We Are Each Other

‘I need a break…’ Princess Celestia thought to herself as she felt the box car she was sat in rock and sway underneath her. The hastily chartered Friendship Express had been on the go for thirty minutes. Thirty long, long minutes of utter silence. The alicorn leant back into her seating pad that was a far cry from her throne and rolled her neck and shoulders, wincing when several tight muscles popped.

She felt weary, not the same kind of weary as when she had ended the Day Court earlier. This was a different kind of fatigue. Her very soul felt tired, like each one of her four thousand year existence was a lead weight dragging her down under the water, and she was struggling just to stay afloat. ‘Las Pegasus is good this time of year…’

Celestia opened her eyes and the fantasy of riding the Wild Blue Yonder rollercoaster, rock climbing the Applewood mountains, free fall sky diving, scuba diving the South Luna Ocean was replaced by the reality of the spartan box car. The atmosphere in said box car was so thick it could have been cut with a knife. Of the three occupants, not one had spoken after the curt, clipped greetings.

“For Mother’s sake!” Luna’s voice crackled in Celestia’s ear over the radio she still wore. She had obviously gotten bored of the continuous heavy silence and decided to do something about it. “Sister, this is Royal Ribbon, and she came to me with a plan ten months after the invasion. I put it on hold hoping that Twilight was right, and the problem would go away. She was wrong.”

Shaken by her sister’s irate voice in her ear, Celestia looked at the magenta unicorn seated to her right. “Luna says you have a plan. What plan do you have for this?”

Royal Ribbon jolted on her seating pad and looked nervously from Celestia to her left and Chrysalis seated to her right, the three in a rough triangle. She fiddled with her dark blue mane, stalling for time because she never thought she would be explaining this in front of Chrysalis herself! “Um, the goal of my plan is that the changelings would have no cause to invade us again.”

Chrysalis, who was seated in heavy bondage – a thick chain ran from a metal collar around her neck and was linked with manacles that ran to the floor of the box car, her hind hooves similarly manacled together - looked with her big green eyes from Celestia to Royal Ribbon. “I do not wish to invade anywhere; I wish only to save what is left of my Hive.”

“It was the need of our love, and, um, ah, our bodies that made you invade in the first place, right?” asked Royal Ribbon, the middle aged mare gaining more and more confidence with her distinguished audience the more she spoke.

“Yes,” Celestia sounded vacant, like she was somewhere far away, “The bodies...” In her mind’s eye, she could see them, smell them, hear them. It was as if she was right there in the aftermath of Heartbreak Ridge, the bloodiest single battle in the invasion of Canterlot.

“We needed sustenance,” Chrysalis replied to the unicorn’s question, “I did not invade for power, or glory, or to acquire your lands. I have tens of thousands...” suddenly the changeling sniffed back a tear and corrected herself, “I mean, I had thousands, of mouths to feed. Ponies are the most potent sources of love in Equestria.” She looked down, shamefaced, “The bodies...were an unfortunate necessity to survival.”

“It could have been any warm blooded creature, one of no intelligence, like the food animals for the griffons, right?” Royal Ribbon enquired, pressing on with her point, getting to the crux of her plan.

That shook Celestia from her morbid reverie. The solar alicorn blinked her eyes and she was transported away from the tattered remains of the Sky Trenches and the dead – pony and changeling alike – that littered the killing fields of Heartbreak Ridge, delivered from the moans of the dying begging for release and the clouds of flies that hovered around those that suffered no more back to the box car. “What are you suggesting, that we slaughter animals for her?!”

“But, your highness,” Royal Ribbon countered quickly, “We are doing that now for export to Griffonstone and the Dragon Lands, as well as for pet food around the country, what would be the difference?”

“While it is true we can sustain ourselves on any creature, Royal Ribbon,” Chrysalis said softly, the slight movement of her forelegs rattling the heavy metal chains she wore, “It helps if the creatures in question are sapient. Wild feral creatures do not produce strong enough love on a regular basis, if you get my meaning.”

Seeing Celestia glare hatefully at Chrysalis, the magenta unicorn waved her hooves for peace, “No, no, I meant for incubating the egg!”

