention by her Captain of the Guard, I can offload the grunt work on my lieutenants!" He winked.

"Oh, you scoundrel," Cadance giggled, rolling over onto her back. "Well, since you came all this way to care for your Princess, I suggest you get right to work, Captain!"

"As Her Majesty commands." Shiny gave her a cheeky grin, before unceremoniously disassembling his armor with his magic and letting it fall to the floor with a clatter.

He hopped onto the bed and made his way to Cadance's side, wrapping his forelegs around her engorged belly and tilting his head down to nip at her neck. She shivered, and clutched at his head with her hooves.

"Oooh," Cadance moaned, "Yes, Shiny, right there!"

He murmured wordlessly, stroking her belly and sides in long, slow circles, as he nipped and licked, slowly making his way upwards towards her face. As Cadance's pleasant moans changed into breathless gasps, his lips sought out hers and they kissed passionately, tongues wrestling for dominance.

Cadance broke the kiss, sucking down deep breaths to clear her light head. "Wow, Shiny."

"I never get tired of hearing you say that." He pecked her lightly on the lips, each cheek, her nose, moving up to her forehead and her horn. He nosed at the spiraling, velvet-covered ridges, before darting in with his tongue.

"Ah!" Cadance went rigid, shocks of delightful pleasure shooting through her as the sensitive velvet around her horn was teased by Shiny's expert ministrations. She squeezed her legs together, as a wonderful warmth in her nethers made her bite down on her lip to not scream.

She was helpless against Shiny's assault. His skillful tongue wrapped all around her horn, and all she could do was go limp and ride the waves of wonderful warmth that spread through her - until Shining planted a last teasing nibble to the very tip of her horn, and ceased his assault.

Catching her breath and opening her eyes to meet Shining Armor's grinning expression, she fully intended to grab his mane with her magic and yanking him down for a rough, hard kiss - but her magic fizzled with a sensation of trying to grasp at a buttered glass orb.

Confused, she crossed her eyes to look at her disobeying horn - only to gasp with horror at the sight of it covered in hardened green ichor.

"I have you now, Princess!" Shining Armor said in a voice that was not his own, and far too familiar for Cadance's liking - before his features burned up in the green flames of Changeling magic, and Cadance found herself straddled by the Queen of the Changelings.

"Chrysalis!" Cadance yelled, terrified. "Guards, hel-"

A blackened, chitinous hoof pressed firmly to Cadance's lips interrupted her call. "Tut tut, Princess, have some decorum. None of your guards can hear you - the door is safely guarded by my drones, as is the rest of this floor. None shall interrupt us."

Cadance batted Chrysalis's hoof away, and glared at her. "What have you done to them? What have you done to Shiny?"

"Nothing. The drones guarding this floor have been infiltrators in your guard for years. No need to resort to kidnapping when deep-cover infiltrators do the same thing, but better. As for that delicious husband of yours, he's right where he should be - out running drills with the troops. Such a dutiful Captain." She smiled at Cadance, airily batting at her tattered mane. "I have come to realise that the brute force approach is far too risky when dealing with you ponies."

Cadance gave Chrysalis a less-than-convinced raising of an eyebrow. "So what do you want, Chrysalis? You must have some plan, restraining me alone like this. Are you planning on kidnapping me, again? Same old trick?"

"Oh, nothing so boring," Chrysalis scoffed. "In fact, you should be able to relate to what my purpose here is." She shifted, bending her knees and sinking lower onto the bed.

Something smooth rubbed along the top of Cadance's gravid stomach, and she looked down to see it was, in fact, Queen Chrysalis's own belly - though much larger than the last time they had met. Instead of the thin, nearly emaciated frame Chrysalis had had during their last meeting, her stomach was now huge and round, the green bands along her midriff expanded and stretched. And, as Cadance watched, a shifting shadow underneath the murky transparent skin made her gasp, as a small bulge stretched the Queen's flesh further, tickling Cadance's own belly.

"Yes, Princess," Chrysalis affirmed. "I, too, am expecting. And, just like you, I am very concerned for my future daughters' well-being. Which brings us to you."

Cadance tilted her head, quizzically. "Me?"

