Godly

Godly
Chapter 6: Settling in

After feeding every changeling here, which took three more hours, Chrysalis then escorts me to an empty room with just a moss bed in it. I've also noticed there's no doors to any of the rooms here.

"This shall be your room from now on. If you would like anything for it, just ask and we shall make it for you," she tells me happily as she also now looks well fed and no longer in the malnourished state she was in.

"Thanks. I might want to have some furniture made later, but right now it's fine," I reply still as Cupid and turn to her. "So, what do you do for fun around here?" I ask her with a smile.

"We don't really have anything to entertain ourselves with, our time and resources are spent just surviving and not wasting energy... now that you're here helping us, I'm not sure what to do now..." she replies.

"Maybe I can tell you a few things from my world and you could replicate them here? Wouldn't hurt to try at least," I tell her and yawn.

"Alright, I am interested in what your world and people are like. But for now rest, you have already done so much for my Hive and I would prefer you get some rest before we plan or do anything," she replies and tells me.

I smile and nodded. "Okay, I could use a nap. That took more outta me than I thought," I say and head into the room and onto the mossy bed where Chrysalis then takes her leave.

After a few minutes just thinking what life would be like here, I wrap my wings around me like a blanket and drift off to sleep.

I wake up with a yawn after spending the night practising with more gods during my sleep, and fortunately still no sign of Luna trying to get in.

I sit up and stretch my little arms and blink my eyes open. Only to see a little changeling staring at me from the foot of my mossy bed.

"Can I help you?" I ask it.

"The Queen has tasked me with taking you to her once you awoke. When you are ready, I will lead you to her," he tells me in a deep tone.

"Alright, just give me a couple of minutes to fully wake up," I reply and yawn again.

After a minute or two to fully wake up, I change into Bacchus and start munching on some pork and a tiny bit of wine to wash it down with. I really need to find something else to eat, while this is damn tasty, it's getting boring eating the same thing over and over again... I really miss chocolate, fish and chips, and other things.

The changeling just stares at me in surprise. "You eat meat?" he asks me.

"Meat, fruit, veg, and other things. Is it that surprising?" I reply and ask as I change back into Cupid.

"Well most races are herbivores, only three I know of can eat meat," he replies.

I walk over to him and smile. "Well, I'm good to go now," I tell him getting a nod from him.

"Then please follow me," he replies and heads out the open doorway.

"Is it possible to get a door for my room?" I ask as we head into the dark tunnels.

"A door? Why would you need a door?" he asks confused.

"For privacy? It's a bit creepy that others can just watch me sleep as they pass by," I reply.

"Very well, you can ask the Queen when we meet her," he says and I just look at everything that we pass.

The place looks nice with the glowing plants lighting up most areas, but there's hardly anything here in terms of crafted decor. Just little beds in most chambers, some still with curled up changelings snoozing on them.

After a long walk through the tunnels, we arrive at a room with a smooth black makeshift looking desk that I can barely look over with instead of paper, it has thin black rectangle plates with strange writing carved into them. To the left is what seems to be slots in the wall with more plates sticking out of them like a bookshelf. To the right is a couple of black bottles on a small table.

Other than those nothing else is in here.

Behind the desk sits Chrysalis with a faint smile on her face as she looks over the thin black plates.

"Hello, Carl. I hope you are rested enough to continue making more of those hearts for us?" she asks and looks up at me.

"More? How often do you need to eat love?" I ask her.

"Not often, we do if we use our shape shifting and magic as that burns off our energy. But we can also convert excess into a gel that we can store for later," she tells me.

"Oh so you want me to help you stockpile extra love just in case I can't make some hearts at the time?" I ask and flap my wings awkwardly to jump onto the desk.

"Yes, while we only need a little to survive, we'll need more if we wish to use our magic frequently again, and with your help, we can do so," she replies.

"Alright, so how do you make this gel stuff?" I ask as I sit down and swing my legs off the side of her desk.

