Author's Note
Please note that this was written before "To Where and Back Again". Any canonical discrepancies may be attributed to this. Thank you.
Love Storage
The skies of the Greater Equestrian Changeling Empire, once brilliant blue and clear, now glowed a sickly green thanks to the influence of the changeling magic that now spread throughout the ruined land. The many great cities and friendly towns now lay in ruins, home only to a few scattered survivors and resistance fighters, spending their days scurrying and hiding in the shadows like rats to avoid the changeling patrols. Those unfortunate enough to be captured were then sent to one of the many hives that housed the country's new changeling overlords.
There were hundreds of hives scattered all over Equestria. Some were small and remote, located in caves or quarries and only home to about a few dozen changelings, used as trade or military outposts. Others were vast complexes, built upon the remains of the fallen cities, stretching both far underground and high into the sky. Canterlot, Los Pegasus, Baltimare... all home to great underground cities, where thousands of changelings lived and slept.
And out of all the changeling hives in Equestria, none were as large as the Imperial Hive in Manehattan, its above-ground portion extending high above the destroyed skyscrapers. The lack of space available in the mountain beneath Canterlot had necessitated moving the hive elsewhere, and Manehattan had provided the perfect location. Now, it was the largest of all the hives, just a bit larger than the official Manehattan hive where the new changeling occupants of Manehattan resided. The Imperial Hive, however, did not serve as a city. Rather, it served as the home of the Empress, its scale befitting a position of such power.
The above-ground areas of the hive served as servant's quarters and guard barracks, and were filled with a constant hum of activity as a great many changelings buzzed about through the dimly-lit tunnels that connected the different sectors and rooms of the hive, gathering in the many living rooms and communal areas that the tunnels connected. High above the large central hall and throne room was a room with a large window, where the occupant could watch over all the activity within the hive. In most other hives, this would be the head commander's quarters. In the Imperial Hive, this was the personal quarters of none other than Empress (formerly Queen) Chrysalis herself.
The Empress idly watched over the central hub, raising a hoof to her fanged mouth to suppress a yawn. Nothing much of interest was happening today. No trade negotiations, no resistance attacks, no assassination attempts. No, today was decidedly uneventful as far as life in the hive went.
Snorting, Chrysalis stepped away from the window and looked over the lavish splendour that was her room, decorated with fine rugs and tapestries that had been looted from all over Equestria, as well as several war trophies in the form of helmets and spears dropped by slain members of the Royal Guard, who had been utterly decimated in the war thanks to the changelings' numerical superiority. As Chrysalis recalled, at the campaign's peak, there were twenty changelings for every one guard, many of whom had been captured and converted into drones themselves.
Thinking about the conversions suddenly gave Chrysalis an idea on how to spend the afternoon. She was getting a little peckish... perhaps she should head below ground and visit her personal love storage tank? She grinned. Oh yes, that sounded like a nice way to spend some time. Licking her lips with a forked tongue, she strode over to the double doors at the end of the room and threw them open.
Outside the entrance to the Empress's quarters were two changelings clad in the intimidating black armour of the Imperial Military. These tough-as-nails troops commanded respect from all in the hive, many of them being veterans of the great war with the ponies. However, even they immediately stood to attention as their commander-in-chief exited her quarters.
"Empress Chrysalis, ma'am!" they barked in unison, standing with their shoulders squared and ears straight up, a picture of military discipline.
Chrysalis waved a hoof irritably. "Stand down," she snapped. "Do you have anything to report?"
"Yes, ma'am," one of the guards said smartly. "Our scouts have just reported sightings of a possible resistance hideout in the San Palomino Desert. The Appleoosa garrison is awaiting your command."
"Send them in to check it out," Chrysalis replied coldly. "Any resistance members are to be terminated with extreme prejudice. Any survivors are to be put to work as love storage tanks for the Appleoosa hive."
"Yes, ma'am," the guard nodded. "Thy will be done."
"Now, if there's nothing else..." Her tone of voice suggested that there had better not be. "I require an escort to the love storage rooms down below. You two will accompany me."
"Right away, ma'am!" the guards replied. They marched smartly in step with their Empress as she strode down the hallway, passing some worker drones who immediately scrambled into bows as she went past. The corridor and stairway leading down to the central hall were taller and better-lit than in most hives, but still had that slimy, dank air to them that was characteristic of the changeling race.