“Oh, the eggs…” as she said that word, a single tear ran down Chrysalis’s cheek. Images of the thousands of smashed eggs in the nursery haunted her. Every time she closed her eyes she could see the shattered remains of her subjects, rotting where they lay in the Hive along with those accursed maulwurfs that had so easily decimated her home. “Yes,” she said in a hollow voice, “Any warm blooded creature can carry an egg, but it is better if the creature is one heavily saturated with magic.”

Royal Ribbon looked like the wind had been taken from her sails, “Oh, um, oh. so, it won't work at all, or it just takes longer?”

Scoffing, Celestia asked, “What are you driving at, Ribbon?”

“It takes longer,” Chrysalis replied, “And often the animal dies before the egg reaches maturity, I'm afraid.”

“So if we use means to keep the animal alive then it would work?” it was more of a statement from Royal Ribbon than it was a question, the unicorn running her idea through her head as she was saying it out loud.

“You want us to start death farms now?”

“It would be life farms, Princess,” Royal Ribbon corrected the alicorn without a shred of fear in her voice.

“Yes, Royal Ribbon,” Chrysalis replied, conceding the unicorn’s point, “If the animal could be kept alive, it could work.” She then took a deep breath, well aware that what she was about to say would not be all that popular, “We use ponies as incubators for our eggs because even when their bodies have been modified by the process, the natural magic in the pony keeps them alive and well until the eggs hatch. They also infuse the hatchling with a dose of love while they grow to maturity.”

“Fear, that’s what those ponies were experiencing,” the contempt in Celestia’s voice was corrosive, “I read the reports from the ground teams! They were begging to die!”

“I’m afraid I have to side with the Princess on that one,” Royal Ribbon shuffled uncomfortably on her seating pad, “I think you mistake the love of the caretaker for the love of the pony incubator. The animals would be loved too.”

Chrysalis shrugged her shoulders. “Perhaps you are correct, Royal Ribbon. I cannot say until it has been tried. I can only say what has worked best for us so far.” And, what had worked best for her was what she had always done since that day five hundred years ago when she herself had been hatched in the Hive to replace the former Queen.

“They feed off love,” Celestia pointed out, “How do you plan for that, Ribbon?”

“That’s the easy part,” the unicorn responded, “Breeding will be the big obstacle.”

As Celestia went slack jawed at what she was hearing, Chrysalis said, “Please, you equines are walking love batteries! You have so much, you could feed a whole clutch of eggs and not notice it had been taken!”

“Stolen, you mean!”

“But what if it was given, Princess?”

Celestia turned disbelieving eyes to the unicorn, “Who would possibly be ignorant enough to give their love to her!?” she asked with naked venom in her voice as she pointed a hoof at her captive.

Quietly, Chrysalis lowered her head to the pad she was sat on and her ears were pinned back to her head, “I am afraid Celestia makes a good point.”

Royal Ribbon though had yet another counter argument to the Princess’s point. Unlike the alicorn, she didn’t raise her voice. “Ponies will give a lot for peace. The ones I brought with me on this train prove that. Out of pain and suffering can come hope and joy.”

“That makes no sense!”

Chrysalis paid no mind to Celestia’s latest outburst, “Out of the strong came forth sweetness,” she said with a sad smile on her face, “A changeling expression.”

“Ribbon,” Celestia snapped, “Please stop speaking in riddles!”

Royal Ribbon then levelled an even, calculating stare at the angry alicorn. “How many terminally ill ponies are there, Princess?”

“I said stop speaking in riddles,” Celestia snorted, quickly approaching the end of her very short rope with this whole venture, “And what does that have to do with anything?”

“I brought thirty nine terminally ill volunteers with me from Canterlot, along with their families,” Royal Ribbon explained, “They wanted their last bit of time on this world with ones they love, and,” she looked pointedly at Chrysalis, “With the ones that could replace them.”

Celestia was absolutely stunned. In four thousand years she had never heard anything remotely like that. “What?”

Even Chrysalis was stunned. She lifted her head up from her hooves and stared blankly at the magenta unicorn. She had heard what she said, but it was the understanding she was having trouble with. “Did I hear you right? You have...volunteers, to be incubators, and my drones will take their identities?”

“It isn't the long term solution I would hope for,” Royal Ribbon conceded, “In this case though, you have the right of it. Unless what they are dying from would reject them as an incubator.”