"Any changeling can make it by absorbing love and then convert it into gel within a sac next to our stomach. We then regurgitate it into a pod for later use," she tells me.

I scrunch up my face at the thought of barfing it up. "Okay... So when do you want to do this?" I ask her.

"Whenever you are ready, I must remain here to sort out my scouts latest reports," she replies and I watch as she chisels some more of those strange letters onto the plate in front of her.

"What does that say? I can't read it..." I ask her while looking at the strange lettering.

"I'm not surprised, not many other races can remember our language," she tells me.

"Can you teach me later?" I ask and jump off the desk.

"Certainly, but for now I must sort out a potential problem we have," she replies and continues to chisel away.

"Fair enough, so where do I need to go?" I ask her.

"Sheldon here will escort you," she tells me.

"Please follow me and we can get started," the changeling who brought me here tells me.

He leaves the room and I follow behind him. "See ya later, Chrysalis!" I call back to her getting a hum in acknowledgement.

It's been two weeks now since I was taken into the Jade Hive, and with my help, all one-thousand and twenty-seven changelings are fully fed and have no holes in their legs, they also don't look thin anymore. I've even filled a large cavern they dug out with water using He Bo's power so we got both drinking and bathing water.

The ponies they had captive have been released near the closest village with some water. Chrysalis has also made sure they won't remember anything about us with her magic.

Chrysalis has also taken a liking to my ability to turn into so many different beings and has tried changing into them as well, while she was able to get their appearance (although at different sizes due to that she can't add or remove her mass) she can't use any of their godly powers. I found it strange that they can essentially change gender whenever they want, but only Chrysalis can reproduce due to her being a Queen. Kinda like the Queens of ants and bees.

I've been talking to her when I'm not making hearts for the Hive, which is now overflowing with love that they had to make a bigger storage room just to stockpile the gel like liquid they make in excess. She's told me much about how the changelings used to walk among the other races without disguises, that's until Celestia and Luna ascended and spread rumours that they will eventually suck the love out of them.

That caused the other races to get paranoid as well and in their fear, chased off the changelings. Cadenza and Chrysalis were actually friends decades ago until she and her mother were chased away by the Princesses. Unfortunately, Chrysalis' mother Vespula died of starvation after they set up this hive about ninety years ago.

And I've been told that starving to death as a changeling is horrifying. They don't just die, they shrivel up into a withered husk and break apart after a few hours. I find it ironic that what the Princesses said about the changelings turning others into husks is a lie when it's the other way around that's true. Just makes me want to slap Celestia if I ever see her again.

I've also been staying as Khepri most of the time as Chrysalis said I actually look good as him. Though I do turn into human gods when I need the use of hands.

I've also been telling Chrysalis over the two weeks about my home and people, she's fascinated by our technology and games, as well as our culture and architecture. Kinda makes me wish I brought my Nintendo 3DS with me. She's also started teaching me how to read the changeling language, and I've found out I need to learn the pony's written language as well.

The changelings, now at full strength since they're fully fed, have been sneaking into pony towns and villages to take some fruits and vegetables for me. I used the power of Terra, the earth mother, a woman who has a large build and has pale coloured skin with purple coloured rock like armour with green trimmings covering her forearms like gauntlets and thick boots up to her knees. But her thighs are bare along with her abdomen, and her upper arms have small stone plates of armour on them. The small bikini like stone chestplate also shows a lot of cleavage but has pauldrons on her shoulders as well.

She also has long hair that flows down to her ass while the colours are purple and greens. And to finish it off, she has vines going down the sides of her thighs and waist which has a cyan coloured belt with a green to yellow loincloth on the front.

With her power, I made some land above the Hive fertile with rich soil to plant seeds, then using He Bo to water them. So now I have a vegetable garden to eat from, and the changelings are taking turns to cultivate them. But until they grow, I have to settle from what they take from the ponies.

Chrysalis has also told me of that problem she has after a couple of days, turns out there are bore worms in the area, a large three metre long and three feet wide worm that can tunnel through rock and dirt. So far none have attacked us, but she's worried they might soon find the Hive.

