To Love Your Torturer

Chapters

Into the Frying Pan
So Much Pain
Failing a Bargain
Getting Somewhere
A Level of Understanding
There is Something...
Tough Love
Calming Down
Setting Love in Motion
The Queen's Quarters
Prologue

Into the Frying Pan

Shining Armor was wandering down one of the many steep, dank corridors he had spent the last week and a half familiarizing himself with.

Queen Chrysalis' hive was like a labyrinth to him. Seemingly endless identical corridors, crossing through each other in seemingly random patterns, spread throughout the hive like a giant ant-hill.

The countless changeling drones buzzing around seemed to know every way by instinct alone. A pleasure he certainly didn't have.

Due to its confusing layout, he had spent more time creating a mental map of how to navigate it, than he had doing actual spy work, and he still knew next to nothing about what the Queen was planning. And the fact that the drones practically never talked didn't help him in the slightest. But it did mean that none of them ever asked anything of him. Something he was naturally thankful for.

Learning his way around the hive without seeming out of place hadn't been easy, but he had been careful, and it had gone well so far. His disguise had a broken wing as to give him a reason not to fly, but luckily, the changelings didn't seem to care that he was on legs. No one seemed suspicious of him, not even the queen. Not that any of them would have time for suspicion. They were always in a hurry, seemingly never resting. He just tried to blend in, and scurry as he moved through the massive cave system...

He arrived at a large, dank area, which high ceiling of long, deformed stalactites dripped green liquid onto the course, bumpy floor, where it drained into the countless cracks and crevasses and disappeared into an unknown layer of the hive.

This enormous rooms acted as a hub for the cave system. It was a place where one could switch direction to almost anywhere in the hive if you knew what you were doing. Naturally, it was swarming with changelings, and Shining Armor was careful to not catch any unwanted attention from the army of drones.

He hurried to one of the corridors he knew where lead, but before he could enter he was blocked off by none other than Queen Chrysalis herself, emerging alongside a plethora of swarming drones, carrying spears.

Being near the queen was how Shining got his information, because unlike the rest of these strange, love-sucking creatures, she actually had the incentive to talk. Still, this encounter was way too sudden, and he found himself far closer to her highness than what he was comfortable with.

Quick to react, he immediately changed direction and walked quickly towards the very next corridor, but he was stopped by chrysalis before he got away.

"You there! Drone with the broken wing!" she called out, startling Shining immensely.

"Follow me," she finished.

His heart was pounding with fear as he turned towards her, giving her a quick bow. But he didn't show it. He acted perfectly and he knew it.

Her command was direct and unchallengeable. If Shining Armor tried to escape now, his cover would be blown, and against this many changelings, he knew he didn't stand even the faintest chance of getting away alive. His only option was to comply with her and hope for the best.

He followed after her as she wandered through a cave he had yet to sojourn. He hoped to Celestia he would be able to reorient himself once the queen allowed him to leave, as he didn't know this corridor at all.

The cave went downward, steeply, and it just continued and continued in what seemed like forever. There were a few other changelings tagging along with them, but one after another, they disappeared into small holes into the wall, until it was only Shining Armor and Queen Chrysalis left.

Being left alone with the large bug-horse made Shining's already crippling fear rise within him. The only thing that kept him calm was the thought that his family was waiting for him at home.

Eventually, after wandering downwards for minutes, they emerged in a hall, with a set of wooden doors on each side. Torches hung on the walls, lighting up the place with dim flickering, green, magical lights. By the end of the corridor, a large metal gate, towered menacingly high, going all the very ceiling of the hallway at least five meters in the air.

"Come now, my drone."

Together they approached the gate. Shining Armor having a bad feeling in his gut, tried his hardest not to panic as they slowly wandered through the ominous hallway together.

His chain of thought was broken by the loud noise of the grand gate opening, revealing to him the one thing that could have made him gasp even when trying this hard to seem in character.

His heart surely skipped more than just a single beat as he stared into the horrors of queen chrysalis's torture chamber.

Old blood painted the many devious devices, of which there were more than plenty. The room was lit by a burning fireplace, and spikes were placed into the flames, to keep them red hot. All over the walls hung small accessories of suffering. Whips, pincers, knives, saws and knee-splitters just to name a few. The room was an altar of pain, and in the middle of it, chained to the wall, somepony sat, crying.

Shining Armor almost pissed himself, not so much due to the sight of the horrible torture room, (though that definately didn't help keep his bladder at bay), but due to seeing his mother, who he had just left behind ten days ago, sit in chains, bruised and bleeding on the stone floor, while weeping silently due to the queen's untimely return.

She looked hurt, but not destroyed. She had all her limbs and both her eyes, and no part of her looked to be placed in an unnatural way. She had been beaten, but seemingly nothing worse. Not yet, at least.

Shining wanted to run to her. To free her, hug her, and tell her everything was going to be alright, but he couldn't. Not with the changeling queen standing right beside him. His lips felt dry, and his knees were trembling, but he had to keep it together. He had to look as if this meant nothing to him.

"Why are we hear, Queen?" He managed to ask without breaking down in tears or anger.

"The pony you see sitting here is the mother of the purple princess."

She looked down at her lonesome, tense drone.

"There is no doubt in my mind that such a close relative of one of the princesses must have a lot of useful information. She just doesn't seem to wish to share anything useful with me."

Chrysalis picked out a small torture device from the wall and handed it to Shining.

"Perhaps I'm just not doing it right... Torture her," she commanded in a cold, aggressive tone, Twilight Velvet crying louder as she gave the order.

Her order shook him to the core...

The likelihood of him, out of all the changelings having been chosen for this was unfathomable, but he was glad. He was glad it had happened because that meant he could spare his mother the pain.

He let the device fall to the floor, and stared into Chrysalis' eyes, with a burning passion.

"I won't!" He shouted as the white color returned to his body, the holes in his legs closed, and his horn straightened. He once again appeared as Shining Armor, captain of the royal guard.

His disguise was gone, but he didn't need it anymore. All he needed now was his magic. All he needed now was to die while defending his mother.

Not giving Chrysalis a chance to react to his sudden change, he immediately threw himself to the side, firing a shot of magic at the queen as he ran for cover behind a torture bench. But as he fired his attack, what was supposed to a strike of magical energy turned to sparkling particles in the air before it even reached her. He didn't have time to consider this failing attack, however, and quickly dashed out from his current cover, as to not stay a sitting duck against his powerful enemy. He fired another similarly withering beam of particles at the queen, before finding cover behind the next torture machine.

This time, though, Shining realized something was wrong. He didn't expect his attacks to take down the changeling queen, but he expected them to do damage. They had done nothing. Furthermore, she hadn't moved an inch since he started the barrage. She just stood there, completely still, looking both bored and utterly unchoked at his sudden transformation.

"You done?" she asked in an annoyed manner, as Shining sat, reconciling behind the torture device.
He looked up from behind the device, staring into Chrysalis' eyes. He was angry, determined and scared and it was all showing now. There was no more pretending.

He was not. He gave it his all in his next attack, practically draining himself of magic as he jumped out from his hiding spot and fired yet another useless attack, that dissolved just as quickly as the other.

Exhausted, he fell to his knees, panting and frightened.

"You know, Shining Armor, I am really, really good at taking notice of the small insignificant things ponies do that are unique to them. Every tiny habit anypony I've studied has, I know of them. It's in my nature. I need to be perfect when I take another's identity."

She approached the kneeling unicorn, trotting slowly towards his weak body while he staggered to get up.

"It's not hard to guess that I became suspicious when one of my children started walking very similarly to my old lover. Just needed my suspicions confirmed is all."

Shining felt like an idiot. This predicament was entirely his own fault. If somepony Chrysalis didn't know had taken on this mission instead of him, like had been originally intended, she wouldn't have seen through the disguise. Why did he have to be so considerate all the time.

His only relief was that what appeared to him as his mother, was most likely just a changeling in disguise, meant to draw him out of hiding. Even though her wide eyes and loud cries seemed very real to him.

"Y-You were never my lover!"

With the limited power he had left, Shining tried one last time to fire his magic, but nothing, not even the worthless sparkles from before came out this time.

"Spare me, Shining. It should be obvious by now that your magic is useless down here. You're just embarrassing yourself."

"I do not intend to surrender quietly. It is obvious you don't have my mother. So drop the act, and fight me!"

He got on his hind legs and raised his front hooves to fight. He knew he had no realistic chance of winning againts an enemy twice his size while having no access to magic, but he had to try. For his family. For Equestria.

Slowly, a smile manifested on the, (until now), bored-looking Chrysalis. Her grid of long razor-sharp teeth turned to a smirk of utter sadistic glee, sending shivers down Shining Armor's spine.

"You don't believe I have your mother? Oh Shining, you always were naive."

"Sh-Shut up!" he yelled, not having any of it.

Chrysalis couldn't help but giggle, at her insecure but stubborn opponent.

"There were six ponies at the hidden outpost we found buried in the ground near the giant oak. Three guards, two researchers, and as luck would have it, this lovely mare."

A sense of dread, strong enough to take his out of his fighting pose struck Shining, as Chrysalis described the exact conditions outpost where he left behind Twilight Velvet.

There was no way. There was no way this was happening. This was really her. This was really his mom.

He turned his neck to look at the crying mare, that still sat gagged, and chained to the wall.

"Mom, no." he whispered quietly while tearing up further.

Chrysalis stepped up to his side, and placed a hoof on his shoulder. He didn't react in the slightest, stunned by the realization, that both he and his mom were at Chrysalis' mercy.

"I haven't been harsh to her, really. I just beat her up a bit. I know she doesn't have any information. You on the other hoof. You know so much. I want, more than anything, to find a way to beat the Equestrian military. Will you be of help?"

Chrysalis's sadism was oozing off of her as she spoke, making Shining gulp.

"I-if you let my mother go, I'll do whatever you say. I'll be obedient as you torture me. I'll make hurting me easy. I'll even beg for torture if you like that. I just won't tell you anything. I can't betray my people."

"Sounds delightful. But information is all I'm seeking. I'll keep your mother here, as a means of encouragement, but I won't hurt her as long as you comply. If you should go too long without talking, though, I may end up going back on my word."

Shining, defeated, heartbroken, and scared, looked down on the blood-splattered ground, contemplating how to answer her.

