Twin Suns: Heart of the Empire

Chapter 007 - A glorious new home.

Turns out, Amore didn’t lie about the mountain pass coming to an end not too far away from our last campsite. What he neglected to say, though, was the fact that the path was too steep and narrow for the majority of the carts in our caravan. Meaning, we had to arduously get them down a few at a time with the help of unicorn magic.

Thankfully, Amore seemed even stronger than he first assumed, bringing down multiple carts at once while the pegasi guided the effort from an aerial point of view. Meanwhile, I made sure everypony managed the climb down safely without falling to their deaths (or, if they were lucky, ending up with broken bones and the like).

It did help that the air was considerably warmer here than further up the mountain. My wings buzzed as strongly as ever, the stiffness completely gone by now. The only thing that really caused me any trouble was the strong wind, but a few strings of my changeling silk had me more or less tethered to the mountain so that I didn’t get blown away. I was glad my silk was just stretchy enough to avoid snapping outright when I got caught off-guard by a particularly strong gust of wind.

Ever since that day in Unicornia, I couldn't fly straight for the life of me (if I even managed to lift off in the first place, that is). The only way for me to fly reliably at all was to use my transformation magic to fix my damaged wings temporarily, and even then, I could feel the underlying injury get irritated the longer I kept flying. Thus, my heavy use of changeling silk instead of depending entirely on my wings.

It was also a great lifeline for my little ponies, giving them something to hold onto while they steadily progressed further and further down the mountain. I had to rescue one or two ponies that had stepped, in a brief moment of carelessness, a bit too close to the edge, almost falling down before I could use my web to pull them back. Thankfully, aside from a few scrapes here and there, there were no serious injuries inflicted upon any of them.

They gave me weird looks, though, as I dismissed their heartfelt thanks for saving their lives, not feeling like I deserved that much praise for it since it was the right thing to do. Besides, Amore and I had led them here, it was our responsibility to look after them the best we could. Making sure nopony sustained any lasting injuries when it was entirely avoidable was the least I could do, right?

After everypony was finally back on even ground and I could rest my protesting and aching wings, we continued our little journey further into the vast valley sporadically dotted by clusters of softly sparkling crystals of various colors, listening to the excited chatter of the little foals that had very much enjoyed the ride through the air in some of the carts. I could tell, though, that the majority of our caravan was getting a bit restless in finding a suitable place to settle down.

I couldn’t blame them, I was starting to feel that restlessness, myself. Still, we followed the Crystal Heart floating serenely through the air in front of us and Amore with it, not knowing where he would ultimately lead us to. Amore’s horn was shining with a brilliant light as he kept it afloat and he assured me that he could almost feel like we weren't far away from where we needed to be, according to his magical unicorn divining rod of destiny™.

The thing is... I started to recognize this valley the closer we got to the central point of it. The horizon began to look eerily familiar, almost exactly like the one I had seen in my vision (lacking the mirror-like ground of one big massive crystal, I suppose) and it was making me feel a little bit worried. Something told me that I... we... were being watched, a feeling that was quite similar to the one that I had felt while I was trapped in the Realm of Death. My eyes kept shifting every which way, only to find nothing out of the ordinary. The ‘tall’ grass wasn’t even high enough to hide a foal in it, least of all some sort of predator, only managing to further my confused paranoia.

Still, the feeling of wrongness persisted. It had an almost uncanny vibe to it and it was starting to frustrate me to no end. Something just wasn't right, making me more and more nervous.

While I was determined to let nothing touch the hairs of my subjects, that didn't mean I no longer had to overcome my own fears. If anything, having so many ponies rely on me... on us, rather... made me far more fearful that something might happen to them. Not that I would ever let that control me, though.

I couldn't allow myself to falter in the face of adversity, and that meant being cautious even when there was, for all intents and purposes, 'nothing' there to cause my paranoia.

Considering we were up against ghosts, no amount of paranoia could be enough. Every shadow could hide a foe, for all I know.

Shadra screeched at me and I did exactly what she told me to, not once questioning her command even as my heart started to beat frantically in my chest from suddenly being startled. The entire caravan came to a halt, Amore turning to me with a questioning gaze as my horn practically burned with the sheer amount of mana I was forcing through it.