I'm currently Vulcan, the Roman Smith of the Gods. A bald bronze coloured skin man with a dark ginger beard and moustache wearing a fancy black and gold apron, and a one legged pair of dark grey trousers and black right boot as my left leg is golden-bronze coloured and mechanical all the way up to my hip. My right forearm is also the same colour and mechanical.

I have a furnace with two chimney like stacks on my back and my weapon is a large golden bronze hammer with a thick leather grip on the bottom half of the pole.

I'm in a new room they dug out since I wanted to try making a forge. The changelings have a lot of metal and gems due to all the tunnels and rooms they dig out, and it's all just sitting in a dirty pile on the surface unused as they and no other race seems to have any need for the metal. No race has yet to discover blacksmithing on this world that the changelings here know of since the ponies make everything out of crystal as they can mould it with their magic while the other races use wood, stone, plant based cloth, crudely woven rope, and even bones to fashion their tools, equipment, or buildings.

Then again the last time Chrysalis has heard from the other races has been a good fifty or more years.

As Vulcan, I have an in-depth knowledge of blacksmithing and how a forge works. I've been building my new forge over the last four days, while refusing to tell Chrysalis what its for until it's done, and so far I have a basic furnace to smelt metals and for now a stone anvil that Chrysalis used her magic and resin on to make it more durable. But the first thing I make will be a proper forge and anvil.

I stand by the small furnace as the first three ingots are being made in rather nicely cut stone moulds, also reinforced by Chrysalis' magic.

"Will you now tell me what is the purpose of this forge?" Chrysalis asks me with a hint of frustration.

I smile and finally tell her. "For metalworking to forge things like weapons, armour, like the ones you've seen on my other gods, tools like my hammer here, utensils, and appliances. Though that last one might take a long while to get going. Here I'll make some armour and weapons for your guards and soldiers, and I can use my godly power to even give them certain traits," I explain in a gruff voice. I'm gonna look forward to making swords and spears with elemental traits to them. I wonder if I can replicate Zeus' lightning bolts? But for now I'll just make some basic stuff.

"I noticed in the Crystal Empire that everything was made from either crystal or wood with magic, not a single bit of metal to be found anywhere. So if no one else really knows how to use a forge or metalwork, then you'll be the first on this world to have forged metal. Once I get this forge fully built, I'll have changelings learn how to smith for themselves," I then tell her.

"What need do we have for weapons? Our magic is strong and our venom potent. As for armour, we have our chitin to protect us," she tells me confused.

"You told me the walls are similar to your chitin correct?" I ask her and walk over to the back wall.

"Yes, it's even harder than our chitin," she tells me.

I raise my hammer and with all my might, I swing it into the wall causing a deep crater where cracks form along the whole wall as chunks of the black rock fall off.

She gawks at the wall in both fear and awe.

"I can make armour that could withstand that to an extent, much better than your chitin ever could... no offence of course. I can also make weapons that could slice through your chitin like butter," I say and walk back over to the forge. Hmmm, still needs a few minutes.

After pumping the makeshift bellows for a few seconds to keep the temperature up, I look back to see her still gawking at the damage.

"Sorry about that, I guess I wasn't thinking properly..." I apologise for the damage sheepishly.

"Again I thank you for not retaliating when we first met..." she says emotionlessly.

"Ah, that's all water under the bridge remember, Chryssi?" I tell her with the nickname I gave her.

She huffs and keeps her distance as the heat of the forge makes her uncomfortable.

"So what do you plan to make first?" she asks me coming out of her stupor.

"First, I have to sort through the ore and make a stockpile of ingots. Then I plan to make a few suits of armour and some swords and spears just to start with," I reply and grin as the ingots are ready to be cooled.

Chrysalis just watches as I grab the very hot moulds with my metallic hand and start processing them. I'm looking forward to start forging, feels like a profession system in an RPG or MMO.

"This will probably take me a few days to make enough ingots to get started, would you be kind enough as to bring me something to eat? A salad sounds good right now," I ask her politely.