"I can't tell you what you want to hear. I can't betray my country. I can't sacrifice all those ponies for the sake of just two, but I will comply with you. I hope that will be enough to keep my mother safe. I hope you have at least that much mercy."

She scoffed.

"We'll see."

She pointed to a torture bench in the corner of the room.

"Go to the rack and strap yourself in."

Shining gulped. His heart started pounding faster again as he looked at the cruel device. He wasn't exactly an expert in torture methods and didn't know what a rack was, or what it did, but looking at the thing gave him a rough idea.

"C-can I, hug my mother goodbye before we start. I have a feeling we won't get to see each other again after this."

Shining thought his request would surely be denied by the tyrant, but after a moment of thinking, much to his surprise, she allowed it.

Trying not to cry his eyes out in front of her, Shining Armor embraced his retrained mother and hugged her deeply.

"I'm sorry, mom... I'm sorry it had to be this way. Just know that I love you more than anything in this world," he ensured her.

She moaned in tears in response, trying to hug back her child, but her chains preventing her.

"Time's up," Chrysalis coldly replied.

Shining let go of his of mom. Reluctantly, he very, very slowly trotted towards the torture device. As he reached it, he laid down on his back.

"Uh... A little help?" He asked unable to restrain himself without magic.

Chrysalis happily complied with his request, binding his limbs with the rope attached to the top and bottom of the device. Having her prisoner restrained, she gleefully yet slowly clopped towards him, smiling sadistically at her soon to be torture victim.

Shining Gritted his teeth.

"Y-you know, Chrysalis... You don't need to attack us... I've studied changelings substantially for this... I know there can be a symbiotic relationship between our kinds."

"Spare me," Chrysalis cut him off. "Don't even mention those antlered freaks in my presence or I'll break off your horn and force it up your ass. Understood"

The poor stallion gulped.

"Y-yes..." he said meekly. A hellish time was upon him.

So Much Pain

Chrysalis and Shining looked into each other's eyes. The tension between them was incredible. Fear, sadness, hatred, sadism, and anger filled the air.

"I'll start with an easy question, Shining." Chrysalis proclaimed, while nonchalantly levitating a pair of pincers down from the wall.

"How many ponies are in the Equestrian forces?"

Shining looked at the small torture device. Other than his imminent pain, the only thing he could think about was his mother's endless whining. He really didn't want her to see this.

"Before we start, could you cover my Mom's eyes or ears? She doesn't need to witness this. I beg you."

Chrysalis rolled her eyes.

"I'll take her to her cell, but if you keep on not talking, expect me to bring her back."

Shining nodded.

"T-thank you." He uttered, honestly surprised she let him have it his way for the second time in a row.

After two changelings had come to escort Twilight Velvet away, Chrysalis turned back to her other prisoner.

"I'll ask you again; How many ponies are in the Equestrian military?"

"I can't tell you. I have my duties."

"Would it really hurt? It's just a number."

"It would help you attack the ponies I've sworn to ward. Innocent ponies, who all have dreams and loved ones. I won't tell you a damn thing other than your name looks greasy."

Chrysalis smiled at his persistence. Her cruel smirk sent shivers down his spine.

"Careful, Shining. Passive aggression won't lead you anywhere nice."

"I'm not trying to upset you. I'm simply stating my position." Shining answered meekly, trying to defend himself from any reason she would have to hurt him other than interrogation.

"I understand your position. However, you're strapped to a rack, and I'm about to pull your teeth out. Do you think you can keep your composure through that? If you can't, you might as well talk now, and spare you the torture."

Shivering with nervousness, Shining gulped.

"I-I can't tell. I can't risk the lives of all those ponies for the sake of just my own."

"And your mother's." Added Chrysalis.

Shining began tearing up again.

"You can't trade millions for just two."

The changeling queen leaned in closer to her victim. He could feel her heavy breaths against his face as she spoke.

"Then open your mouth."

Reluctantly, Shining Armor did as he was told and revealed his teeth to his tormenter. He felt the pincers enter, forcefully pushing its way into his right cheek and grab onto one of his molars. He closed his eyes trying to mentally prepare himself to suffer. The very next moment his tooth was being twisted sideways out of place. He tried to jerk his head away while he screeched in pain. Chrysalis stopped him from moving his head with her hoof.

"Lay still or I shall do this to your mother!"

Even though the pain was intense, her threats stopped him from trying to escape. He just laid, crying and rattling as the taste of blood filled his mouth.

Chrysalis pulled, and the teeth went with the motion, causing Shining to let out a moan of displeasure.

"Talk!"

"I han't" Whimpered Shining.

He whined immensely as Chrysalis went in for another tooth, and she didn't even stop to ask him again before also taking a third.

She seized tormenting him after that, looking coldly at the hyperventilating stallion.

"I better move on to something else while you can still talk."

Thankful to still have 37 teeth left, Shining nodded at her proposal while the taste of blood and marrow grew stronger.

"Listen, Shield Ass, I already told you, I have you tied to a rack. This device is meant to pull your limbs, first out of their sockets, then apart by the joints, then by your bones, and then finally tear them away from your body. Do you understand?"

Shining nodded again, his crying turning louder.

"Not only will this be a lot more painful than a little dental work. This will cripple you for life if I stretch you far enough. So talk."

Shining certainly wanted to, but there was no way he could. He had to protect Equestria. He could not allow himself to become a tool of its demise. He could not tell this cruel creature a thing.

"I won't!" He yelled with a newfound passion. "Go ahead and torture me, you cruel bitch! I will endure!"

His sudden aggressiveness, made Chrysalis look dumbfounded for at least a moment before her shocked look turned to anger.

"If you ever, ever talk to me like that again, not only will I disembowel your mother in front of you, I'll also castrate you with a vice, have I made myself clear!?"

Upon hearing her threats, and coming face to face with her scary anger, his bravery, and stupidity both died down a bit.

"S-sorry. I was out of place."

"Have I made myself clear!" she repeated, adding a layer of saliva to his face as she yelled.

"C-Crystal," he answered softly.

"Then show me some obedience, and swallow your teeth," she said, holding the three bloody molars up to his mouth with magic.

He obeyed her cruel order and opened wide for her. She dropped them in one by one and he gulped them down like pills.

She laughed at his obedience, forgetting her anger. She really was a cruel bitch, but Shining knew he had to keep thoughts like that to himself from now on.

"Now Shining, you told me earlier that you would beg for torture if I liked that. I do like that. So either answer my question or plead for further suffering."

Shining gulped yet again. He closed his eyes and took a deep, calming breath.

"Please, ma'am. Hurt me."

"As you wish." Snared Chrysalis who was honestly expecting his breath to be an indication of him giving in to her demands.

She placed a hoof on the racks crank and pressed it down a couple of notches. The echoing sound of the grinding gears filled the room as the rope stretched.

So far, nothing fell out of place, but Shining felt great discomfort as his limbs were stretched beyond their natural limits.

He gritted his teeth and moaned in pain, while Chrysalis laughed loudly.

"I love the rack, Shining. It's by far my favorite torture device. I find it quite elegant, wouldn't you agree?"

"Argh. Y-yes, ma'am."

"Still won't talk, then?" She asked, rubbing her hoof gently on the crank, wiggling it slightly to make him feel the upcoming torture.

"Arrrgh. Mhhhh. There are ways to get information. Arghhh. I'm not one of them."

"Then beg me to stretch you."

"Argh. Please, Chrysalis, I can't betray my country. This serves nothing."

"I told you to beg for torture. Make good on your promise. Or would you rather see your mother in this device?"

"Argh. Okay. Ngghhh! Please, ma'am. Owww. Stretch meeeee-heeheeeee!"

Shining cried out loudly as he uttered those words, much to Chrysalis' amusement.

"Ma'am is not good enough. How do you address your princess?"

"I-I. Owwwwww. I call her Princess. Argh!"

"Then call me your queen. Try again. Plead for your own suffering."

"Stretch me, queen! Argh!"

Chrysalis turned the crank another notch, enjoying the look of pain that filled her victim's face. His wide bloodshot eyes, sweaty facial fur, and open mouth amused her greatly. To both of their surprise, he didn't scream. His pain was absolutely silent other than a few grunts.

She cranked again, and his shoulders dislocated with a lovely popping sound.

As his joints snapped, his quiet pain turned to loud screams. He hoped to Celestia that his mom's cell was far enough away from the torture chamber for her not to hear it, but he knew that wasn't the case. His screams could be heard everywhere in the dungeon, no doubt about that.

Almost as loudly as Shining screamed, Chrysalis laughed. She didn't wait long before cranking the device again, increasing her victims already immense suffering.

The tension became too much for his knee joints, and like his shoulders before them, they tore, ripping apart the cartilage between his bones. First went his front legs, and as Chrysalis was relentless, his back legs followed after another couple of cranks.

The pain was indescribable. Shining was screaming himself hoarse, and Chrysalis was enjoying every moment of it.

She stopped stretching him, wanting to savor the moment where his flesh would tear and his limbs would be pulled from his body. She let him lie, outstretched on the rack, as she asked him again.

"Will you tell me, or should I make you even taller?"

Shining's only answer was painful moans and hoarse cries. He had no power left in his chest to scream, and with the tension now stagnant, his whimpering was enough to satisfy his enate needs for whining.

After a couple of seconds of listening to his pitiful cries, Chrysalis pulled a lever near the crank, and the tension was released. Shining Armor's limbs subtracted like overused rubber bands. The sudden movement caused another squeal of pain, but once his legs where back where they belonged, (or at least close to that,) his pain was lessened greatly.

He laid for a while, breathing heavily, before the somewhat impatient queen asked again.

"Well? Are you going to talk."

"Please. Chrysalis, I beg you. I can't let all those ponies die just because I am suffering. I could never live with myself if I was the course of their demise. What would you do if you were in my situation? Would you let your children die?" he spoke, softly and sadly.

She contemplated his words for a moment.

"My hive live to serve me. I alone am more important than every changeling there is. I could live without a hive, but without a queen, they would all wither and die."

"You really don't get us, then. We are not just Celestia's pawns. We take care of ourselves and each other, and every single pony in our society matters."

"Careful, Shining. You wouldn't want to get the habit of speaking out of turn, would you?"

"I would not, but if it's not too much to ask of you, I would still like to speak my mind on this matter. If you won't allow it, just say the word, I'll shut up. Just don't expect me to talk."