Again, Celestia was transported back to the invasion, to the aftermath when she had walked the ruins of Canterlot with her generals. She had seen the burnt out nests, seen the remains of the ponies in the cocoons, the destroyed eggs all around that had hatched from the bodies. She couldn’t countenance that again. “You are sacrificing my little ponies to that monster!”

“No,” Royal Ribbon clarified, “They are sacrificing themselves for the future of their families.”

“There are no reasons they would be rejected as an incubator,” Chrysalis remarked, “But if I may ask, what was the long term plan, if that was not it?”

“I don't care what the long term is,” Celestia sprang to her hooves, her armour clinking loudly as the plates moved against each other, “I will not let a pony commit suicide!”

Serenely, Royal Ribbon smiled at the alicorn like a poker player would smile at an opponent before laying down a trump card. “But Princess, next month you were going to allow the assisted suicide bill pass for the terminally ill only. They are terminally ill, and this is assisted suicide.” Again, Celestia was left slack jawed and wide eyed. Before she could say anything, the unicorn pressed on, “Long term is population control. Which means breeding control. Many ponies die alone and often young. A changeling could replace that pony, which is why animals are needed for egg incubation.”

“Royal Ribbon, you have such a clinical description for such an emotional issue,” for once, Chrysalis had a genuine smile, “I like you. I assume you would have a register, a record of all the such breeding control?”

“Um, yes,” the unicorn admitted, a deep red blush colouring her magenta cheeks, “But it wasn't for the right reasons. It was for tribal blood line purity, back when unicorns were only allowed to marry unicorns, and the earth ponies were little more than slaves. Now it would be used to track those that volunteer to be incubators, and the number of animals used to be incubators. While the true identity of the replaced pony will not be revealed, as they are that pony now. Any deviation from the assigned pony could bring this program to a screeching halt and justify Princess Celestia's wrath.”

“I accept your terms, then, Royal Ribbon.” Chrysalis said simply. After all, what other choice did she have, realistically? Live under a regulated register or face a slow extinction. There was no choice. “I assure you, my subjects...” she snorted, as the term no longer seemed appropriate, “I cannot call them that any longer, can I? The changelings on this train, will obey any and all conditions you deem necessary.”

“What is happening right now?” Celestia asked to nopony in particular. She felt like she was riding the Wild Blue Yonder for the first time, and the car had dropped out from under her, taking her stomach with it and leaving her in free fall.

“What’s happening is Royal Ribbon and you have just saved what's left of my kind, Celestia.”

“I only had thirty nine, plus an additional fifty six family members,” started Royal Ribbon, “There are five cars on the train for the changelings, so I have eight in the first four cars and seven in the last. They are getting to know the changelings and finding the one to replace them. I'm sure all the ones in the car are getting the love they need. I also have five of my staff to give an even number of twenty ponies per car. There is three more staff in the passenger car.”

Chrysalis’s smile grew wider, and a calm she hadn’t known in many moons descended upon her. “I can feel them. I can feel all of them. I can feel the happiness, the love, it is...nourishing like I have never felt before...” the calm continued. While there wouldn’t be any Queens after her, she took solace that the changelings wouldn’t die with her.

“I need some time to think about this…” Celestia shook her head, unable to countenance the smile on Chrysalis’s face any longer.

“The passenger box car is nearly empty, and you can send my staff in here if you want to be alone?” suggested Royal Ribbon helpfully.

“You'd stay with her?”

Royal Ribbon stared back at the Princess, unflinching under her stern gaze, “I'm staking my future on this plan. I have nothing to lose staying here.”

“You have my word Royal Ribbon will be unharmed,” Chrysalis put in, “I'm not exactly a threat in these hoof cuffs and chains, am I?”

“Tell that to the dead!” Celestia turned on Chrysalis so fast it seemed like she was going to strike her down then and there, “Tell that to those who didn’t survive Heartbreak Ridge, or those who died defending Clover’s Gate or the victims of the Platinum Plaza massacre!”

With spit frothing from the corners of her mouth, Celestia stormed out of the car and in short order she had kicked out the few staff members in the adjoining passenger box car. “What in the nine levels of Tartarus, Luna!” she screamed into the radio.