"Very well, would you like some water as well?" she asks me.

"That would be nice thank you," I reply and start filling the next set of moulds with iron ore.

One week later.

I've spent all my time over the last week just making ingots and made about ten practise swords which the three-hundred soldiers and guards of the Hive have begun practising with, they're dull and blunt but leave a nasty sting or minor crack in their chitin when hit.

I grin as I hammer the heated iron of the first spear head I'm making, sparks fly off with each strike as a couple of changelings named Yu and Seth watch with rapt attention.

They both suddenly go wide eyed and Yu runs over to me.

"Carl! Scouts have just reported that there're bore worms heading for the Hive!" she tells me with slight panic.

I stop hammering and cool off the half finished spear head.

"What? How long until they get here?" I ask, only for the ground to start trembling and screams echo throughout the tunnels.

"Oh they're here now!" she replies as Seth runs out into the tunnels.

I change god to Khepri and follow him out, after a minute the wall to the left collapses as a large tan coloured worm with razor sharp looking teeth rams straight into Seth who screams as the teeth pierce his chitin and the worm starts grinding said teeth to tear into him.

I growl and use my strong legs to launch myself into the worm and ram my three large horns into its side, it lets Seth go and screeches as it tries to dislodge me.

I wrap my front legs around it and start twisting my head in every direction, making my horns dig deeper and its orange coloured blood to spill onto my head. But I don't care as I yank my head up and tear out a good chunk of its side and it collapses onto the tunnel floor.

I shake my head to get rid of most of the gore on me before changing into Cupid and making some hearts. Yu quickly absorbs them and before I could say anything, she kisses Seth and I barely see pink gel coming out of her mouth and into his.

I look at his wounds to see his right wing has been torn off and a few chunks of his chitin around the joint is missing. Green blood is oozing out of the wound which is slowly closing as the healing infused love he was just force fed kicks in and does its thing.

"Take him somewhere safe so he can recover, I'm going hunting," I tell Yu who nodded and levitates Seth onto her back and heads off down the tunnel.

Another tremor reverberates through the Hive and more screams echo throughout the tunnels.

I change back into Khepri and head down to the main social chamber area to find two worms chasing some changelings while a third is eating the lower half of a changeling while the other half is on the ground with a frozen expression of fear and pain.

I fly over to the two chasing the changelings and land on one, impaling it with my back and middle legs while my front two lunge out and impale the other one.

They both screech and struggle to try and get me off, but with a roar, I tear the one on my front legs in half while the one on my back legs has its left side gouged out and its innards spill out.

I quickly fly over to the third one and tackle it onto its back. It spits out the chewed up lower half and tries to bite my face off, only for my forehead horn to pierce through its mouth and out the back of its head.

After I make sure its not moving, I pull my head out of its mouth and then proceed to tear the worm apart.

Once done, I don't feel anymore tremors, and after making sure no one else was hurt or killed, Chrysalis flies in dragging another dead worm with her magic, which is covered in holes and scorch marks.

"WHERE ARE THEY!?" she screams in rage and spots me and the dead worms, along with the ripped in half changeling.

Her eyes widen and she flies over and collapses next to the front half of the body.

"Not again..." she quietly says and starts crying while cradling the body.

I frown as there's nothing I can do to cheer her up. If I knew how to use one of the underworld gods to let her just say goodbye to their soul, I would. But I don't know how their powers work yet and I'm not going to risk trying right now.

It takes Chrysalis a good half hour to calm down enough to do damage assessment, four changelings died in the worms attack, and another three including Seth were wounded.

Unfortunately, we weren't able to track the worms tunnels back to their nest to wipe them out. Before the changelings could only flee or try to remain hidden due to their weakened state, but now with their magic back to full strength, they were able to kill the other seven that attacked along with the four I killed.

I watched as Chrysalis did a changeling burial for the four dead changelings by cocooning them in pods and draining the love and energy they still had until they shrivelled up and turned to dust. She then took the cocoons to the surface and released the dust to the wind, all the while tears streamed down her face.