Chrysalis stood for yet another moment, looking at her torture-toy, as he looked back at her. He was frightened, yet he was brave. Weak, yet strong.

"Let's take a torture break," she finally proclaimed, much to Shining's relief.

He had gotten through his first torture session, but he was fearing for what was to come.

Failing a Bargain

With a tired sigh, Chrysalis found herself a stool and sat down beside of her shivering mess of a victim.

"Okay, Shining, if you want to talk about your feelings so badly, I'm all ears."

Shining turned his neck to look at the changeling queen as she sat, head held by her hoof, looking back at him with a bored expression.

"Thank you," he sighed, "I'm grateful for that. Allowing me to hug my mother goodbye, taking her away before hurting me, and letting me do this is very generous of you."

He didn't want to upset her now that he had a chance to converse her without suffering immensely. So he tried to be on his best behavior. But he admittedly was grateful for all of that.

Chrysalis gave a small nod upon hearing this, but didn't as much as even smile a little.

"You say your life isn't worth a nation. I agree. However, like I already told you, everypony has a breaking point. If I keep torturing you, eventually, after enough pain, you'll tell me what I want. It's your choice how much you'll have to suffer beforehoof."

She leaned in closer and whispered in his ear.

"And how much your mother has to suffer as well."

He withstood his urge to bite her for threatening his mom.

"I wouldn't be so sure of that," he said grumpily. "I will endure, maybe for so long that I'll die or go insane."

She took a hoof to her forehead upon hearing this, and letting out a great sigh, she changed the subject.

"Listen, darling... This is tiresome. Don't get me wrong. I am very much enjoying myself, but I have a nation to demolish, so I will make a proposal."

She looked at the restrained captain as he lied holding his breath, waiting for her offer.

"If you tell me everything I want to know, I'll be willing to leave some ponies be. I'll let you, as well as, say... Fifty ponies of your choice be in peace. Take that as a reward for being a good torture toy. Of course, you can't choose any alicorns, so your wife, daughter, and sister are off-limits, but I'm sure you can pick another lover, from the ponies you've saved."

Shining was silent for a moment, his eyes widening. Chrysalis withdrew slightly as his face turned ever redder.

"W-what!? You expect me to take a bargain where I can't save the ponies I love most? A bargain where I can't even save my infant daughter!? Are you really that heartless!?"

He was furious. How could she act this cruel when trying to bargain for information?

"Careful, Shining," she spat in annoyed malice. "You're down to forty ponies now."

"Forty!? There are millions of ponies throughout Equestria. How can you only allow me to save forty!?"

"Thirty, then?"

"You fucking bitch!"

Chrysalis got up, and slammed a hoof into the rack, right next to Shining Armor's face.

"No more bargaining, then. Torture will suffice."

"G-Go ahead, you whore!" he cried out, half in fear, half in anger.

What happened next occurred so quickly that he wasn't sure whether it was actually real, or just something he imagined. But it felt real. It felt like a red-hot iron rod suddenly, and without warning had appeared inside of his right eye, crushing his iris, mushing his vitreous, and causing it to boil, and spill out of the socket as a white, bloody, gelatinous liquid.

His scream was deafening.

"YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRGHH!!! NOOOOOOOOOOO!! STOOOOOOP."

Chrysalis did the opposite and began grinding it around inside of him, making the boiling eye spill onto his face like a hot, bloody paste. She looked remarkably unamused while doing it.

Finally, after getting tired of the endless screaming, she pulled it out, and put it back into the fireplace where she got it. So it could be reheated alongside the other rods she was preparing.

"Was it worth it? Was talking to me like that worth it?"

It took Shining a moment to gather the strength to answer.

"F-f-first of all, don't do the other one. Please, you'd like me to see what you do to me, wouldn't you? S-second of all, I know was out of place. I'm sorry," he whimpered through his pain.

"Don't do the other one you say?" asked chrysalis as she levitated another burning rod out of the fire. "I really want to, though. Would you deny me the pleasure of blinding you?"

Tears filled shinings remaining eye.

"P-please, I know I don't have a choice. I can't deny you. All I can do is plead, so I beg you, my queen, please don't do the other one."

"You know what information I want."

"I-I'm sorry. Please. I can't. ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGHHHHHH!!"

His newest scream was luckily not caused by him being blinded.

Chrysalis reactivated the rack and stretched him even further than what she did before their torture break. His skin and muscles were starting to tear, and the color red shined through his white fur, making his limbs look pink.

"You don't want to be blind, but you don't want to talk either? That's a problem."

"ARRgh! Please! OOOOOW! NOOO! Arrrgh! I'll-I'll do ANYTHING ELSEEEEE!!"

She lifted her hoof to his face.

"Kiss it," she commanded, and Shining complied, pecking away with his lips at her dark, hole-ridden hoof.

"Now, lick it."

Again, he complied, and he lapped up her hoof-grime while huffing violently for air, hoping this would satisfy her enough to release the tension of the rack, or at the very least not melt his remaining eye.

It didn't seem to work, as the moment she removed her hoof from his face, another red-hot pike replaced it. She held it so close to his muzzle that he could feel the heat radiating off of it.

His one intact eye widened at the sight of the burning metal rod.

"P-please... Don't"

"How big is the Equestrian military?"

"OOOOW! I-I can't. AAArghh! I can't tell."

"I'll let you choose then. Shall I blind you, or would you prefer it if I inserted this into your cock?"

Shining shivered at her cruel ultimatum.

"I - I - Arrgh! C-cock, please."

He gritted his teeth in regretful fear as he felt his captor picking up his stallionhood by getting it into a fittingly sized hole in her hoof. She held it in place this way so she could stuff the half-inch thick spike into his urethra.

He whimpered in pain as he waited for his suffering to increase even further, but Chrysalis was taking her sweet time, holding the rod so close to his penis that the heat alone was hurting him.

"Owowowowooooooooow. Nooooo. Noooo. Ahhhhh," Shining cried incohesively, feeling too weak to continue screaming.

She touched his exposed flesh with the heated metal, and Shining gained newfound strength to scream.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGHHHH!!! STOOOOOP!!!"

Once again, Chrysalis did the opposite, and she rubbed it around on him, turning the outer layer of his dickhead to burned meet before finally, after even more painful screaming, she shoved it down his urethra, causing a gush of steaming blood to spill out as it went down, burning and stretching the insides of his cock.

The last thought that went through Shining's head before passing out from the intense pain was that having sex, and even just urinating normally, would never be for him to experience again.

As soon as his screaming stopped, Chrysalis knew he was no longer conscious, and she quickly removed the rod to keep the nerve damage to a minimum. Looking at the pitiful creature lying there, stretched to his limits, she released the tension of the rack as well.

"We're getting nowhere..." she begrudgingly said to nopony in particular, while she gently wiped blood off the unconscious stallion with a wet towel.

She bit her lips as it was now her turn to weigh her options...

She looked at the burned, stretched mess of a stallion before her. The stallion who was so devoted to his cause that, even after all of this, he hadn't said a thing.

She let out a tired sigh.

She didn't love the idea, but maybe hurting his mother would make him talk, or at the very least teach him some manners...

Getting Somewhere

Twilight Velvet hung gagged from the ceiling before her unconscious and brutalized son. She was swinging back and forth like a pendulum, as Chrysalis who was getting bored of waiting for her victim to wake up, laid on her back and gently kicked Velvet back and forth with her hind legs, while looking up in the air.

How could he still be unconscious, she'd been waiting for hours.

After a while, Chrysalis took pity on the crying pony she was swinging around and took her down from the chain. She was not associated with the Equestrian military, and Chrysalis knew this. She held this pony for the crimes of her son, and causing her pain was therefore not as enjoyable as doing it to Shining, but it could nonetheless turn out to be a necessity if she wanted to get information.

As she laid Twilight Velvet on the floor, she ungagged her and the motion sick pony grasped for air through her mouth.

"He's certainly letting us wait," said Chrysalis finally, bored as a queen can be.

"W-what did you do to him. What did you do to my child!?"

"Try not to think about it."

"How can you tell me that, when you bring me before him, and force me to watch him like this!? You ruined him!" said velvet in sorrow and anger, but as she heard her own words out loud she conceded her anger fully, and it all became sadness. "Please. Please, I'll let you do anything to me, just don't hurt him anymore. Don't hurt my child."

Chrysalis rolled her eyes...

"I'll stop hurting both of you the moment I get my information."

"How do you know he even knows what you're asking him!? Your torture could be futile."

"Incredibly unlikely."

"How much must I beg to make you stop this madness? What must I do to make you stop hurting my child?"

"You could shut up for starters. See how far that takes you."

"I know silence won't convince you of anything, Chrysalis. Please, please give me some way to set him free. I-I'm not good with pain, so I'm not sure how well I'll do on-on that t-thing," Velvet said nodding towards the rack her son was currently tied up to. "But if I can't somehow buy his freedom, let me at least trade places with him."

"The apple doesn't fall far from the tree," mumbled Chrysalis grumpily in response.

Twilight Velvet's sobbing turned audible again.

"Please-he-hee-heeese!" she cried out. "Show a little heart!"

"You know, I took out your gag so you could rest your jaw. Not so you could lecture me. Now do be silent! Cry if you must, but speak no more."

Realizing that the changeling queen was very much serious, she quit her pleading, and the only sounds she made for the remaining minutes before Shinings woke up were sobbing and sniffling.

Then, as her son slowly started to wake up, she immediately found herself once again hanging from a chain in the ceiling, with a gag in her mouth. Upside down this time.

As shining came about, he was greeted with the faint sound of his mother sobbing. She was trying to hold it back and appear strong, but she didn't manage. Then, as he opened his eye, and regained sight, he saw her, hanging there, tied up in her hind legs and spinning around like on some sort of mad theme park attraction.

"Stop that!" he shouted hoarsely to Chrysalis, whom he was sure was nearby. "Please, stop spinning her!"

Chrysalis complied with this demand and caught the rotating pony with her tail, as she walked into Shining's line of sight.

"My, my, aren't we grumpy? Didn't get enough sleep? I think you got plenty, we've been waiting for you for hours, now."

"Th-then please take her down! She can't handle so much blood in her head" pleaded shining, not knowing she just now put there.

"Only if you talk," replied Chrysalis nonchalantly, taking advantage of Shining's lack of knowledge on his mother's suffering.