The three sets of hooves echoed off the chamber walls as they reached the bottom of the staircase, entering the central hub itself. As they entered the room, the large double doors at the far end were thrown open. Five soldiers strode in, accompanying three dejected-looking mares in shackles.
"Permission to report, Your Excellence?" one of them barked, saluting as he did so. His higher-peaked helmet than the others denoted him as an officer.
"Go ahead," Chrysalis nodded.
"We found these three under the Bucklyn Bridge," the officer stated, as the three mares trembled in their shackles behind him. "They surrendered without incident. They gave their names as Flashdancer, Azure Velour, and Pacific Glow." He rapped each mare on the head with a hoof as he recited their names, causing them to wince in pain. "What would you have us do with them?"
"Hmm..." Chrysalis leered at the three mares, who all looked to almost be in tears from fear. "Such sweet young specimens... and we do need some more labourers around here." She waved a hoof. "Conversion for all three of them."
"Thy will be done, ma'am." The prisoners were led roughly away through a side door, crying out in horror as they realised their fate. Unmoved, Chrysalis continued on through another, separate door, along with her entourage. Perhaps she'd get a glimpse of them on the way down.
Through the door, they went down another flight of stairs, this one narrower and dingier than the rest. These stairs made up one of several staircases that led down to the underground sections of the hive. These were the sections that housed the darker workings of the hive. This was where the conversions happened, where the love tanks were stored.
Turning right at the foot of the stairs, Chrysalis and her entourage passed underneath a stone archway and out onto a narrow catwalk of sorts. The catwalk passed over another large chamber, offering a view of a large room filled with dozens of big green cocoons hanging from the ceiling, casting a faint green glow over the ragged stone walls and floor, twitching with occasional movement from the occupants. This was the conversion room, the place where unfortunate captives were cocooned and left to metamorphose over the course of a few days into loyal, obedient drones. Chrysalis was very pleased to see that the three prisoners she had seen earlier were already being wrapped up, suspended from the ceiling with green slime as three drones wrapped them in their cocoons. Her drones were nothing if not efficient.
And at the other end of the catwalk was a steel door, leading into the love tank room. Grinning widely, Chrysalis lit up her horn and swung the door open, revealing her greatest prize of all... Shining Armour, her personal love tank.
In a large cave-like hollow, sitting in about a foot of green, slimy water, a massive white blob laid. This was Shining—all two tons of him. At his size, he didn't even resemble a pony as much as he resembled a colossal pile of flesh, a misshapen blob spilling out in all directions. His front legs were completely swallowed up by his leg fat, a pair of useless blue hooves just visible as they poked out through enormous rings of flesh. About a third of his truly titanic belly was submerged beneath the water, but the remaining two-thirds more than made up for it with their presence, the many, many rolls and folds bringing to mind a pile of ice cream that had melted and then been refrozen. His cutie marks, each swollen to the size of a small house, rested upon two gargantuan globes of fat around his flanks and rear end, his tail completely swallowed up by his own fat. Five changelings buzzed around him, drawing love from him in thin, pink streams as they tended to him, carefully removing globs of slime that had become stuck between his rolls.
Using the love that naturally occurred within the ponies to repurpose them as love tanks had been a stroke of genius on Chrysalis's part. All it took was a bit of liquid love, which would react with the love within them and cause them to expand as the excess love stored itself as fat deposits. The process could be sped up just by using a few extra drones. After that, a simple siphoning spell was all it took to draw sweet, nourishing love from them... the kind that Chrysalis so craved at that moment.
"Wait here," she told her guards simply, who nodded in acknowledgement. Licking her lips, with a buzz of her wings, she took off and flew down towards the great blob of a pony below. The drones looked up from their work.
"At ease, drones," Chrysalis said, smiling wickedly as she gazed down upon Shining. "Your Empress needs to feed."
Immediately, the drones stepped back, gazing upon their ruler with the utmost reverence. Chrysalis flew slowly down until she was almost nose-to-nose with Shining's massively bloated face, gazing into his glazed, half-lidded, green-tinted eyes.
"Hello, Shining," she purred, her voice low and almost sultry. "How are you feeling?"
Shining gazed blankly at her, smiling dopily. Thanks to a combination of heavy hypnosis and the near-orgasmic pleasure of being so engorged with love, his mind had reached the approximate mental capacity of scrambled eggs. His plump lips parted, and a pleasure-filled moan escaped from his mouth.
Chrysalis chuckled. "Feels good, doesn't it?" A hoof reached out and caressed his immensely heavy cheek. "To be so heavy and full of love, your brain so very quiet..."