She really cares for each and every changeling in the Hive, which is reasonable as they're all either siblings, or her own children.

Once the burial was over, I promised to get the weapons and armour made asap and try to find the worms nest somehow.

Three months and one week later.

Time just flies by as I get more and more comfortable living here. Hard to believe it's been four months since I arrived in the Hive.

I've learnt to fly on the surface using Thanatos, the hand of death and Cupid, even as the goddess Jing Wei, the oath keeper. Though I have crashed a good amount of times while learning. I've even learnt nearly the basics of all of the gods and goddesses I have access to, even a couple of new gods that weren't playable before I left Earth. Though I'm still not comfortable testing out the power of the underworld gods just yet.

I now have a proper anvil and forge so I've gotten fifty swords and spears made as well as ten suits of plate armour made. I decided to go with the old English knights style for the weapons and armour. So now Chrysalis' personal guard are outfitted with the new gear and they love it, I've got some changelings asking me already to teach them how to smith.

I've been spending more and more time with Chrysalis whenever I get the chance. She's fun to hangout with once you get past her short temper. She's told me some things she knows about this world and the other races which include; Gryphons, Minotaurs, Diamond Dogs, Dragons, Zebras, Breezies, Demons, Elk, and Centaurs, who look more like they have a bulkier horse like body compared to ponies, a minotaur torso and a goat head with varying horn styles than the human hybrids I know.

I now understand most of the changeling written language as well as some more of the pony written language thanks to her tutelage.

The Hive is more alive than it ever has been according to Chrysalis. I've introduced; board games, darts, pool tables -crudely made ones though-, cards, and many other games and activities from my world that nobody's bored anymore, game night is a hell of a lot of fun now that we have a proper currency we've been making from the gold we dig up. I've decided to call the coins Gil, like from the final fantasy games. I was very happy to show them as they looked so dull and lifeless just trying to survive before.

Right now I'm Khepri and laying on my legs in the small garden I've had grown with a few flowers and bushes planted around, I come here when I need to relax or vent off some stress after having an argument with Chrysalis or some other changeling.

Chrysalis is laying right next to me looking up at the moon like she's been doing for the last two weeks, ever since she found out I've been doing this she tried it and found it so relaxing she just joins me whenever she can. We just chat and discuss what can be done for the future of the Hive.

"Carl?" she says getting my attention.

"Hmm?" I mumble in reply as I just bask in the silence, cold night air, and friendly company.

"In these past few months, you've done so much for my Hive and asked for so little in return... if it wasn't for you, we may not have survived much longer. Thank you, for everything," she tells me and I notice tears forming in her eyes.

It's very rare I see her cry, this will be the fourth time now. The first was when the worms attacked. Second was when she learned that a few changelings were chased from a pony town after being discovered, only to be mauled by manticores when they weren't paying attention to their surroundings on the way back.

The third time is when I made a portal back to the Crystal Empire to see if I could make one at this distance, which I can. She cried when she saw Cadenza who also blubbered like a baby as they hugged each other for what felt like hours. The crystal guards weren't that worried and thankfully, the Princesses weren't there either.

Flashback: Two months ago.

After finishing the fifth set of armour, I decide to take a break from blacksmithing and change into Khepri before heading out to the cafeteria for some lunch. After eating a mixed salad and some water, I head out to find Chrysalis.

I ask a few changelings where I could find her and after a few minutes of following their directions, I find her in her room just laying on her bed with her eyes closed. She told me once that she's not sleeping, but going through a lot of information her drones and scouts send her and she relays what needs to be done in return to them.

"Hello, Carl," she says without moving to look at me.

"Good afternoon, Chryssi. How's everything going?" I ask her and lay down next to her bed.

"Everything is going perfectly. Our stores of love are full, everyling is fed, and the new games you introduced are keeping everyling happy and entertained. I honestly think we're as well as we can be for now," she replies and opens her right eye to glance at me. "So what brings you here?" she asks me.