“Ara?” Amore whispered, giving me his patented concerned look as fearful whispers began to spread through the caravan behind us. I ignored him in favor of scanning our surroundings more carefully than before, the massive shield tinting our world magenta. “There is nothing there, why the shield?”

“Hush,” I hissed, narrowing my eyes while trying to calm my racing heart down. I was also feeling a little bit woozy from the gnawing hunger returning to me and it wasn't being helped by the fact that my reserves kept dwindling at a steady pace. It wasn’t like I was using them up too fast, but I did take notice of it. I was tempted to reach out to the Crystal Heart again to gorge myself on Amore’s emotions, but... I felt like that was the biggest mistake ever that I could make right about now. The heart needed to be stronger if it was to keep us safe, even if that meant going against my instincts to feed at all costs.

It was like an addiction, really. A veritable drug one could never come down from. Love... Amore’s love... it was like I had gotten a taste of the most perfectly served meal that my body screamed at me in fear of withdrawal. I could quite literally not live without it anymore, just a brief taste had been enough to make me utterly dependent on it. And the pit in my very existence called hunger would send me to the edge of madness the longer I went without it, even more so while burning through what I had gathered of it as another, perhaps more... primal... need began to awaken from its deep slumber within me.

Like a waking titan, a fierce need to protect those close to me reared its ugly head within me. I had felt this feeling in Unicornia before and this time, it felt even worse. I might have dismissed it as simple paranoia had it not been for the sheer terror Shadra felt right now.

A feeling of urgency settled over me. It was almost enough to make me hiss at nothing but empty air and I could tell that this wasn’t mere paranoia, as much as I wished for it to be so. We were most definitely not alone here, something... sinister... was gathering all around us and I bet the umbrum were at fault for that. This sense of foreboding danger, I had felt it before. In my vision. It felt eerily similar to when the umbrum appeared in it.

I shuddered involuntarily, my breaths coming out in slightly ragged puffs of air as my own fear began to run wild on me. The feeling of utter helplessness in the vision was returning to me and I wanted to do nothing more than to curl up into a tight little ball and shut out the world completely, forgetting its existence entirely in an attempt of regaining that sense of safety back, to be ignorant of the danger lurking just outside the shield somewhere where my eyes were unable to see the cause of this feeling.

I would have done exactly that had it not been for the almost untamed primal need to not back down. I couldn’t, not with everypony needing my protection. I needed to be strong for them, even if I didn’t feel like it. But... even if I felt weak, I knew I could stand in between our foe and my subjects, if for nothing else than to see them safe and sound. I would give my life for them if that’s what it takes to keep it that way.

I narrowed my eyes in confusion as I gazed beyond the shield, my tail whipping back and forth in a display of agitation and aggression. My teeth were aching for something to sink them into as I felt like... I don't know, something seemed off, I knew that much for certain, but I couldn’t exactly put my hoof on what that something was. It was frustrating, seriously.

Heart hammering in my chest, my eyes traveled to the border of the shield and I tried to find the error in the Matrix, somewhat like one of those ‘spot the difference’ games of a pair of identical pictures.

At first glance, everything was like it was supposed to be. The wind gently ruffled the grass around us while the light of the twin suns was reflected off of the crystals jutting out of the ground like a sea of stars. Everything seemed calm and peaceful, a perfect example of a nice sunny day.

But then, I remembered the words I had thought not a moment ago.

Every shadow could hide a foe.

It was like a switch had suddenly been flipped around, and, as if it stood out to me like a giant pink elephant, I saw what Shadra had noticed ahead of us.

The shadows cast by the crystal clusters, the odd few shrubs bearing fruit, and gently swaying flowers and so on were facing the wrong direction, completely static and unmoving. It was utterly surreal. Wrong, even.

I couldn’t believe it took me that long to find such a glaring flaw in their deception. It was so obvious, I felt like I wanted to hit myself over the head with something very hard and blunt. Seeing the shadows go counter to those of us with no discernible light source was weird and unnerving. No mere optical illusion could ever compare to this, I thought with an uneasy gut feeling. I perfectly understood how Shadra felt now, the unnaturalness of it all was just... creepy as fuck.