"Yes. You see, for my children to survive this final stage of their development, they will require massive amounts of love - and not just any love, no. I'm talking about the purest love there is - love between mother and child. That sweetest Storge. And where better to get it, than from the very Princess of Love who is herself expecting?" Chrysalis licked her lips, meeting Cadance's fearful eyes with her own full of hunger.

The Princess of Love glared viciously at the changeling, fighting back terror. "Is that it? You're going to drain me? Wrap me up in a cocoon and suck both me and my children dry?"

Chrysalis recoiled like she'd been slapped. "What? Oh, heavens, no!"

Cadance blinked, nonplussed. "What?"

"Just draining you like so much snack food would be monstrously wasteful - my daughters need your motherly love pure, not diluted with other emotions. And I am not cruel enough to wantonly harm your foals." She bent down, meeting Cadance nearly nose-to-nose. "No, harvesting your limitless energy needs a more direct approach."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean something you should be intimately familiar with, Princess, if what my spies tell me is accurate. My, my, you Princesses have some interesting appetites."

Cadance recoiled with fright, as Chrysalis's lower lip split down the middle and expanded like the jaws of a python. Then she reared back, opened her mouth wide, and lunged round Cadance's horn, jaws closing over the Princess's face. Cadance screamed.

Queen Chrysalis oozed with triumph. Her plan had worked flawlessly - running the long con really was infinitely better than desperate attacks on the ponies. Especially as it meant her infiltrators could keep themselves, and a large portion of the hive, fed with the ambient love they absorbed by merely being within The Princess of Love's vicinity.

And, now, Chrysalis would have all the energy her daughters would need. They would be born as healthy, strong princesses.

The Queen would sing with joy if she could - but, her mouth was quite full.

She used her magic to gently restrain her prey, lifting Cadance up and tucking her limbs close for easy swallowing. The Princess still screamed and thrashed within Chrysalis's bulging neck - but without magic, her struggles were useless.

As Chrysalis slowly slid her stretched jaws over the Princess's form, she greedily licked and chewed gently. While Changelings didn't consume solid food per se, they still possessed taste buds of sorts - though they were more for detecting the presence of the emotions Changelings fed upon than any actual flavours. And Chrysalis was tasting all the love energy that constantly suffused her current prey, drinking it in and reveling in the sensations of it soothing her hunger.

'Yes, my darlings,' she thought, rubbing at her engorged stomach. 'She will give you everything you need until I can hold you in my hooves.'

Chrysalis tilted her prey upwards, using gravity to help her slide the Princess's wings and forelegs into her jaws. She paused, resting a moment to catch her breath.

'This is quite the workout,' she mused, as she kneaded gentle at her prey's chest. 'How the ponies do this so often is beyond me... Though I admit she is delectable.'

Continuing her meal, Chrysalis began the challenge of Cadance's gravid stomach. She slowly walked each half of her lower jaw forward in turn, inching along the rounded belly slowly but surely. The Queen's questing tongue tasted the tight orb, and she felt every kick and sleepy movement the unborn foals within made through the stretched flesh.

'Mother's fear is confusing for you, isn't it, little dears?' Chrysalis licked over the bulging flesh, tasting the confused bundle of half-awake emotion beneath.'Don't worry, she'll calm down soon enough.'

As she stretched her jaws over the belly's widest point, she felt the tension in her lower jaw relax, and her pace increased. Soon all of Cadance's belly was encased within Chrysalis's throat, stretching it obscenely with a near-perfect round bulge.

'Now to gorge myself. Her husband was delectable. Can she compare to his lust?

Cadance fought to keep the tears from escaping, encased within the monster's esophagus. Chrysalis had only been toying with her, making her believe there might have been some hope. Now both she and her children would be food, food for a monstrous shapeshifter who would most likely ambush and feast on Shiny as well.

"I'm sorry Shiny," Cadance sobbed. "And I'm sorry, children. I failed. You won't even get to see the world."

Though she was no stranger to the sensation of being swallowed alive, this time Cadance was sure it would be the end of her. Chrysalis was an evil, monstrous creature who couldn't care less who got hurt on her path to conquest. Cadance, and her children, were just a roadside snack to feed her brood.

Cadance felt her predator's jaws slide over and encase her stomach, and knew it was over. She slid ever downwards, until a familiar sphincter appeared before her - the entrance to Chrysalis's stomach, and Cadance's final stop.