"Just finished the fifth suit of armour and I'm taking a break. Although if you want, we can see if I can make a portal to the Crystal Empire now," I reply making her perk up.

"Yes, I am eager to see Cadence again," she replies smiling widely.

"Alright, but don't get your hopes up if the distance is just too great," I tell her and change into Janus.

After a few minutes weaving the portal and trying to connect to Amore's Throne Room, I make the connection and open the portal. I poke my head through and notice I'm behind the throne where Amore is sitting on it and talking to a pony.

I step through where Chrysalis hesitantly follows behind me.

"Hello, Amore," I greet the light red mare making her yelp cutely and turn around and look behind her throne while her guards tense up and point their crystal spears at me and Chrysalis.

"Sir Carl!?" she asks in confusion before smiling. "We thought we would nary see thou again," she replies and gets up as the guards relax.

"Yeah, sorry about that. But I've been preoccupied these last couple of months," I reply.

She walks up to me and gives me a quick hug which I carefully return. Once she lets go, she looks at Chrysalis. "And who is this? We have not seen a changeling in decades... thou look familiar..." Amore says looking Chrysalis over.

"It's good to see you again, Amore. It's me, Chrysalis," the changeling Queen replies with a smile.

"Chrysalis!? Oh we thought we would never see thee again! Look at thee, all grown up," Amore replies and gives her a big hug which Chrysalis happily returns. "Where is thine mother? How is she?" Amore asks eagerly, but her smile fades at Chrysalis' sombre expression.

"She died a few years after we were exiled... she knew we couldn't sustain two queens without a stable source of love, so she gave me what little she had left and died to prevent the rest of us from starving..." Chrysalis replies sadly.

"What?..." Amore asks stunned and saddened as well.

Chrysalis spends the next ten or so minutes explaining what happened after their exile and then how they found me.

"We see... It is fortuitous that Sir Carl found thee, or that thou found him. We art so sorry for not standing up for thee and thy mother so long ago... please forgive us," Amore says sadly as tears threaten to fall from her eyes.

"It wasn't your fault, it was Celestia and Luna who drove us away," Chrysalis replies and hugs Amore who returns it.

The Throne Room doors open up and Cadenza walks in and looks confused at what's going on before her eyes widen and she gasps. "CHRYSALIS!" she yells after recognising her and flies over and tackles both Chrysalis and Amore to the floor joining in on the hug.

"Cadence!" Chrysalis replies and hugs her back. They both start sobbing and just hug each other as I just float beside them awkwardly.

After a while they let go and stand back up.

"How did thou get here!?" Cadenza demands happily as she smiles at Chrysalis.

"Carl here opened a portal from my Hive," she replies and wipes her eyes.

"Sir Carl?" she says and looks at me and smiles wider. "Sir Carl! Oh we art glad to see thou art well. We were worried when thou did not visit in the last months, we thought thou hast forgotten us," she says and rears up to hug me which I return.

"As I told your mother, I've been busy lately," I reply.

She let's go and grins at us. "Come, we wish to know all that hast transpired since we last saw thee!" she says and starts pulling me and Chrysalis with her magic, making Amore giggle as we leave the Throne Room.

Cadenza, who told me to call her Cadence instead as that's what her friends call her, showed us to her chambers so I could make a portal there instead from now on, just in case I do make one in the Throne Room and the Princesses are there. Not that I would mind as I still owe Celestia a hard slap to the face.

Since then I've made portals in the afternoon every few days to let Cadence and Chrysalis catch up and do girly things. I only tagged along to play the part of bodyguard for Chrysalis or to talk to Amore who still thanks me for saving her and her empire and even offered to make a statue of me, which I declined. Although Cadence is now very angry at the Princesses for what they've put Chrysalis through all these years, but she's very happy that I've helped her childhood friend recover and prosper.

I watch Chrysalis shed a few tears, to which I raise my right foremost leg and gently wipe her tears away.