“Royal Ribbon is a breath of fresh air,” Luna stated simply in her sister’s ear, a sight hint of amusement in her voice.

“She is obstinate!”

“I know,” Luna agreed, the amusement in her voice more than a hint now. She was pleased to see the unicorn hadn’t been cowed by her sister’s presence, “She doesn't back down, she doesn't apologize, and she doesn't care what my rank is. She lays it out like it is. We could use more like her, especially in Canterlot. I told you I disregarded this plan because we believed it wouldn't be needed. But, I never forgot her presentation to me. Or the way she presented herself.”

Utterly frustrated, Celestia snorted through her nose. It was obvious to her now why her sister would like this unicorn. She was her without wings. Just like Octavia. “Why go to you?”

“Because she believes in the public perception that I was not involved in the invasion, and I didn't see any reason to change her mind,” Luna said with a knowing smile that reached her voice, “Now, I suggest you drink some tea, and tell me you have a better idea. Other than just blowing the train up and killing them all.”

“That…is an idea...” with a deep sigh and no small feeling of disgust at what she had just said – more so because she was imagining passing it off as an accidental derailment – Celestia plopped down on her generous ass and reached for the tea that Royal Ribbon’s staff had been drinking. Hoping as she did so that her sainted mother would forgive her thoughts. The chief of which was, ‘I need a break…’

“Royal Ribbon,” Chrysalis spoke up as soon as Celestia had left the car, “May I ask you a question, while we are alone?”

However, they were not to be left alone for long as, before the unicorn could answer, the three ponies that Celestia had evicted from the passenger car entered, taking up flanking positions either side of Royal Ribbon, all three visibly shaken by their Princess’s mood. “Sure,” the magenta mare smiled, “They are part of my crew. You can speak freely.”

Chrysalis shifted on her seating pad and wished that the heavy manacles on her limbs weren’t quite so heavy. The collar in particular made it hard to keep her head up. She supposed that was the point. “Do you see me as a monster?” It was a simple question, but one she needed to know the answer to.

Looking at the changeling before her, Royal Ribbon sighed, because the simple question wouldn’t be getting a simple answer. “You have done some monstrous things, from an equine point of view. Yet, you didn't see yourself as a monster. Perspective,” she used her hooves when she spoke, “I know any creature can be like a monster, yet they are still the creature they were before they acted that way. Let's not split hairs. I want peace without genocide. Is that what you want?”

“That’s what I want as well,” Chrysalis had to lower her head. The chains were uncomfortable, but she could bear them. “There has been enough death. Even if we could use forceful means, I would not condone them. We are too weakened by recent events.”

Royal Ribbon was intrigued by that. She had seen the Princess’s report about the giant mole-like creatures that had been decimating the changeling’s home. They weren’t something she wanted to see in Canterlot any time soon. “Yet, I wonder, if your numbers were a million, would you say the same?”

“Yes, I would. I am no monster, Royal Ribbon.” Chrysalis had to make this pony see why she did what she did, that she had no choice, just like the manticore has no choice when it hunts and kills its prey.

“Time will tell,” Royal Ribbon said eventually after she had mulled things over in her head. In truth, she didn’t see Chrysalis as a monster. A victim of circumstance and perhaps of her own nature, but not a monster. “But I'll be honest, Population control is an important part of this to work. It may not be fair, but it will ensure all of your people will survive. What of the other intelligent races?” the unicorn asked, the question coming to her from nowhere, “Are ponies the only one you prefer?”

“Yes,” Chrysalis replied, “Dragons are too naturally magic resistant to make efficient incubators. Griffons have extraordinarily little love. Greed and jealousy aren’t all that tasty. Have you tried feeding on hate, jealousy, bitterness and greed? Ugh. No thank you. Minotaurs and Yaks...well, we haven't tried yaks. We ah, don't really like the extreme cold in the far north.”

Thoughtfully, Royal Ribbon nodded and stroked her chin, “We do have a plan to expand beyond Equestria’s borders, but we can shelve that for now, if it’s impossible.”

“They aren't impossible,” Chrysalis clarified, “They’re just harder to use, is all.”