Then a warm, wet slithering thing snaked its way into her nethers.

Cadance bucked, as the electrifying sensation made her gasp. Again, something licked within her, swirling around the sensitive button and making her tense with pleasure.

She shook her head, wanting to deny the Queen the satisfaction, but that slithering tongue was relentless. Over and over it slid in and out of her, teasing, caressing, twisting. She was helpless, and she felt the increasing warmth within her reach a crescendo. She cried out as climax shook her, bucking against her restraints wildly. That damnable tongue still slithered in and out, slurping up Cadance's spilling juices. Chrysalis moaned with pleasure, shaking the walls of Cadance's fleshy prison. If it was Cadance's lust or her orgasmic juices that so pleased her, the Princess neither knew nor cared. She was fuming at the violation - not enough to be eaten, but to be toyed with, too?

Eventually, Chrysalis seemed to have had her fun, and she resumed her mealtime business. Cadance felt herself be tilted further up, and the sphincter in front of her opened to admit her passage. Chrysalis closed her jaws over Cadance's hooves, and swallowed her down.

"Aaaah!" Chrysalis breathed, satisfied and exhausted. She looked back to regard her stomach, wherein she could quite clearly see the struggling form of Princess Cadance, encased in a separate sack next to the womb. Already the Queen could feel her stomach reacting to the infinite source of energy. A warm pink glow rapidly built in intensity, until all of Chrysalis's massively stretched belly shone like a warm pink beacon.

A flurry of activity within her womb made Chrysalis gasp, and she tearfully watched as her children awoke and feasted on the bounty of food. She felt their immature, joyful thoughts brush against her own, and sniffed. She placed a forehoof on her stomach and rubbed lovingly at it - her children were safe. They would grow strong and healthy, and she would soon bring them into the world and hold them to her chest.

"Wh - What's happening?" came the muffled query of her prey. Princess Cadance couldn't help but gaze with wonder at the four silhouettes of unborn Changelings, who pressed themselves as close to the source of food as they could. The closest Changeling nymph opened her sleepy eyes, and Cadance gaped as she pressed a hoof against the thin, transparent membrane that was Chrysalis's womb.

"My stomach is absorbing the limitless love you have for your children, Princess," Chrysalis replied, voice wavy with emotion. "And converting it into the energy my daughters need to survive. They'll grow big and strong, now, sustained by your love, through me."

"So... You're digesting my love, not me?" Not able to help herself, she reached out towards the inquisitive Changeling nymph, and lifted her hoof to bump with the nymph, through the stomach.

"Essentially, yes. My daughters are at a critical stage where what I can spare from my own feeding isn't enough to sustain them. Swallowing you lets them feed straight from the source - without harm to either you or your children. I couldn't even digest meat if I wanted to. We emotion-eaters don't have much need for an intestine."

Cadance blinked, nonplussed, and turned her head to meet the eyes of her predator. "So how much love will they need?"

"They'll need a constant supply until they are ready to be born - which should be in a few weeks from now."

"A few weeks?!" Cadance exclaimed, kicking out in shock and spooking the inquisitive nymph into lunging backwards. "I can't stay in here for weeks!"

Cadance smirked. "I'm afraid you have little choice in the matter, Princess! You don't ask the cupcakes you eat for permission to keep them around, do you?"

Cadance glared at her. "And what will keep me from starving or thirsting to death?"

Chrysalis scoffed at her. "Naturally I'll provide sustenance for you. You can simply feast on the food I swallow for you - after all, it would be very strange if Princess Cadance suddenly stopped eating and drinking. I'll cough you up for short breaks now and again while we're in private, if you swear you will not make a fuss when I swallow you again. If I hear so much as a peep of complaint you will have to manage your needs inside there on your own."

Cadance shuddered at the implications. "Fine."

Chrysalis grinned widely. "Excellent! I'm glad we could come to this arrangement. Now settle down, Princess. You're food for the long haul."

Author's Note

Woo! Second story!

Little bit heavier on the exposition here. Will also be a multi-chapter yarn. I'm thinking one more main chapter, possibly a teeny tiny epilogue to wrap it up. Let me know what you think!