"As I said many times, I'm happy to help. You gave me a home, a place I can just relax and have fun. You're my friend as well as the others in the Hive, I'll do anything I can to make sure you all are safe and happy," I reply making her tears spill faster.

She lunges at me, making me roll over onto my back as my six legs wrap around her to stop her from falling off.

"Despite how strange and infuriating you can be sometimes... You've been the best thing to ever happen to us... to me," she tells me and without warning, gently kisses me.

My eyes widen as I remain frozen. She pulls back after a few seconds and looks into my stunned eyes.

"Would you do me the honour of being my mate?" she asks me with hopeful eyes.

I know she's teased me in the past, but I had no idea she actually liked me like this...

Flashback: Two weeks and four days ago.

I yawn as I walk towards the bath house, where everyone goes to relax in a nice warm bath. I've developed a boiler over the course of two weeks using Vulcan's knowledge that heats all ten baths around it to a comfortable temperature, fuelled by wood taken from the forest near the Equestrian border or coal we dig up where the smoke is vented out by a chimney that goes up to the surface. Although the water needs to be changed manually as there's no plumbing just yet.

I check the baths only to find all of them are taken and the last one has Chrysalis in it.

I raise an eyebrow at the sight of her, her hair is plastered to the left side of her face covering her eye. She's using a bucket made of resin to levitate water over herself to wash her hair. I just stare dumbly as a strange thought comes to mind. 'Why do I find that attractive?'

She sighs and shakes her head spraying water everywhere, she then spots me by the door as her eyes light up and she smiles at me.

"Carl, what a pleasant surprise. Are you here to bathe as well?" she asks me and levitates a mossy sponge over to polish her chitin, starting with her right foreleg.

"I was, but it seems all the baths are taken at the moment," I reply and chuckle. "Guess I'll wait for one to be free," I say and start heading back.

"Wait!" she yells getting my attention again. "You can just share mine, I could use a hoof scrubbing my back," she tells me and I give her a deadpan look.

"You know you can reach your back just fine," I tell her making her groan and then sigh.

"Just get your flank in here now, your Queen demands it," she tells me playfully.

I've lost my shyness of being naked around the changelings as they just don't care being naked themselves all the time, and I've come to realise I'm always naked as Khepri. I've checked my goods as Khepri as well and I gotta say, my junk is both creepy and cool.

I sigh and walk in, all the doorways have been widened to allow me to go anywhere as Khepri without having to keep changing gods.

I slowly lower myself into the bath and sigh as the hot water rises up and seeps into my carapace, relaxing my muscles. Chrysalis walks over and before I can say anything, she starts rubbing the mossy sponge over my shell with her hoof and not her magic.

'Damn this feels nice...' I think to myself as the sponge glides over me. I can feel it get between the plates clearing out any dirt stuck there.

"I'm actually jealous of your colourisation, makes you appear less threatening and more regal. I've never seen any being with gold engraved into their flesh or shell," she says and rinses out the sponge before continuing.

"I think black and green suits you, it's a nice colour combination and the oily affect your green shell has is appealing," I tell her and shudder as she prise open the right plate on my back with her magic to wash my abdomen underneath.

I shiver from the pleasing contact and sigh, now completely limp and relaxed.

She spends the next ten minutes scrubbing me down and once I'm squeaky clean, she gets me to change into Hercules (Which I'm still squeaky clean) and strip out of my clothes before using my hands to scrub her down. Her chitin isn't that hard, as it gives under my touch. But she can harden it before a fight to make herself more durable. I avoided her privates and wings, but the rest of her is now shiny enough that I can see my reflection on her chitin.

"Thank you, Carl,” she says and nuzzles my chest for a second before stepping out of the bath and uses her magic to dry herself off. I follow her out and change into Sol, Norse goddess of the Sun. With my body now the very flames of a sun, and long flaming hair, the water on me evaporates entirely and I change back to Khepri.

Chrysalis smiles at me and nodded towards the door. "Let's go. I don't want to miss poker night. Sheldon still owes me fifty Gil from last time," she tells me making me chuckle as I follow her out.