Carefully, I used my telekinesis to part the grass outside of the shield just to see what would happen. Only to find out that the shadows didn’t move from their spot. Like... at all. It was as if they had been painted on to the surface of reality.

A child-like giggle rang out around us as our surroundings began to gradually darken to a point that I thought it was already late evening. Slowly, I stepped back from the shield's edge and took on a protective stance in front of everypony. My wings were buzzing in agitation while I felt like letting out a whimper. This situation could have come straight out of a b-rated horror movie back on Earth, I swear (mind you, the setting wasn’t quite as scary, but the fucking giggle sure was).

“You found us!” the childish voice proclaimed happily and smoke began to waft up into the air. It had a sickly greenish matte color with a slight bluish tint to it, streaked with a purple gradient here and there. “You’re good at playing hide and seek! Let’s play some more!”

The filly-like appearance of the shadow creature revealing itself to us wasn’t really fooling anypony, nor was the false smile on the umbrum’s smoky muzzle. It did look disarming, so much so that I got momentary doubts whether they were the same type of creature that I had seen in my dreams, but the words of that mysterious voice clearly warned me to never... absolutely never ever... trust any of these things. And I had no intention to start doing so.

“Are we going to play some more?” it asked us and I hissed back at the thing daring to use such an innocent façade to lure us into a false sense of security. “Why won’t you let down that shield, it’s so... bright. I don’t like it.”

“That’s too bad now, isn’t it?” I snarled. The thing began to frown, eying the Crystal Heart wearily as it floated next to Amore behind me. “I know what you want, umbrum. You won’t get it.”

“I want to play,” it said, sounding so falsely sad, it felt almost like an insult. It didn’t even reach its smoky eyes. Perception-wise, they were abysmally bad at hiding their intentions from me. It was downright silly that I ever thought they could impersonate Amore just because I couldn’t feel his emotions coming from the correct source anymore. The umbrum were only good at hiding in the shadows, nothing more. The sheer malice radiating off of those monsters was like a particularly foul smell to my senses and I wasn’t going to allow any of them to get closer to us.

Let’s hope the shield will stand if they got it into their incorporeal heads to try their luck at breaking it. To be honest, at this rate, they don’t even need to try. A quick whisper to Arachne had her already calculating our time remaining with the shield I cast.

Arachne whispered and I grimaced at the approximation of how much of our reserves we had already used up. It was still more than we ever had in Unicornia, but I didn’t have Amore’s love for me filling me up to the brim back then. Nor did I have to cast such a large shield before...

I grunted back, seeing more and more of those umbrum stop hiding in the shadows. Already, it was well past a hundred individuals and it seemed like there was no end to be seen. It was starting to look like a sea of rancid cotton-candy vomit to me. 'Smelled' like it, too.

she responded, stress evident in her voice.

I said, glancing back towards my... subjects. Each and every one of them were huddling together in the middle of the shield as more of the umbrum began to show their ugly faces. To make matters even worse, they were giggling and clapping their spindly hooves eagerly with a sick amount of joy, standing right there at the edge of the barrier. I have no doubt that they were just salivating at the opportunity to torment us, the foul fiends.

It was breaking my heart, seeing my friends... my family... like this. So afraid and hopeless. They knew that the umbrum were dangerous and that they couldn’t do the slightest thing against them. Only my shield stood in between them and their end. For that reason alone, I needed to be stronger than ever before, even as doubt started to cloud my mind in a fearful haze. A nervous flutter went through my heart at the thought of failing to protect them like I did with Leaf. I won’t allow anyone, absolutely no one, to ever take advantage of them again. I cannot fail them. I promised it to my wayward Leaf.

I said, mind made up.

Shadra whispered sharply and I sighed. I knew that, but it was the only option, wasn’t it? Short of draining the Crystal Heart dry and self-destructing, there was nothing that could work, I feared. We ran right into their ambush like fools and now, we would pay the price for such callousness.

I was an idiot. I should have known that, as soon as I had that vision, the umbrum weren’t far away from us. Perhaps they never were, I realized.