"I still can't! It doesn't matter how much you torture us. It's not a matter of our willpower, it's a matter of what we believe is right!"

"Are you hearing yourself? Are you that detached from reality?"

Chrysalis gave Velvet a good spin and with regret in his heart, Shining closed his one eye in response.

"Look at her, or she gets it."

He promptly opened it again and watched his mother spin around while upside down. It disgusted him, but he had no reaction other than a quick shudder. He didn't want to give Chrysalis the satisfaction of showing off his sadness.

He didn't manage to hold this cold demeanor for long, though, as he soon broke down into more pleading.

“Please, If you let her go, I’ll worship you, and do anything you want except for telling you the information against Equestria, have fun with me instead. I'll be your toy for life. Torture me all you want!”

His mother cried even louder at that...

"That does sound like fun, Shining... However, I'm really mostly fishing for that exception," answered chrysalis as she levitated more heated rods out of the fire. "But you get to choose places. Aren't you a lucky boy? One for each. Choose yours," she continued, holding the heated metal close to Shining once more.

"M-my stomach" he stuttered.

"Oh no, that's not how this works. Choose an orifice."

"My mouth, then," he answered regretfully.

"And the one for your mother?" asked his torturer intrigued.

"Please, give it to me as well."

"No."

Seeing his mother like this, and hearing his torturer's simple and cold answer to his plea, Shining's fear was momentarily overtaken by anger.

"Okay, stick it up your ass then, you sadistic whore!" he practically shouted.

"And the two for your mother?" corrected Chrysalis.

"No, wait, I'm sorry. I'm sorry," said Shining quickly realizing the mistake of his defiance. "Put it-put it in her left nostril," he continued, hating giving the command to his very core. He could tell his mother felt frightened, even though she tried not to show it.

"That's one of them. What about the other?"

"Please, please, give it to me. I know I was out of line. I just couldn't stand the thought of choosing my mother's torture. I was the one who insulted you, so please, punish me instead."

"Convince me to and make up for your insult. Praise me."

Shining gulped. He had to do great at this, and even if he did, he would just end up suffering even more.

“Please... my goddess... please, burn me anywhere you desire... I spoke out of turn and I deserve punishment, I will do anything to please you, and I beg for you to do what you wish to me... just don’t give it to her.”

"Praise me more."

“You... you’re gorgeous to start but for a queen of your position that is not important. You have a tight rule and don’t let others tell you what to do... you stab and torture with elegance but ferocity... but you are also forgiving, at least I hope you to be.”

Chrysalis stood for a moment, enjoying his compliance and her power over both of them. She smiled cruelly while waving the heated rods around in a threatening manner.

"Fine Shining, you get the two of them, but I'm not burning your mouth, I need you to talk after all."

"Th-that's fine my goddess, you can burn me anywhere you desire," answered Shining, simultaneously relieved that his mother would be saved from half the torture, and afraid that his own would be doubled.

Fear turned to pain as Chrysalis stuffed the rod up his ass.

He screamed in pain as he watched the changeling queen insert the heated metal into his mother's muzzle as well. She screamed through her gag, wiggling around in her bindings.

"STTTTOOOOOP!!" screamed Shining.

Chrysalis did not comply. Instead, she wondered where to put the next rod, and finding herself very indecisive, she just rubbed it around on his body, burning his fur and skin.

She laughed as her victims continued to both scream and struggle. She was having fun. She still found herself pitying Velvet as she was caught in the crossfire, but she was having fun nonetheless.

After a while, she removed the heated rods from the suffering ponies.

She found another rod from the fire, much wider than the other ones. It was at least two inches thick and Shining looked at it in horror is the queen held it up to his face.

"Now that I've stretched it a bit, don't you think, that with a little force, I can stuff this down your cock?" Chrysalis asked with sadistic glee, her smile of razor-sharp teeth going from ear to ear, and her snakelike tongue hanging out of her mouth.

Tears filled Shining's eyes, and he quietly and pathetically answered.

"No... please."

"No? Really? Wanna make a bet then. If I can't manage to fit it in, I let your mother go, but If I do manage, she has to take one of equal size up her urethra as well." She asked, chuckling lightly as she did.

Shining felt distraught and defeated, and he feared more than ever the torture he was about to undergo. He couldn't imagine anything as painful as that. Still, his thoughts were devoted to his mother. He could not let this cruel fate befall her as well.

"No, no, please. Don't do that. I-I'll try. I'll try to take it, and you can fit it, you can stick it elsewhere. You choose, anywhere. J-Just don't hurt her. Please."

He began to sob and blabber words without meaning, snot and tears pouring onto his face.

"Please?" he repeated in between his tears.

Chrysalis stood silently looking at him as he pleaded. She bit her lip. This felt weird to her. She liked seeing her torture victim act like this, but she also pitied him. At least a little bit.

"Then talk," she brought herself to answer.

This only made Shining cry more. He knew now that there was no way out of this. He could not comply with her demands.

"I'm sorry... I'm sorry. I'm soree-hee."

"Last chance. Talk or I'll stretch your dick out further than your limbs, and your mom will be soon to follow!"

"I cahahaaan't," cried Shining.

"T-That woman you're torturing, she's an amazing pony. She's brave and loving and I can't bear to see her suffer. S-She means the world to me, but the world is not mine to give away..."

For a short moment, Chrysalis looked genuinely touched by her victim's words. This helped Shining find a bit of bravery within his misery.

"Go ahead and torture me. Maybe you'll get your information someday, I don't know, but if you keep hurting her, I'll shut down, I'll go insane."

He tried to present his genitals to his torturer. He tried to make hurting him easy, hoping it would save his mother.

"P-Please, stick it in. I'll try not to squirm too much. "

Chrysalis stood for a while, looking at the pained expression of the brave pony on the torture bench, giving himself up for the sake of his mother.

She moved the heated metal closer, and Shining closed his eye tightly and bit his lip, awaiting the horrible pain. What followed was the clinging sound of metal hitting the ground and Chrysalis sighing.

He opened his eyes slightly to see what was going on. Chrysalis was looking to the side in a somewhat sad manner, and his mom, thank Celestia, was gone from the chains, presumably back in her cell.

He didn't say a thing, believing that whatever words he chose, (Other than words that could lead to Equestria's destruction,) would only make it worse for him. Eventually, Chrysalis looked back at him, her expression seemingly calm, cold, and collected... But she was neither of that at the moment.

"Admitting that you have a breaking point was a good start, Shining. Now that we know you have it, why not spare yourself the suffering and just talk."

Teary-eyed and shivering, he slowly shook his head.

"I'm sorry... I'm sorry... Please... Let me have a minute's break before we continue. That's all I ask."

Chrysalis looked untethered by this pathetic response, but the very next moment, she broke down in groaning.

"For fuck's sake, why do you insist on making this so difficult!" she uttered in clear, agonizing annoyance, her mane swinging wildly with her rapid head movement.

"I-I'm sorry... It's not my intention, but my principals weigh on me. I can't betray my people," Shining answered meekly, preparing himself for more crippling pain.

The Queen just sighed at that.

"Quit with the constant apologies... You already admitted that your strength isn't infinite. Just give up already... My patience is running low. I can be a lot crueler you know," she said squinting her glowing eyes.

Shining hated this. He hated he had to do this so much, but he had to take a moment to consider his options. He has to weigh his own misery against the lives of everypony else.

Tears were streaming down his cheeks, as they looked at each other, no more blood spilling for the time being.

"When you forcefully take a pony's love... W-what happens to them?" Shining finally asked.

A Level of Understanding

With a deep sigh, Chrysalis dropped her angry demeanor and sat down on her stool.

"They don't suffer. They just slowly lose their sense of self, becoming compliant and easy to handle. They don't think for themselves, but they don't suffer," she answered, honestly.

She was actually glad he asked that. She wasn't sure if she could bring herself to hurt him more without some encouragement.

Shining let out a soft groan from pain, his burns and torn limbs still dunking with pain constantly.

Chrysalis mercifully responded by carefully placing some cold, wet towels over his burned spots, as well as injecting him with a healthy dose of morphine. Although not so much that he couldn't talk with her.

Her kit of towels, water, and painkillers had been waiting in a bucket behind him the entire time. It was her intention to wait until the day was over to do this, but they both needed another torture break, and with Shining's body so utterly broken at this point, there was no way she wouldn't let him have a little relieve in between sessions.

Calming down a bit, Shining managed to continue the conversation in a meek, defeated tone devoid of anything but the simple notion of his words.

"Well... That's not good, we do like to think..."

Upon hearing the weakness in his voice, Chrysalis couldn't help but look away from her ruined torture victim, slightly embarrassed at the extent of the torture she had made him endure.

"We like living... and to do so, we need love," she finally answered back.

Shining thought for a minute, trying not to fall asleep in his weakened state while.

"Why do you need to defeat Equestria then... Why not just take what you needed and avoid a war."

"I've tried you know... Ponies in captivity are difficult to breed, and every following generation is less capable of loving than the previous.."

The thought of ponies being livestock in some sort of changeling farm, made Shining sick to his stomach.

"That wasn't what I meant... But good to know that's not an option."

His pain was slowly lessening, but he still felt meek and underpowered.

"I mean why try to enslave all of pony kind, rather than just attack a few at a time?"

The large bug seemed to fill with passion.

"Because, with your help, Shining Armor, I can," said chrysalis, not even realizing how utterly villainous her words sounded.

He scrunched his face at her, whimpering a little.

"What a benevolent leader you are..." he said sarcastically, through his tears, the lessened pain both making him slightly braver in his state of utter defeat and blurring his judgment. He immediately regretted it, as he suddenly remembered his current, undesirable position of torture victim, tied to a rack.

"Uh, I-I mean..."

"Sorry..."

Shining blinked a couple of times out of sheer confusion. He had expected to be interrupted. But had expected to be done so via angry shouting or even more unbearable pain. The last thing he had expected from Chrysalis, was an apology.

"Uhm... A-accepted, your majesty," he answered softly. "I'm sorry too."

The queen nodded, letting her ears droop down in acceptance.

"I realize that sounded harsher than what I meant it to be... I want to defeat pony-kind simply because as long as your people remain, mine will always be on the brink of extinction itself. I'm simply choosing my kin over yours. It is nature, is it not? The compassion I feel for my children, as well as my instinct to survive myself, are what drive me to do this."

She shifted around in her seat before continuing her explanation.