End Flashback

I guess nuzzling meant more than I thought as she's done that a lot lately. I lower my right front leg and caress her cheek making her nuzzle it gently. "We've only known each other for four months, are you sure you want me? You haven't even bought me dinner or taken me out on a date yet," I reply with a chuckle.

If I'm being honest with myself, I've been having conflicting feelings for her for the last month. And her not being human at first made me very confused with myself, but over time, I saw less of what she is and more of who she is. She's given me anything I asked for if she could provide it, she's kept me company everyday when she wasn't busy running the Hive, she listened to any problems I had as I did for her. She's kind and compassionate to those she cares for...

I realise now that I've had a crush on her for a while, and she has just admitted to loving me in return.

"What does buying you food have to do with taking you as my mate? And what does the date have to do with it?" she asks genuinely confused.

I chuckle and rub my horn with hers softly. "I'll explain human dating later. But for now, I would be honoured to be your mate," I tell her and she smiles widely and snuggles into my golden underbelly where I keep my legs hugging her to me as a makeshift blanket.

"Thank you," she says and slowly falls asleep, still with her smile. It doesn't take long for me to join her.

"Wake up!" I hear Chrysalis yell at me as she thumps my chest.

"Hmm?" I mumble as I wake up.

"GET UP! The equestrians are coming!" she tells me and my eyes shoot open.

Now wide awake, I let go of her and she flies off me as I roll over back onto my legs.

"Where!?" I ask and look around and notice changeling guards surrounding us wearing the armour sets I made.

She points over towards Equestria where I barely see small dots slowly coming towards us on the horizon.

"What are they doing here?" I wonder out loud and frown.

"I've just been told by our scouts watching the nearest pony town that they heard rumours among the ponies of vegetation growing with ponies living here along with smoke, most likely from your forge," she tells me.

So, they're either sending an investigating unit, or an armed force.

"Get back into the Hive and quench the forge, I'll relight it later. I'll stay here and see what they're here for," I tell her and then change into the Roman god called Sylvanus, Keeper of the wild.

I turn into an old man wearing a leafy toga with large deer like antlers attached to the sides of a circlet around my head and the ground beneath me rumbles before a sapling emerges and grows into a large tree underneath me named Grover with a humanoid shape. His eyes open as I sit atop him and a few unintelligible grunts come from him, which to others don't sound like words, but to me, I understand him completely.

"Hmmm?" he asks waiting for my reply.

"Grover! Stand still and act like a tree, I want to listen in on the ponies about to arrive," I tell him getting him to nod in reply.

"Mmmookkeeyy," he says slowly and strands more upright with his arms next to his sides just touching the ground, looking like a thick trunk.

I hide in the leafy bush on his left shoulder as Chrysalis and her guards head down into the Hive and disguise the entrance with magic. I see the forge's vent stop smoking and the hole disappearing as well.

Grover and I wait for a good half hour before six pegasi ponies arrive wearing thin light blue crystal armour with bits of cloth underneath, likely to let them fly without weight restricting their speed.

"I don't believe it... there really are plants growing here..." one of them says and looks at the flower bed next to him.

One of them looks at Grover with a frown and a grimace. "Is it me or does that tree have a face?" he asks his companions.

They all look and one of them shrugs. "Looks like it, but it's just a tree. Probably looks weird due to growing out here," he says and continues to look around.

Grover barely contains a growl and I pat him on the shoulder.

"There's a small crop field over there," one of them says pointing to my vegetable garden. "Where are the ponies living here though?" he then asks confused.

"There are hoof tracks so somepony was here recently," the smallest of them says and examines the hoof prints in the grass. "Wait... these aren't pony hooves..." he says and then goes wide eyed. "These are changeling hoof prints!" he says and looks back to the others.

"We need to report back to the Princesses immediately!" the one with the more decorated armour says but before they could fly away, I get Grover to act.

"STOP THEM, GROVER!" I order him.

The ponies all turn to us and Grover roars out as he throws out his right hand which is attached to vines.