The Realm of Death, the odd few shivers here and there in the forest, the feeling of being watched at all times... the vision where they interfered with the message of that mysterious voice... they were always observing us, weren't they? Waiting for the perfect opportune time to strike when we least expected it. They must have waited long enough to figure out what we were up to, and now that we had the Crystal Heart with us, they were forced to act.

I had hoped we wouldn't ever have to worry about these things, but I don’t get to be that lucky, now do I?

“If you want to ‘play’ that badly,” Amore muttered, gulping anxiously as a noticeable shiver ran through his body. “Why are there so many of you? What type of game would require that many participants?”

“A fun game where everyone will enjoy themselves. We are a big family, after all, and we don’t like to play alone,” it answered ‘happily’. I could feel the malicious glee in its words, though. “Mother doesn’t tolerate souls that won’t play with us. So you are going to play with us or you won’t like what happens next.”

“And what, pray tell, is that going to be?” I growled, ignoring the update on our reserves from Arachne as I prepared to flare the shield, hoping that that would be enough to push them back long enough for us to come up with another plan. Or we are, against all odds, lucky and get ourselves rid of them, outright.

“You seem familiar,” it said and ignored my question as it narrowed their eyes on me. Disgust. Hate. More of that malicious glee. I had to wonder just how these abominations could continue to exist like that. Nothing but negativity, what a pitiful existence that must be. “Mother told me of you. You are that soul that escaped their fate, aren’t you? Mother will be pleased to present you to Zovaal. After all, no one escapes his grasp in the Maw. You might even be lucky and be of use to our master,”—the fiend clapped its hooves together giddily—” a soul like yours could prove to be just the piece he needs for his grand plan to remake reality anew.”

“Whatever ‘grand’ fate was planned for me, tell your ‘mother’ that I don’t intend to go meet your maker,” I snarled, drawing more mana to my horn. In the next moment, the love-infused shield flared, pushing outward with a bright shine of love-infused changeling magic. It shone brightly enough that we even had to shield our eyes as the world around us turned into a brilliant white.

Arachne said as my vision swam. That took a lot more out of me than I intended, I mused tiredly as my ears were assaulted from all sides by horrific screeching that honestly sounded like a banshee swallowed rusty chains. I squinted, trying to get my blurry eyesight to straighten out, only to yelp as an umbrum was about to pounce on me, a wild look in their glowing white eyes.

My shield already showed significant cracks everywhere I could see, barely holding on to loose threads after I repurposed it into something that it wasn’t meant to be used as: a weapon. And, where the previous umbrum had been, there now was a gaping hole ripped into my shield. The one that had sadly managed to avoid getting dazed by my little trick tried its best to bite my head off for daring to injure one of their filthy brethren.

Shadra wrestled control from me before that could happen, though, viciously spearing the pouncing umbrum upon our blazing horn and throwing it back towards where it came from, repairing the shield immediately afterward. “Tell this Zovaal that he can come and take me himself if he wants my soul that badly. I won’t be part of some megalomaniac’s plan to destroy reality as we know it!”

“Pesky worm,” the umbrum spat, eerie white eyes glaring balefully at us. “You won’t be able to hide behind that disgusting shield forever.”

“Maybe not,” Shadra admitted, sneering back at it with nothing but resentment for them in her voice. “But at least I won’t go down without a fight. I’m going to protect my ponies to the very last breath if that’s what it takes to keep them safe from the likes of you!”

My heart warmed at the conviction she put into those words and I couldn't have been any prouder of her, seeing her be so willing to fight to the end. It was a far stretch from her previous fear-induced need to run and hide. The Protector of the Hive, indeed.

“It matters not,” another of the umbrum spoke up, larger than the rest of them. It certainly looked more menacing, having a sort of storm-like appearance with a red glow coming from within their chest. “It is only a matter of time until I shall bathe this world in darkness and offer its core to my master. Give that silly little trinket you are so keen to protect over to us and we shall... spare you a most painful death. He will make you see, one way or another.”

“Never,” we proclaimed, gritting our teeth as the recovering umbrum began to bash against our shield. Amore was lending his mana to us, giving us a small smile that told us that he didn’t expect to get through this and that... that he wouldn’t trade our time together for anything in the world. I smiled sadly back, trying to repair the shield as soon as new cracks started to form in it, but even with the aid of Amore, it was a futile endeavor under their continuous assault.