"With every small, coordinated attack I make... Every pony I kidnap... I'm getting more and more attention from the Equestrian military. Case in point, you're here." She nodded towards Shining. "I don't blame you for fighting back. Again, it's all merely nature, but you can't blame me either, then."

Shining gently moved his head back as he thought of what the queen had just said.

"I see your point... But you can't blame me for not talking then, either, can you?"

Chrysalis scoffed, seemingly offended that he would even suggest such a thing.

"No, and I don't. I'm impressed with your strength, really, but that doesn't mean I won't break you. This is my people against yours. This is instinct and here is no foul play!"

Shining frowned slightly...

"You laughing and smiling when you tear me apart doesn't seem very instinctive to me..."

She actually blushed at this. She hadn't expected to be called out on her manners rather than the reason behind her actions.

"I torture for good reason. That's what matters. The fact that I enjoy myself doesn't affect anything."

"It makes it so you can't pretend to be the good guy here, either," exclaimed Shining, already forgetting his place again.

"None of us are villains. We're merely products of our biology and our environment, doing what's best for our own species. I just happen to be in a position where I can enjoy doing it."

Shining sighed deeply.

"To me, it seems that you're choosing your own enjoyment over what's best for your race..."

This struck a nerve with the queen, and she rose from her seat.

She trotted close to her torture victim, looming in over him like a predator over her prey. She showcased her teeth to him, getting close to his face, breathing on him.

"Come again, Shining?" she said threateningly, letting him know that she was still not to be trifled with.

Shining closed his remaining eye and gritting his teeth as he felt her warm breath.

"I-I-I'm sorry. Allow me to explain," he tried, replicating her own approach from just a minute ago.

Slowly, Chrysalis retracted from his face, giving him a deadly glare before sitting down once more. She watched him sigh in relief as she spoke.

"You're lucky I'm not in a torturous mood," she sat down once more.

He took a deep breath, fearing he was about to put her straight back into just that.

"I've refrained from mentioning it, since you seemed quite adamant about avoiding the subject... But if you really want what's best for your hive... Why not let them evolve... You can coexist with ponies. We can feed you willingly and there will be a symbiosis between us... Wouldn't that be wonderful. You have the option to end this, Chrysalis... Why won't you?"

Chrysalis snared at that, though not at Shining in particular.

"Those technicolored freaks aren't changelings in my book," she grumpily spat.

"What's wrong with them, exactly?" Shining asked, slightly annoyed, but hiding it well behind a layer of respectful fear.

"Seriously? Do you want antlers?!" his torturer proclaimed loudly, rolling her eyes.

"I wouldn't mind that..." he answered quietly. "And I don't see why that would be the final deterrent."

"It wouldn't be. But that's not all of it. They become non-functional, and Disobedient," she snarled.

"Well... Maybe they just start acting out because they know you don't accept them that way?" suggested Shining carefully, to which he immediately received the deadliest stare he had ever been greeted by.

He gulped as the queen squinted her eyes.

"That's not how changelings work. They are creatures of complete and utter devotion. If I told a changeling. A real changeling that I wanted to kill it. It would bow and fucking let me."

The sickness returned to Shining upon hearing that. Chrysalis talking about even her own children in that manner... It disturbed him.

He had to stop himself from lashing out and calling her a monster.

"... So they really are drones? They don't think for themselves, do they?"

They looked at each other in a moment of tense silence.

"Any functional changeling chooses to follow me freely, because my will is theirs. Always."

"Why?"

"Because they want to, Shining. Because it's their nature."

Shining looked to the side, really not wanting to be eying out the queen right now.

"Did you ever bother asking them that. Or did you just choose that that's how things are," he muttered, his anger slowly starting to poke through his innate fear.

"I don't need to ask them. I know how they fucking work. They want to serve me. More than anything," snared Chrysalis through her teeth, legitimately holding herself back from taking his remaining eye at this point.

"...And the fact that they maybe have the ability to choose for themselves once they change... is that the reason you choose this destructive rout?" asked Shining, looking around at some of the many devious devices rather than at Chrysalis.

"They can choose for themselves already. And they choose me!" she huffed, rising from her seat.

She trotted closer, her heavy steps echoing through the chamber. Shining turned his head to look at her, his eye red with tears.

"But how can you know for sure if you've never let them stray. How can you know the ones you call defects aren't just your everyday changeling standing up for what they want?"

"Maybe I know them better than you do, you filthy warhorse!"

Shining closed his eye to not get saliva in it as his captor berated him loudly, right in his face.

"You probably do... I'm not denying that you've nurtured these beings... All I'm suggesting is that perhaps things aren't exactly the way you think they are... I wanna make a bet. Give me twenty changelings to talk with, if I can make one of them admit he wants something different than what you want from him, that will prove he has a will of his own," Shining suggested relatively calmly.

"For the last time, you insolent, thick-skulled, pathetic equine. They do have a will of their own. They just follow me above all else." she spat, slamming her hoof onto the rack right next to his face.

"S-sorry," stammered Shining. "I mean I'll find out if they have the will to go against you..."

"Or maybe I should just drop this conversation, that I didn't even initiate, to begin with, and go back to torturing you until you spit out what I want to hear!"

Shining gulped...

"Perhaps... But I would really like to know, and although you may be a bit scared, I really think you would like to know as well."

Chrysalis spared no more time arguing, nor to give out a warning.

She had heard more than enough from her prisoner this time. And she didn't enjoy what she heard in the least. Quite the contrary. She had received the encouragement she needed to rekindle her craving for torture.

Shining had barely even finished his sentence when the rage-filled queen Chrysalis slammed her hoof onto the handle of the rack and turned it with great force.

The device activated with the threatening noise of grinding gears, quickly expanding Shining's already slobbily-connected, teared up hooves to lengths that would make him as tall as Celestia herself if he was standing.

He screamed in pain, saliva spraying from his this time. His joints were already ripped over at his knees and shoulders, but this time his pelvis gave out as well, each side popping out one after each other in quick succession.

Chrysalis wasn't satisfied, however. She continued stretching him with an incredible relentlessness, watching him suffer, as his limbs were mutilated beyond reason.

His skin was already ripping in multiple places, fibers exposed to the open air, but his legs had reached the point where even his muscles couldn't hold it together anymore, and his bones became visible through multiple, deep tears through his very flesh.

Blood splattered across the rack.

His screaming was louder than it had ever been before at this point, and his pain, even through the morphine's dulling effect, was immeasurable.

With a crackling, tearing noise, he felt himself retract downwards with great speed as if he was a rubber band.

He felt the tear... His front legs had been ripped off of his body. They were gone, and he knew it.

He cried and moaned as he drifted off into unconsciousness, Chrysalis laughing at his misery in the near distance.

There is Something...

When Shining finally opened his singular eye once again, he couldn't feel his legs... None of them.

His breathing was heavy and strained but consistent in rythm. His sight, slightly blurry but he hadn't been completely blinded.

He concluded that he must have been blacked out for quite a while after his last session, because other than his lack of limbs feeling strange and unwelcome, he wasn't in much pain... Until he started moving.

He groaned in misery as he tried shifting himself, the soreness of his abused body almost surprising him.

On top of that, it was difficult to adjust himself, as, with only a stump of a front leg to use as a rodder, he didn't have much power over his muscular body.

It wasn't just difficult, but downright impossible for him to move his head, though, as it was restrained in an upright position, able to be turned even slightly.

He wasn't on the rack anymore. He was looking out from the bottom of a large, porcelain bowl. A different torture device of his captor, surely.

He was alone...

He took a deep breath and started crying from his functional eye. He had known for a while that he had become a cripple. With all that torture there was no two ways around it. But before losing his front legs... and apparently the back legs as well, he had kept a vague hope of recovery. That hope was gone now. He was left legless. A body with a head, awaiting further pain and mutilation.

But the biggest reason he was shedding tears wasn't for his ruined body. It was for his daughter, his wife, his sister, his father, not to mention, his poor, poor mother who would suffer on his behalf.

All ponies who would grief because of him... Because he just couldn't let another agent go in his place. All ponies he would never see again... Except for his mother.

His stomach turned at the thought of watching his mother be tortured again. She had even tried so hard to stop him from taking on this foolish mission. It was his fault she was here.

His train of sad thought was broken as he heard a door creak open not too far away from him, followed by the familiar sound of heavy hoof steps.

He gritted his teeth as he saw his tormenter's frame appear above the bowl he was tied up beneath.

She looked at him sternly, eyes cold with calm disdain.

Shining's lips were shivering. He was distraught, mutilated, depressed. Yet he was first to talk

"Hurting me while we were merely talking only shows off how insecure you are," he tried, his words coming from a place of courage he couldn't even feel he had access to anymore.

The queen growled, showing off her predatory teeth once again.

"Talking?! You were spewing shit, Shining Armor. You were disrespecting your queen, and you were talking nonsense " Chrysalis growled.

Shining scoffed.

"Being reminded of our insecurities shouldn't be taken with offense, your majesty. It helps us grow," he said grumpily. Then he realized where he was.

"Shit!"

"Indeed, Shining... Shit."

They looked at each-other, chrysalis slowly manifesting a satisfied grin, while Shining groaning in dismay at the mere thought.

"Haven't I suffered enough for today?" whimpered Shining.

"Not by a long shot, pathetic equine!" shouted the menacing bug queen as she turned around and slammed her chubby, wide plot down on the toilet seat, her own weight making her thick cheeks separate widely for Shining to look at her, (for a succubus), surprisingly tight assets.

He looked at her starfish and scoffed at the thought of what was about to happen.

"You feel humiliated, so you desire to humiliate me as well... You could use your words for that, you know," Uttered Shining half in disgust and half in arousal from looking at a firm plot.

"Shut it, horse!" the queen yelled.

"Please, Chrysalis! What did I do wrong? I get you're offended, but please tell me why, and I'll gladly apologize."

The queen laughed in annoyance.

"If you don't get what you did wrong, there is seriously no helping you. You talk down to your queen, you disrespect her- You try to make a bet with her, you have the audacity to claim she doesn't know her own race. Even if I said yes to your stupid bet, and you won, all it would show is that you've found a mutant... Unless you suggest my whole hive is mutated?"

Shining bit his lips...

"Can I say something, without being... Shat on?"

There was a long pause from Chrysalis...

"You may talk, and I'll consider it."