Twenty minutes later, Celestia came storming back into the rumbling train car like a golden comet, fury seeming to radiate from her in almost visible waves. “I talked to your 'volunteers',” the Princess sneered at Royal Ribbon, “Have you brainwashed them?” she demanded, “Do you have them under a spell?”

Royal Ribbon turned an unconcerned look to the raging alicorn, “Is hope a spell?”

“Out!” Celestia screamed at Royal Ribbon and her three attendants, “Get out!” with her voice approaching Royal Canterlot volumes, the four ponies quickly scampered from the box car like their lives depended on it. Left alone with Chrysalis, Celestia rounded on her prisoner, “What did you know of this!?”

“Nothing, Celestia,” Chrysalis replied, completely unruffled by the alicorn’s raging temper that washed over her like a breaking wave against a cliff. Mostly because she was too exhausted, too tired and too hungry to care what happened to her at that point. “Look at me. You have me clapped in irons at your mercy. Do I look capable right now of a spell?”

“You had no forewarning of Ribbon's plan?” Celestia swooped down and with a hoof under the changeling’s chin forced her to look up into her furious eyes, “Isn't that what prompted you to write?”

Instead of shrinking away, Chrysalis scoffed in Celestia’s face, “I am a changeling, not a clairvoyant. I wrote to you after the first maulwurf attack a few months ago. I wrote again after the last one, the one that destroyed the nursery full of eggs and reduced my Hive down to two hundred.”

With a snort, Celestia shoved Chrysalis’s face away with enough force that a thin line of green blood seeped from her nose, “I shouldn't have come.”

“Then why did you?”

“Luna...” Celestia’s eyes went wide with a perceived revelation, “My devious sister, of course it was her! What hold do you have over her?” she demanded as she lit her horn and prepared a bolt of energy aimed right at her captive’s face, “Answer me, damn you!”

In the face of the threat, Chrysalis just responded with a hollow laugh. She had nothing else to defend herself with. “I have no hold over anything anymore, Celestia. I have no Hive, no subjects, no magic, no power. I am your prisoner, a slave to your will, because you hold my race in your hooves.”

With her horn lit and glowing intensely with the fury of the sun itself, Celestia stared at Chrysalis, daring her to try something, anything, waiting to see if she would try and steal any of her love to feed herself, to give her any excuse to strike her down.

Any excuse at all.

Chrysalis merely smiled, “You'll be staring at me for a long time, Celestia. I lack the power to take it. I'm starving, remember? If you want to feed me, you'll have to give it.”

“I have no love for you,” Celestia sneered before standing up to her full height and shoving open the train car door, “Guard, summon Ribbon and her cohorts back to this car. I will have the passenger car to myself.” On the way out, Celestia passed the magenta mare, “She escapes, it’s on your head.”

As Royal Ribbon and her staff fed and cared for Chrysalis on the journey back to Canterlot, Celestia herself was busy in her car. Talking it over with her sister via the radio, the alicorn ordered an internment camp to be built some fifty miles from the capital city, on the far side of Canterlot mountain so that it would not be visible from the city.

At Luna’s suggestion, select members of the royal guard would control entry and prevent snoops. The cover story for the construction to appease the populace, should one be necessary, was that it was 'Princess Twilight's new infectious disease lab’.

~ ~ ~

Six months later.

Royal Ribbon’s scheme had gone from strength to strength. By her own humble standards, the integration had been an unparalleled success. So much so that after the third anniversary of the invasion, she had been appointed the head of the Canterlot Invasion Veterans Association as well as the newly formed Changeling Integration Trust.

The latter being as well received as a bowl of cold vomit among the general populace.

After the first six months though, there were still twenty-eight changelings in the camp, Chrysalis among their number, from the ones incubated from the original thirty nine. Like she had predicted, Royal Ribbon had no issue finding those ponies that were terminally ill that were willing to check out on their own terms to let their family have them for a lot longer.

So far, of all those families that Royal Ribbon and her staff had approached, only a scant number had refused the offer. To her great delight, the vast majority of them had signed the forms on the spot.

On a particularly cold and wet winter morning, with snow capping the peaks of Canterlot mountain – and most of Equestria too – and with heavily leaden grey skies, Princess Celestia chose to make a rare visit to the changeling camp. “How many are the dead now, Ribbon?” she asked without any preamble or pretense at a greeting.