One by one, even more magic got added to the struggling shield as the unicorns in our merry herd gave me their support. But, still... even at this rate we had (at best) a few more minutes under their continued assault before we had to drop the shield for good or risk starving to death.

I don’t know which option I preferred more, starving to death or fighting to the death. Either way, I didn’t look forward to what would come afterward in both cases.

The giantess of an umbrum gave an almost sad hum before mockingly patting our shield. We prepared ourselves for the impact as best as we could, but as who could only be this ‘Mother’ drew her hoof back for a vicious strike, we let out a pained shriek in agony from the sheer impact of her might. It was almost enough to shatter our combined defenses completely.

“I won’t ask again,” she said, malicious evil burning brightly in her hollow gaze. “Give us the Heart of the World or suffer the consequences.”

Heart of the World? Does she mean the Crystal Heart? That seems... strangely appropriate, I suppose. It could either bathe the world in love or drown it in hatred. No wonder the umbrum wanted it. They never were here for me in the first place, were they? Their goal had always been the Crystal Heart. One little soul was, in the grander scheme of things, unimportant. An entire world, though?

I don’t know what they could want with that many souls, offering them to their master on a silver platter... but I bet it had something to do with ‘recreating’ reality. Something like that surely takes a lot of energy and from what I knew during my time as a formless soul, there was a lot of it to be gained from them. I never figured out how to utilize it, but I knew it was there.

One had to wonder how powerful the soul of an entire world must be. It was a terrifying thought, indeed.

I snorted, wiping my muzzle with the back of my forehoof. About ten percent left, I would wager. I could use the rest of my reserves to strike a decisive blow against this Lieutenant of Death, this servant of ‘Zooval’, whoever that guy was. Someone that most definitely shouldn’t have the power to remake reality. Who knows what they were going to do after having achieved that goal. Nothing good, I bet.

I knew not trusting those blue angel ladies was the best decision I could have ever made. None of them could be trusted, least of all this ‘Master’ over the Realm of Death.

The question, though, was what could I do to avoid such a cruel fate? This was a fundamental force of the universe we were speaking of here, there was no defying death and getting away with it. Not as I had and... maybe this was always meant to happen. It was only a matter of time until something dragged me back to where I belonged, wasn’t it? But... if I had to go out like this, I sure as heck would attempt to make sure that it wasn’t a pointless death.

Not even once did I hesitate to make the decision of what I did next. All I did was mourn as I made it, aware of how much pain it would bring to those closest to me. But I had to do something... anything.

I was selfish. Always have been, always will be. I might pretend to have changed, but at my core, I was still that deeply selfish person. I just... I can’t lose another pony, not another loved one... not like this. I won't watch another single pony die while I could pay the price for their freedom, instead. Not again.

I conveniently ignored that I would lose everyone with this, anyway, but... someone had to do something. Better me than anypony else.

“Die, witch,” I spat, pouring every little bit of love I had left in me into my horn. Time slowed down to a crawl as I watched the shield around us wink out of existence as I sent a lance of pure love towards the specter of pure hatred. The following scream fell on deaf ears as my body began to collapse to the ground. There was, at best, only a little glimmer of love left in my body. Not enough to sustain me for long, I knew that with perfect clarity. Death would come and claim me once more, there was no way around it.

Leaf... I’m going to find you. You and Amore, in our next life. I’m sorry I couldn’t protect you. My subjects. Or even the Crystal Heart.

I had hoped that I would be able to stand a chance against them, but I failed even you, mysterious voice. Weaver of Fate, my ass. The only fate I wove was failure upon failure.

I brought naught but ruin to Unicornia. I started something that I shouldn’t have, but... that’s not going to matter anymore, is it? Death was coming for this world, anyway. Damn you umbrum. Little soulless monsters, all of them.

At least I knew what love felt like. The warmth, the flippy feeling in my stomach, the sweet smell of honey... I’m going to miss it. I’m not looking forward to the soul-rending cold of the Realm of Death, the sheer despair and numbness. The bleak and dark world bathed in shadows. The one that was most likely going to await me there (after dragging my soul to this ‘Maw’, I guess). I really wish I didn’t have to go back there, but there was no way around it, was there?