Her soon to be toilet sighed beneath her, his breath echoing against the porcelain.

"I'm sorry Chrysalis... I really am sorry... I was on drugs and didn't think straight, but I know what I said and I'm willing to take the blame for my choice of words. All I wanted, though, was to see for myself if what you said was true... I'm sure you're right, but can you blame me for wanting confirmation? I don't have the biggest amount of trust in you. You can understand that, right? You raped me in the past, you kidnapped my wife, hid right under our muzzles... I get you did it for your race, and although I don't exactly like you... I can respect that... But can you please, then, respect my desire to know?"

Chrysalis thought over his words... They didn't really lessen her anger, but they did bring her to understand his thoughts a little better.

"I can. I respect your desire to know, but I don't respect your approach, nor your attitude."

Shining sighed.

"I was out of line... I get that... If it helps, I'm here, and I can't do anything about it. Do what you came to do, if you must. I just hope that you will allow such a conversation another time," he said with a strong hint of sadness.

"We're still talking, aren't we?"

"Y-yes?"

The queen spread her legs and looked down at the whimpering pony beneath her plot.

"If you fuck up again, you'll spend the rest of your life as my fucking toilet, understood?"

Shining tried to nod, but couldn't in his tight bindings, so he opted to answer pathetically instead.

"Yes, your majesty."

"First thing first. Accept that I know my kind."

"Yes, your majesty. You know them better than I do. I already admitted that, and I intend to stand by it."

"Good. Now, state your case."

"I want to know if you might be willing to experiment with a few Antler-beings?"

"Negative. I know all about them already, already tried making a few."

Hearing this made shining slightly skeptical, but interested him nonetheless.

"Is it only that they disobey you that makes you stray from them?"

"It is not. Like I said. They are non-functional. They can't breed with me. My hive would end in one generation."

Shining lifted an eyebrow.

"Don't you breed with ponies?" he asked, as that was what he had learned in his little course on changelings.

The queen smiled.

"My, my. You really do know little about us. Yes. I breed ponies to gain a diverse gene pool and then I breed changelings to create actual eggs."

Shining was flappergasted.

"Oh... uh, okay... C-could you keep a few breeders then?" he suggested, trying to think of a solution.

She shook her head.

"The condition is contagious. Once enough changelings have changed, the rest will go with them."

"Hmm. And you're sure they can't breed."

Shining gasped as the Queen's asshole began pulsating above him, before showering him in a thick bassy fart.

"Don't suggest I don't know my children... Got it?"

Between coughs, Shining answered in a strained, humiliated manner.

"Yes, your majesty."

Chrysalis closed her legs to avoid the smell of herself, thinking a bit about how sure she actually was... Shining was strong, if not merely annoying. How well he meant his people impressed her... He deserved to know the full extent of her knowledge on this matter...

"I guess there is something I haven't tried..."

Tough Love

"P-please, do tell," exclaimed Shining Armor, still scrunching his muzzle at the smelly humiliation.

He heard Chrysalis take a deep breath above him.

"I'm telling you this out of respect, you know. So, I'm hoping for a bit of trust for once."

"I'll do my best..." he mumbled, wanting to believe whatever at this point, but not knowing whether or not he would be able to.

Chrysalis sighed again, though Shining barely heard her, due to the sound being obstructed by her round plot and thick thighs. But he felt it... the unhappy relaxation was emanating off of her.

She spread her legs and looked down at her victim, and he looked back at her.

"Sudden stress can cause changelings to become infertile... It is possible, I suppose..." she spat, seemingly disgusted by her own words. "...that the abrupt change in body is what causes these beings to lose their ability to breed me."

Shining wished to nod, but still couldn't.

"Yes..." he said softly, looking at the queen with big, round eyes, (or eye rather)

Chrysalis bit her lip, uncertain of her own desire to tell him this.

"The thought of carrying and laying those eggs doesn't soothe me, I must admit... But I suppose being fertilized by a pony who innerly loves me would allow me to lay these monsters as eggs, thus skipping the mutation entirely. Do you follow?"

"Yes," Shining said again, slightly more enthusiastic this time around. "If you're serious about trying this, your majesty, I'm sure we can find a pony who adores you. I mean, you're quite a well-known figure in the public eye, and..." he blushed...

"Y-you are quite beautiful..." he finished, trying to not look at her exposed backside and vagina.

She sighed again, though in a much less strained manner this time, a small smile even manifesting on her dark, lush lips.

"I believe I am serious, but I can't risk sending any changelings into pony territory in this tense, political climate. Besides... I can't just breed with random equines and expect desirable results. I need strong, youthful, well-versed stallions to get good genes for breeding... Some creepy changeling fanboy just won't do for making healthy eggs."

There was a tense pause between them, yet again.

"I suppose you won't let me try to find somepony?" asked Shining, nervous but hopeful. "Somepony worthy of you?"

His heart became heavy as he saw the queen shake her head no.

"Sorry, Shining... But I don't trust you nearly enough for that. If you want me to try this, and my incentive to do this is small I might add, it has to be with you."

The stallion underneath her, blushed even deeper than what the sight of her exposed backside had caused him to already.

The tension thickened in the air to the point where Shining could taste it... or was it just blood from the intense torture?

He gritted his teeth. No longer feeling troubled in the slightest by accidentally looking at her genitals, he stared into her gaze, considering her words...

She had raped him, trapped his wife, tried to take everypony away from him. She had tortured him, and was even still in the middle of it. She had even tortured his mother and had forced him to watch.

"You'll be hard to love..." he finally muttered, feeling determined in words. "But for Equestria, I will try."

From between the bug queen's lips, shined a line of interwoven, blade-like teeth as she growled at him.

"Calling me "hard to love" is a pretty poor attitude if you actually desire to try," she quarreled resolutely.

Shining gulped...

"I'm sorry, but I believe honesty is the key to any healthy relationship, loving or not. I know you understand why I find you hard to love. You're not stupid. I'm sorry, but it's the way things are..."

The queen merely scoffed at this.

"Perhaps this will make it easier!" she spat, as her firm plot shrank ever so slightly, her soft leathery skin turning to pink fur.

Shining closed his eyes with a whimper, his heart starting to race as fast as when he laid stretched out on the rack. She couldn't be serious. She couldn't do this.

"Oh, shiny," a familiar voice sang in a loving, yet taunting tone.

Like clockwork, though practically against his own will, he opened his eye. He couldn't help it. He just had to.

He looked into the eyes of his wife, and for a moment he felt empty... Like there was just no emotion inside of him anymore. Like all he ever felt and would ever feel, had just left him an empty shell. But then, like an avalanche, all his emotions came tumbling back to him, all at once, and burst into tears.

He cried like a child. He wailed.

He was a cripple, tied to a toilet, never to see his family again. And his torturer was taunting him with it. All the abuse he had endured was adding up. If he wasn't broken before... He was now.

He sobbed and blabbered incomprehensively between his constant cries. And Chrysalis watched him, almost petrified.

Snot ran out over his red, swollen face, as he finally managed to speak a single word of substance.

"Stohoohooop," he cried out in a pleading, yet utterly defeated voice. And Chrysalis did.

She turned back to her own, insectoid self, and she rose from the toilet seat.

Had she thought of how effective this torment could have been earlier, she would have taken this shape during all of the torture. Now, however, she never wanted to look like this in front of him again.

She felt sorry... embarrassed even, as she released his bindings and opened up the toilet-torture device, exposing his legless body.

"I'm sorry Shining. I'm sorry," she whispered.

The stallion started to calm, though he still laid shivering, eye closed, sniffling up running snot.

He didn't answer, and Chrysalis looked to the side in shame.

"I'm sorry..." she repeated quietly but profoundly. "I took your words as condescending, and I decided to punish you for them... I wasn't thinking straight," she added. "So, I'm sorry."

Slowly, Shining turned his neck to look at her. She seemed genuinely ashamed of herself.

"Please..." he mumbled through quivering lips. "D-don't do that again."

She looked back at him as well, though eye contact felt weird for her at that moment.

She nodded.

"I promise... I won't," she answered.

The defeated stallion laid back, looking up at the ceiling of the queen's dungeon bathroom.

It was quite nice really. It was well lit and very clean. Both the ceiling and the walls were covered in white and blue mosaics. The image of the decorative tiles didn't soothe him though, as it seemed to be shaping out pictures of ponies undergoing various kinds of torture.

He opened his mouth to speak, and the words that left him were quite possibly the stupidest ones he had ever uttered in his entire life.

He didn't even really want to say them, but at this moment, he just couldn't help himself.

"You know this would be the best time to torture me, don't you?" he mumbled, barely moving his body at all.

There was a long pause where his question hung unanswered in the air. More than enough time for Shining to regret his words ten times over.

"Yes," said the queen, finally.

The pause for Shining's answer to return was shorter, but still tense with both regret and confusion.

"But you're not?"

...

"No..."

Calming Down

Long pauses in dialogue had, within the last few hours, become quite excessive in the strained relationship between the harsh queen and her steadfast victim. This particular minute of no words spoken, however, felt quite unique compared to usual.

The silence was a sad one. Shining's shivering teardrops and strained breathing was the only background noise to break the quiet.

Yet, in some twisted sense, it was blissful.

It was as if every moment spend just left to their own thoughts, in the aftermath of words previously spoken... no talking... no torture... not even looking at each other, the two, quite frankly, opposite beings gained a little more understanding of both each other... and themself.

At the moment, Chrysalis didn't feel good about her work. As successful as she seemed to be in her task of torture, her stomach felt heavy, and she hung her head and sad shame as to not look at her broken victim.

As sadistic as she was, she felt sickened by her actions, and as much as that bothered her, the fact that she didn't understand why she felt that way, bothered her even more.

Had the stallion laying before her been innocent of war, she would have understood why her empathy betrayed her thirst for pain. But Shining was a soldier, a captain, no less. He was an enemy of the hive, an infiltrator and a bearer of information, and for all of that, she felt more than entitled to torture him as much, and as harshly, as she desired...

Yet, for the moment at least, she regretted the horrors she had put him through.

Soothing to her, on the other hoof, was listening to his painful, rabbit breathing get slower, steadier and calmer.

Shining felt her empathy and regret in the air. It was like a breeze from an open window, making the musty air from the changeling dungeon very breathable.