With a completely unruffled smile on her face, the magenta unicorn looked up from her computer screen where she had been working, coordinating the next year’s celebration of the anniversary of the invasion with her brother, Royal Pin, who lived in Manehatten. “Currently?” she checked her extensive database, “One hundred and eight have found new life around Equestria. So one hundred and eight, your highness.”

Stepping into the office proper, Celestia took a seat on the seating pad on the other side of the mare’s desk. “You don't fear me at all, do you?”

“I work with the terminally ill,” Royal Ribbon replied with a shake of her head, “Life is short, Princess. All you can do is put me in next for a replacement.”

Deeply, Celestia sighed. She’d had a day and a half already, what with dealing with a troublemaking pink unicorn in her school for gifted unicorns, and it wasn’t even noon yet. And here she was, in her favourite place in all the land. “What of Chrysalis?”

Royal Ribbon noted the way the alicorn said the changeling’s name and it irked her, it was like saying the name might invoke some ancient curse that would doom them all. Wisely though, she held her tongue. “She has her strength back. The ones running this place are dedicated in their pursuit of showing love to her.”

Celestia found she didn’t much care for the raised eyebrow look she was getting from the unicorn she had deemed obstinate and instead she looked at the office walls. Two were bare, one had a large window with an excellent view down the mountain and the last one, that was adorned with several dozen portraits of ponies. Ponies she didn’t know, ponies she would never know, dead who had gotten a second try at life. It was all getting too much. “You have no idea...” Celestia breathed.

“But I do know.” Royal Ribbon interrupted Celestia, her tone sharp but her voice never rising in volume, “I was there for the invasion, helping the battle mages in the defense of Clover’s Gate. I lost my coltfriend when he was killed in the massacre at Platinum Plaza., so Princess or no, don’t tell me I don’t know. I also know those that were destroyed with the chambers they were trapped in. That they were already dead. I don't. Ever. Want. To see that again!”

For a moment, Celestia was taken back by the quiet strength and resolve behind the unicorn’s words. “Where is she?”

“Unit One, just down the hall to the left, she’s the only occupant.”

“You will have to continue without her.”

Royal Ribbon opened her mouth to question what the Princess had said but, seeing as she was already on her way out of her office, she decided against it. “As you wish, your highness.” She went back to what she had been doing. The anniversary celebrations wouldn’t plan themselves, after all.

The walk down the hallway to Unit One wasn’t a long journey. Celestia’s hooves echoed off the white tiled floor as she navigated the pristine white hall. The door was a thick metal structure with a triple locking mechanism that to Celestia’s chagrin was unlocked, with a single window. Looking in, she saw that Chrysalis was laid back on the single bed in her unit, stretched out and apparently asleep. Above the bed were a set of chains and manacles bolted to the walls, but they aren't attached to her.

Without bothering to knock, Celestia entered the fifteen foot square room, though she said nothing, she merely noted the table by the bed and the toilet in the corner. Seeing Chrysalis appearing to be asleep, she closed the door loudly with a firm kick. “Who was that?” the changeling sat bolt upright, very suddenly awake, “Ribbon? Spearhead? Shieldwall...was that you?” When Celestia snorted, she looked around and got her answer, “Celestia. I'm honoured. To what do I owe the pleasure?”

Instead of answering her, Celestia focused on the heavy manacles on the wall, restraints that not only were not in use, but looked like they hadn’t been used in weeks! “Why aren't you in chains?” she asked suspiciously.

“Six months of good behaviour earns you privileges, freedoms and pleasures,” Chrysalis answered as she rolled onto her front, facing her unexpected visitor, “Such as not being restrained, weekly issues of Vanity Mare and an extra fluffy pillow. I've been an exceptionally good little changeling in my prison, weren’t you told?”

“Three days ago, one of my staff died in a mountain climbing accident,” Celestia said, fighting the vindictive urge to blast that fluffy pillow into oblivion. “She had no next of kin. If you want parole, you will assume her identity and her duties immediately.”

Chrysalis was on her hooves in an instant, a look of glee on her face. “You really mean it? I will leave this cushy apartment…I mean, cell? I am to say goodbye to my two regular full meals a day and my own toilet?”