She leaned in close and whispered to him. "I trust your former troops are serving you well?"
Indeed, each of the changelings serving Shining had once been proud members of the Royal Guard, no less than two dozen of which had been captured and brought to her during the final battle for Manehattan. It had seemed only too fitting to put them to work serving their Captain once more, albeit in a very different manner. Chrysalis had personally overseen their conversions. She had been there when they were spun into their cocoons, furiously swearing and spitting all the while, defiant to the end. She had been there a week later, when they emerged as obedient and submissive drones, ready and willing to serve the hive in any way possible. And she had been there when they got to work tending to their former Captain for the first time... and the second, and the third.
"You were such a good tool for my takeover, Shining," Chrysalis murmured, folding her front legs as she settled down on one of Shining's many chins. "Were you not?"
Shining's lips parted. "Yesss... dearrrr..."
Chrysalis chuckled. "Exactly. You were just so easy to manipulate. I've never been able to mind-control a pony quite as easily as I did with you, you know." She sighed happily at the memories. "And it was your love, of course, which sustained me long enough to start the attack on Canterlot, and then all of Equestria. I really can't thank you enough for that."
Her forked tongue slid out from between her fangs. "And now... you're here. My personal love storage tank. Quite a fall from grace, eh, Captain Armour?"
Cackling cruelly, Chrysalis lit her horn up and closed her eyes. Enough talking—it was time to feed.
A thin pink stream of pure love was drawn from the tip of Shining's long-disabled horn, and flowed into the Empress's own horn. Chrysalis moaned with delight as she felt the electric rush of pure love filling her system. It felt so good... made her feel so powerful. Shining, of course, remained dead to the world, drooling slightly as his Empress fed off of him.
As Chrysalis consumed more and more love, her own midsection began to expand and glow a faint pink. Satisfied, she broke off the connection and stifled a burp.
"Lovely," she smiled. "That should sustain me for a while."
With that, she made to leave, but not before turning and giving both Shining Armour and his former brothers in arms a stark reminder of their position.
"I own you."
END
A thin pink stream of pure love was drawn from the tip of Shining's long-disabled horn, and flowed into the Empress's own horn. Chrysalis moaned with delight as she felt the electric rush of pure love filling her system. It felt so good... made her feel so powerful. Shining, of course, remained dead to the world, drooling slightly as his Empress fed off of him.
As Chrysalis consumed more and more love, her own midsection began to expand and glow a faint pink. Satisfied, she broke off the connection and stifled a burp.
"Lovely," she smiled. "That should sustain me for a while."
With that, she made to leave, but not before turning and giving both Shining Armour and his former brothers in arms a stark reminder of their position.
"I own you."
"Gaaaaah!"
With a scream and a gasp, Shining Armour shot upright in bed, his mane and face both drenched in sweat, eyes wide with utter panic. His eyes darted left and right as he looked frantically around the darkened bedroom, searching for any sign of that... that monster. That monster who had...
"Shining?" Cadance gasped, looking at him with tired eyes. "For goodness' sake, it's three in the morning! What in the twin sisters has gotten into you?"
"C-Cadance?" Shining stammered, feeling relief wash over him as he looked her in the eyes. "You... you're safe!"
"Of course I'm safe, Shining," Cadance replied, rubbing an eye with her hoof. "Why wouldn't I-"
She was cut off as Shining pulled her into a hug, nuzzling into her bedraggled mane, sounding like he was barely holding back tears. "You're okay! You're not dead, Chrysalis isn't back and I'm not a massive blob and-"
"Shining!" Cadance snapped. She loved her husband, but this babbling at this ungodly hour was wearing that love rather thin. "Listen, whatever you're talking about, it was just a nightmare."
"A... a nightmare," Shining mumbled. "Yeah, of course. M-maybe eating those cheesy quesadillas before bed wasn't such a good idea."
"Evidently," Cadance snorted, her voice growing softer now that her husband was calming down. "Look, it sounds like you were pretty spooked by whatever it was. Just relax, okay? Everything's fine."
"Yeah, I know..." Shining shuddered as he lay back down. "Maybe I should take some time off. I think I need it."
"Sounds like a plan," Cadance yawned, turning back over in bed. "Goodnight, Shining."
"Night," Shining replied, smiling as he felt relief wash over him. No changelings, no love tanks... just a loving wife with the patience of a saint. He held that thought in his mind as he drifted back into a peaceful sleep.