The final word she had spoken. Her simple, soft "no", answered in regard to his wonder that she wasn't torturing him now that he was so weak, resonated with him in its melancholy depth.

Right now, he felt safe. He felt safe with her because he knew she wouldn't hurt him, not right now.

The mare who had destroyed his body the point that he could never again even live without a constant reliance of a caretaker to feed him and change his diapers... made him feel safe. Even saver than he would have felt without her.

It was like her aura was protecting him.

The Chrysalis who stood by his side right now wasn't the cruel, maniacal tormentor, but the mother of thousands.

Her remorseful presence calmed him. Him calming down, in turn, calmed her.

This continuous quiet was a like mutualist relationship between the two beings, but no moment can last forever.

Once the calm euphoria had died down enough that just standing around in silence didn't feel better than doing anything else anymore, Chrysalis reluctantly took the initiative to approach the broken stallion as he laid there, helpless, legless,

His functional eye was red and swollen as he looked at the menacing queen loom in over him... Yet at the moment, he had no fear of her.

She leaned in over what was still left of her victim, looking at him with a soft, concerned, understanding gaze.

In the softest, most motherly manner she could speak, she gave him the insurance he didn't even need at this point in time, but certainly welcomed regardless.

"Okay shining..." she started in a calm whisper, gently caressing one of his cheeks wither her hoof.

"... No more torture. You get to rest now. Sleep out this session. When you awaken, I'm willing to try your proposal, if you're willing to do it my way," she explained still very calmly, but slightly more informative in her delivery while levitating a vial of morphine and a syringe.

She was thinking about adding a "for now" in addition to that "no more torture" line. But she did feel it a little too inappropriate for the moment being. And she was certain, Shining hadn't ruled out the possibility of future suffering, so there wasn't much need to put it into words.

Done filled the syringe, she injected him.

The stallion fell asleep within seconds after being shot, and the queen went to wash up in her dungeon's bathroom zink.

Despite having never tortured a single pony this gruesomely in her life, (not counting the occasional execution she held in her early days,) she wasn't very bloody at all. But she really needed to wash.

It felt cleansing to more than just her body this time around. The running water, trickling and cold against her hooves, combined with the soothing feeling of it splashing it against her feminine muzzle and it to dribbling down her soft, hole-ridden mane, helped her think much clearer.

Once she had taken an appropriately short moment of "me time", she wandered back to her sleeping victim with a wettened towel she collected from a small shelf beside her zink.

Slowly and with extraordinary carefulness, she began cleaning him up as well.

He was sweaty, bloody and hurt, but she did it almost surgical precision on his most tortured areas.

His lose shoulder and hip joints had already been bound up with roll bandages and disinfected, but she took the time to change those somewhat bloody bindings as well.

Once she had taken care of all of that, she carefully went to inspect his tortured cock, not knowing herself whether or not that thing could even impregnate her in its miserable state.

It was swollen, bloody, stretched and burned. The tip of its head so abused by red rod metal rods, that part of it was chared entirely black, and it's opening a torn and stuffed with stiffened blood.

She sighed audibly as she tried to clean it off as carefully as possible, hoping for Shining's sake more than her own, that he could get it to work in due time... But that was, in any regards, her getting ahead of herself.

She felt it fair that she would give this idea of his a shot, especially now that she in her strange, emphatic haze had promised him to do so, but she would still much rather see her hive got to stay the way it was now... Ant-like, fearsome, obedient. The thought of ruling a hive of rainbow antler-ponies didn't soothe her at all. But even a queen like her could bear to compromise a little... And Celestia knows if she ain't gonna need a bit of compromising skills when trying to get along with Shining Armor.

She looked up at the dungeon ceiling of pony-torture mosaics, thinking about the deal she'd just made, and whether or not she would regret it when push comes to shove... She doubted it would work... But if it did... Would she be happy? Would she even like it?

She let out a deep sigh as a small smile formed on her lips.

She felt defeated in some sense...

"What you aren't making me do for you, Shining..." she said out loud, knowing fully well the sleeping stallion wouldn't hear her.

She lowered her gaze down onto her prisoner. If nothing else, he would need to compromise a lot more than her. They were in two wildly different positions after all.

She was a Queen who fed on his very race. He was a prisoner of war... How much would them trying to date really change?

Not wishing to move his broken body more than what was necessary, she left him to rest in the toilet stall for another hour as she went to drink some love form her ever-dwindling pony-farm.

She would return to discuss their terms of "dating" once she was fed. And she would do so well knowing that she was the queen, but with the understanding that she would need to lend an ear to him... As long as he didn't offend her of course.

Author's Note

Sorry for the tame chapter. But this is a slow, slow story.

Hope you can just enjoy a little character development in exchange for very little story development :fluttershysad:

Setting Love in Motion

Shining Armor slowly opened his tired eye to the sound of Chrysalis, only somewhat, softly calling his name beside of him.

He didn't know how long he had been asleep for but it had apparently been more than enough time according to his warden, as she was just about to tap his shoulder when he awoke.

He looked into her deep, green eyes.

Just by basic visual clues, she seemed much less merciful and empathic now than what she had done by the end of theri last session.

She looked cold like the time he was discovered, and perhaps a tat annoyed... Maybe he had been difficult to wake up? Even so, whilst she seemed much less approachable and motherly at the moment, she did seem somewhat gentle still, as she carefully retracted her effeminate hoof from around his shoulder as she noticed his open eye.

She had had a long time to collect herself after the emotional ride that had been their previous torture session. Now, with her emotions settled, she had reverted back to her usual, cruel self... at least in regards to her general attitude. But there was something changed about her... A glimpse in her eyes, hidden beneath layers of changeling pride, seemed genuinely happy to see her victim awaken without tears filling his eye.

And she'd better be, because compared to the bombardment of retched feelings Shining had been violently dragged through, her "emotional ride" seemed more like an emotional "Walk in the park."

After being so utterly, utterly devastated both mentally and physically, that he was just about ready to give up everything he had fought so hard to keep, waking up to anything but immediate pain felt surreal to him. It was like he had been dragged through another dimension. One made of pure agony and grief.

"Shining?" Chrysalis asked calmly, trying to ensure her tone was neither too soft nor too harsh, but failing in the sense that she mostly sounded confused.

"Y-yes?" whispered the stallion hoarsely, quickly clearing his throat from bloody slime, as he noticed he was barely able to form audible words.

Chrysalis sighed deeply.

"I'm willing to lay the eggs if you're willing to put them in me," she said bluntly, not knowing if the seemingly dazed male remembered what she had already promised.

Shining tried to nod, but gave up immediately as his neck was hurting.

His head was clearing up, however, and he felt relieved that he remembered the last words he heard before passing out.

"Thank you for giving me the chance, your majesty. I promise I'll try to... love you."

The words sounded weird in his mouth... Or was it vomit? Either thing seemed foul to him at the time.

"I just need some time," he continued, trying to picture a mental path to even liking her in his dunking mind.

Chrysalis tilted her head a bit.

"You have a week," he exclaimed equally as bluntly.

Shining's eye shut wide open.

"A week!" he called out shocked, completely forgetting about his broken body and accidentally hurting himself by turning his neck towards her far faster than he could handle.

He let out a masculine whine through his teeth as his captor caught his rotating head with her hoof and cushioned it gently, laying it down on its side.

She then turned her womanly body around on the spot and clopped away from the white horse while contemplating what to answer.

"Yes... A week..." she started way less informatively than she would have liked to in hindsight.

From his position, all Shining could see of her was her massive, curvy mare-ass, and her swaying tail, and it was very difficult to stare at an ass in anger... Especially one so utterly round and perfect as hers.

He wanted to interject right then and there and just ask her straight up if she ever even intended to give him a fair chance, but he kept his mouth shut. Which may have been for the better because the changeling queen was just about to give her explanation for his limited time pool.

"A week because your superiors might get suspicious if they don't hear back from you soon..." she said, interrupting his fuming thoughts.

"A week because I am living in constant fear of Celestia attacking first..."

"A week because I'm generous enough to allow you a fair chance to learn to direct your affections in my honor."

There it was... She felt a week was fair... A week was no time at all to do something so seemingly impossible. Celesitia wouldn't have given him a week to find out what the changelings where planning. Yet, considering her other arguments, shining couldn't really interject with that. A week was unfair by every definition of the word, but it was Generous.

"I..." Shining started, already lost for words.

"I accept..." he let out in the form of a wordy sigh.

The queen nodded. Something he could just exactly see in the form of the tip of a mane and horn bobbing up and down over the horizon of his vision that was made out of nothing but thick ass.

"Does today count?" he followed up, hopefully.

"Afraid so," answered the queen instantly, causing him to somehow sink even further into the torture device he was lying in.

"I understand," he mumbled, somewhat accepting of those terms. "What about my mother, you'll let her go, correct?"

The queen bit her lips.

"No. Sorry. She will be moved from her cell to a guest room, but she will stay here."

Now, Shining was truely starting to lose hope for this little thought-experiment of theirs.

"Y-you won't release her?" his words sounded utterly dispirited. "She has nothing to do with this. You can let her go. I'll never love you if you keep my mother as a prisoner!"

He was getting loud, and the queen had to actively contain herself to not revert back to her torturous ways, gritting her teeth and quietly growling to herself.

She wasn't used to being yelled at without getting to make whomever did pay in blood.

"Be. Quiet..." she said loudly and dominantly.

It took everything he had to shut himself up, but for the sake of not ruining everything already, he did. At least she would be moved to a guestroom.

"I can't let her go because she could alert Equestria to your predicament," the queen continued, slightly calmer.

"She's a very sensible, not to mention loyal pony. If the three of us talked together, I could convince her to not say anything. I'm sure of it. And I'll bet my life ten times over that she would keep that promise," Shining explained with steadfast resolve.

The queen sighed.

"I believe you feel that way. And I believe she's a good mother to you, but you can't expect me to pin that level of trust on her."

Shining was tense with despair on her behalf. He knew he barely had an argument, but he had been certain she would be released before he asked, and he wasn't ready to accept that wasn't the case yet. He was grasping at straws, but for her freedom, he intended to grasp hard.

"I know, I know. But please, she's not good at being restricted. She's terrified of you... It's horrible for her here. Guest room or not. It would really help a lot on my end as well... With... L-loving you."

The queen sighed.

"Shining... I know this is hard to hear, but even if I somehow trusted her fully. I still couldn't let her go..."