“On the train here you said you were a slave to my will.”

It bought a deep blush to Chrysalis’s chitinous cheeks to be so abruptly reminded of what she had said in her most desperate state. Still, she had said that. “I did say that, didn't I? That was six months ago, my dear Celly. But I suppose the statement is still true now as it was then.”

‘Let’s put that to the test then, shall we?’ Celestia allowed herself a calculating smile and she turned on her hooves before opening the thick metal door. “Follow,” she ordered simply and walked out, not looking over her shoulder to see if she was being followed or not. She walked back to Royal Ribbon’s office, where she dropped a portable drive on the table. “Play this for it to study. We leave in one hour.”

Royal Ribbon sighed as she watched the Princess walk out without sparing either of them another word or even a glance. “She’s in her usual mood,” the magenta unicorn sighed as she picked up and inserted the drive into her computer.

“Hmmm,” Chrysalis murmured thoughtfully, “It seems I am to be swapping one prison for another, albeit the one I’m going to will be a more gilded one,” she smiled and looked at the unicorn, “Whatever are you doing?”

“Sit there,” Royal Ribbon said, pointing to the seating pad opposite her desk instead of explaining what she was doing. When Chrysalis was seated, she spun the monitor around so she could see the screen. “This is the pony you are to become.” When she judged the changeling was ready, she hit play with a hoof.

“I confess that I am unfamiliar with this new pony magic,” Chrysalis said as she waved a hoof at the flickering computer screen, “But very well. Commence the magic device.” Royal Ribbon grinned broadly when she pressed play, she knew more than one pony who thought the computers were actually magic. Curious though, she did walk around her desk and look over Chrysalis’s shoulder.

For a long few minutes, Chrysalis stared intently at the image on the screen. Playing on a loop, the image of a middle aged pastel green earth pony mare with a curly dark brown mane and tail rotated so it could be seen from all angles. “Hmmm...she was not unattractive, was she?” she muttered to herself as she let the loop run several times.

“Let's see...” fully energized by the love energy she had been fed regularly the past few months, Chrysalis cast her magic, and, in a flash of bright green flames, she was gone, replaced by a near perfect copy of the earth pony on the screen. “Royal Ribbon, your assessment?”

The first thing the unicorn checked was the mare’s flanks to see if she had gotten the cutie mark right. She blushed hard when she realised it was of a white chamber pot. Before she could comment on the humiliating mark, Chrysalis interrupted her, “Wait...her flanks were rounder, her belly not so much...and her teats…wow!” With that, a glowing green aura surrounded her, and her body adjusted itself here and there, shrinking in places and filling out in others, particularly the flanks, ass and teats. They all grew substantially. “How about now?”

The hefty pair of swinging teats nestled between the earth pony’s hindlegs drew Royal Ribbon’s eyes away from the chamber pot cutie mark like a flame draws a moth. She marveled at them and it took all her self-composure not to worship at them. ‘How in the world was this mare, whoever she was, able to go rock climbing with those boulders?’ she wondered in awe. She could only assume, as she gave off her happy loving feeling, that she’d had a foal, or been a wet nurse. “I hope you enjoy your next life.”

“You will continue to see me, I hope?” Chrysalis asked, her voice changing slowly to match the mare she was impersonating, “I have grown extremely fond of your company, Royal Ribbon.”

“It may be some time,” Royal Ribbon replied, though the more she ogled those teats, the more she was determined to stay in contact, “I need the Princess to release me from the camp. My job is here.”

“Then I sincerely hope the time will be short,” the earth pony smiled warmly, “ May I give you a hug?”

“I'd be honoured,” Royal Ribbon beamed, then again, she would have been honoured if the earth pony mare had sat her generously proportioned ass on her face and rubbed those prodigious teats all over her body… but she didn’t say that out loud. That was an image for later. “Things are going well, Chryssie, with only one negative incident so far in six months. You…you know she will test you, don’t you?”

Smiling so wide it almost looked unnatural, Chrysalis hugged Royal Ribbon, her longest and most genuine friend, tightly. “I know she will, my friend. I would be greatly disappointed if she did not. But, I beg that you don't worry. No matter what she may do, I will not give her an excuse to reverse all we have achieved.”