Shining blinked in confusion.

"Why not?"

The queen turned her large, curvy body around and returned to her soon to be date's placement.

"Shining... If this is experiment were to fail..." there was a long pause in her answer, caused both by her doubting if she should even say this, and by her making sure he was listening.

Shining squinted his eye.

"If this plan of ours doesn't yield results... we would have to go back to-"

"Don't say it," Shining interrupted with heavy words.

The queen shut her mouth and looked at the grumpy looking stallion. Anger was shining in his eye.

She closed her's and nodded gently.

They both knew what would happen if this plan were to fail. And they both knew that Twilight Velvet was one of Chrysalis' most valuable tools in torturing Shining. Even though she, herself, wasn't fond of it.

"If it's any relief I don't enjoy using her..." the massive changeling uttered.

"It's not," mumbled Shining in return.

It really wasn't. But he had to suck that all up for the moment being. Or at least try his very best to.

"But it's the way things are... I guess," he added with a mumble as well.

The queen nodded.

"Another thing we need to take care of..." she segwayed, bobbing at Shinings horn.

He looked up at it, having forgotten after all that crippling that that thing at least was still attached.

"What about it? My magic doesn't work down here."

"True, but I don't intend for you to stay down here..."

The possibility of leaving the dungeon had for some reason been yet to cross his mind.

"O-oh, of course..." he said, stumbling over his words.

The queen smiled at that. Somehow, the fact that he had thought she would keep her lover in her dungeon amused her.

"You thought I'd keep you down here," she almost teased. "You really don't think highly of your queen, do you?"

The stallion blushed a little and scrunched his muzzle like an offended colt.

"Sorry..."

"What size horn ring do you use?"

Shining thought for a moment.

"Seven, I believe..." he said, having never actually worn any jewelry, but knowing his wife used a size eight.

A deep, dark green color emerged as a dim glow from Chrysalis' long, crooked, sharp, changeling horn and a moment later, Shining felt a tight feeling at the stem of his horn.

"A suppression ring?" he asked, unable to see what had happened.

Once again, the queen nodded.

"It's either that, or I saw your horn off."

Shining sighed.

"Very well, then... I am once again at your mercy, Queen Chrysalis... Take me to where you desire... and I will try my best to love you."

The Queen's Quarters

Shining laid awkwardly like a saddleback across the queen's scaly back as they wandered out of the hive's torture dungeon and back to the many tunnels he had spent far too much time trying to navigate with little success.

Her insectile wings felt weird under his stomach as they tended to instinctively twitch due to his weight pressing down on top of them. They ticked... But after all that pain, a little tickling was more than welcome, even if tensing up from it made his aching body hurt even more.

They walked in verbal silence, the sound of the bug queen's echoing hoofsteps paired her most recent torture victim's occasional painful whine being the only sounds to disturb their ears at all.

Neither of them knew if choosing to keep their mouths shut for the duration of the long walk made it more or less awkward, but neither desired to find out, so they both kept quiet until the very last moment, where Chrysalis finally broke the curse of silence to explain to her living backpack that they had arrived at their destination.

Shining turned his tired head and stretched his neck out over the Queen's to look around the queen's large mane.

In front of them was a rather large, ornamented door, incrested with thin golden patterns, neatly spiraling towards the center of its wooden frame where a heavy door knocker, shaped in the shape of a dragon head with a ring in its mouth, hung menacingly.

In some sense, it reminded Shining a lot of the older parts of Cantorlot castle, build back when the Princesses were both keen on showing off their immense wealth.

It wouldn't really surprise him if showing off her wealth was a trait of Chrysalis', but he naturally didn't say anything about that.

"I see," he mumbled hoarsely, right as the ethereal green light of Chrysalis's magic encased the handle of the door.

The changeling corridors he had been living in for weeks where only ever dimly lid with a green glow, produced by an organic bioluminescent goo, glued to the ceiling, and the toilet stall he had spent (what he imagined to be a considerable amount of time) bound to hadn't been much brighter, so Shining Armor was in no way used to light.

He had to avert his remaining eye as the Queen opened the door to her personal quarters, where the yellow glow of a well-lid fireplace radiated out with a lovely, warm flicker.

Shining was overcome with a soothing warmth as the Queen moved inside the cozy room and he curled up against her as best he could, trying to forget his situation for a moment and enjoy the feeling of an actual pony-like location.

As he started to get used to the light, he took a peek around.

The ceiling was exactly like the rest of the primitive hive. Dark, rocky, and covered with stalactites of different lengths and sizes. But that was were the similarities ended.

It was a large oval-shaped room. The floor was covered with a soft, dark-red carpet. And from the deep, green walls hung velvet banners adorning changeling symbols, all looking sharp and aggressive in their threatening design.

Just beneath the banners, the walls where almost entirely surrounded by book-shelves and trinket-filled cabinets. The sole exception to this, being the massive fireplace, were the flames where dancing gently, licking at the wood they had been granted in plenty.

There was an open kitchen to the back left side of the room, and opposite to that, a massive, soft-looking, luxury bed stood proudly with open curtains, a mass of pillows spilling out. And at the fireplace that bathed the entire room in the flickering light, two large, leather arm-chairs and a sofa stood around a thick mahogany table, looking solid enough to build a tank from.

But as he turned his gaze a little higher, his heart sunk.

The Queen looked around her own room just as much as the stallion on her back did. She was currently enjoying the sight of the quarters far more than usual. She would be lying if she said she didn't take at least a little pride in getting to show off her royal chambers to a Cantorlot pony.

Shining in the meanwhile not feeling well about the situation at all. Not that he had much of a problem with the room as a whole, but rather with the final piece of decor that adorned the walls.

Above the already creepy changeling banners hung hundreds of bleached pony skulls as trophies in wooded frames, giving a macabre finish to the already slightly eerie atmosphere the queen had somehow managed to build into an otherwise cozy and homely chamber

The Queen turned her head to gaze back at Shining, sending him a smug, somewhat seductive smirk, her dark lips looking even thicker than usually with her current expression.

"So?" she asked him, not really taking too much notice of his worried expression, blaming it on his constant pain in her mind.

"What do you think of your new home. Much better than a torture chamber, one would think," she chuckled mildly.

It was first when the stallion turned his single teary eye to face her that Chrysalis realized that he perhaps didn't agree entirely to that statement.

"Please..." he mumbled quietly to abused to speak in any other way even if he had wanted to.

"Don't be so insensitive," he finished.

The queen turned her gaze back to the room to try and figure out what that ungrateful pony possibly had to complain about.

"I can assure you, you knew none of these equines," she assured him in an annoyed tone, as she came to the conclusion that he didn't enjoy her trophy collection.

"It does not matter..." he muttered. "You gotta understand that me seeing this as a pony, is very unpleasant."

The queen laid down on her belly, gently, not to hurt Shining's body even more as he was still on top of her.

"I do not understand," she answered bluntly, though she at least sounded a lot less annoyed at him this time around. "They're all from before your time. None of them should matter to you."

Shining sighed.

"Please... I'm not in the mood to explain... Just know that seeing them hurts me. This is your room, you can decorate it the way you like, but if you do not mind, I would rather stay outside while we're not interacting."

There was a pause from the queen.

She did quite like to look at the remains of her defeated foes. While she laid in her bed at night especially. And she did not get why Shining insisted on making such a ruckus about it. It was a strange to her as if he had gotten sad over her furniture being mahogany...

But even though she did not get his reasoning, she did understand that he wasn't feeling comfortable here. She could even feel his stomach tense against her back.

"No. You live here too, now," she started. "If getting rid of my little collection is your only request in terms of decor..."

Her horn lid up and the entirety of her, (In shining's eye), cruel gathering were bathed in a green, shimmering light. And with strange vibrating sound, they were all gone.

Shining looked up at the empty spaces of wall above the banners. They looked weirdly barren now, with the rest of the chamber so decked, but he felt much more comfortable now. Not only because the horrible sight of his slaughtered people was gone, but because the queen had decided to take his request to heart.

"Thank you," he whispered gently, closing his tired eyes.

"Don't mention it," answered Chrysalis with a deep sigh.

She wasn't used to listening to requests that went against her own choices. She wasn't even used to listening to requests at all... But in the effort of this little experiment of theirs, perhaps it was for the better.

She did feel somewhat glad as she felt him relax his stomach against her back. It did soothe her a little, knowing he wasn't as distraught now as he had been a moment ago.

She smiled calmly as her "backpack" started to snore quietly, her tail swaying gently across her carpeted floor.

Prologue

Princess Celestia had always been a very observant mare. A trait that had served her well for mallinia now. It had helped her evate wars, capture traitors, create unlikely alliances, and find her hidden Christmas presents.

This time, her keen eye had led her to discover yet another potential threat to her everlasting regime.

The movements of an enemy near Equestria, the changeling hive lead by the manacing Queen Chrysalis, had become rapid and unpredictable. Whether this was just random outbursts or a sign of them preparing for something, she did not intend to sit idly and wait to find out.

She decided to infiltrate their ranks with a spy, just for a while. She wanted to send somepony who could find out what they were planning, if anything. Somepony to find out whether there was any need to be afraid, and to bolster her army.

A job as important as that couldn't be given to just anypony. It had to be someone with great military experience. It had to be someone who could work under pressure, and if at all possible, somepony who had been face to face with the changelings before.

There were multiple soldiers with the potential to take upon this quest, but knowing the danger of the mission, and feeling better equipped for the task than the others, Captain Shining Armor volunteered, despite his wife and mother trying to talk him out of it.

He had told them, that if somepony's life had to be put in grave danger, the one with the best chance of survival should be that pony. He could not live with himself if another soldier had to give his life because he was too important to go.

Neither his lover, sister, nor his mother agreed with him, but they could not argue against his morality, and begrudgingly they allowed him. But Twilight Velvet insisted on following him to the farthest military post possible, so she had a chance to follow up on his progress. Even though the outer posts were dangerous places, and Shining didn't like his mother doing this, after her allowing him to take Celestia's quest, there was no way he could deny her this.

They had arrived at night, and with the help of some unusual magic, Shining Armor had been given the form of a large changeling they had found dead in the woods. He had then been explained the changeling behavior and how to act around the queen, as to not be discovered, and he had agreed to stay for as long as it took to get the information he was seeking.

And then, after hugging his mother goodbye, he had left to begin his mission.