It was a good time that I had with all of my little ponies. I didn’t get to start my own hive, but... I kinda had a family, nonetheless. And it was by far bigger than the one Tabetha, Tobias, and... Sam... could have ever hoped to have.

I wonder what became of them. Tabetha and Tobias. Did they find themselves reborn in this world as well? I’m sorry if that was the case. I suppose I even failed you guys. You won’t ever know it, but... I forgive you. I forgive you for strapping me into that machine, Tabetha. I forgive you for never being the caring parent that I wanted, Tobias.

And... I’m sorry, Sam... I’m sorry that I squandered my chance at a new life like this. That I all but erased what made you, you. As sad as that was... I hope you might forgive me for that, even if you never can. After all, I made you into me. It would be impossible for you to forgive me, wouldn’t it? I would have to travel back in time in order to earn that forgiveness. Not that I would ever deserve it, I suppose.

A novel thought, wasn’t it? Time travel. Humanity might have achieved something like that, for all I know. Not anytime in the near future, I’m certain, but... perhaps at some point, we might have. Not before going entirely bald, I mused to myself.

Bald apes... in a way, humans were mythological creatures in their own right, weren’t they? After all, if bug horses can exist, then humans were equally as strange in nature. The only species on Earth to evolve past their basic animalistic behaviors, learn to walk upright on two legs, and adapt to almost any environment they set their eyes upon, building truly awe-inspiring things, from the tallest of buildings to the most complex of technologies. It was so very remarkable. Astonishing, really. If only we hadn’t squandered such a gift on playing with fire. Or with souls, in my particular case.

I hope they destroyed that machine Tabetha built. Such things were never meant to exist. Meddling with souls was perhaps the worst crime one could commit. For that alone, I probably deserved whatever awaited me in that ‘Maw’ the umbrum had alluded to. It must be a scary place indeed if they named it the Maw and not Hell. One could only wonder how horrific it must be there to be sent to a place like that.

As everything began to go dark on me, I watched in anticipation as my last attack struck ‘Mother’ and reduced her from the behemoth of a shadowy fiend to... n-no. No, no, no! That... t-that’s not possible! T-there was n-no way that... t-that...

Mother’s head slowly turned back around after my attack had twisted her body into a mangled mess, but... it didn’t stay like that for long. Her form seemingly bore nary a scratch as she rapidly healed her injuries with savage grunts and growls. Well, 'nary a scratch' aside from a glowing white scar on her face, that is. And, to make things even worse, she looked majorly pissed off. She most definitely wasn't in the mood to 'play games' anymore.

I just poked a slumbering beast, didn't I? Mother would, no doubt, bring everything she could bear down on me and those I've genuinely come to call family. There was no more holding back, I could see it clearly in her eyes. I had managed to scar her absolutely hideous face and earned her ire.

I was left stumped, horrified beyond measure. Just... how could this be? If not even a lance of pure love was enough to get rid of these abominations, what would it actually take to bring them down?! Nothing I could do has proven itself to be effective, how was I supposed to protect my ponies against something like that?

The last image I saw was a twisted skeletal grin on her face and I despaired. The umbrum won, just like that. How can anyone stand against them and hope to win? It was impossible. Utterly. Impossible. Was death inevitable for this world?

“Do not lose hope, Weaver. Your time has not yet come.”

An image appeared in front of me and I knew with perfect clarity who that voice belonged to. It was the voice from my vision reaching out to me. It... it belonged to the one whose heart we had found ourselves in the possession of; none other than the Soul of the World itself was reaching out to me.

“You are so close, Child of Fate. You only need to insert the key and open the door.”

I was completely and utterly stunned, barely even catching parts of that last sentence as I stared at her appearance. Or his... I wasn’t so certain, it was kinda hard to tell. They were so very beautiful and it felt like I was committing a sin by gazing upon them so brazenly. A being made entirely out of crystal, shining with an inner light that touched my very soul. I had no words for what happened next, but... it felt like I was being embraced while I returned to consciousness, the Crystal Heart floating high in the sky as it pulsed, faster and faster. A last echo-y whisper of ‘protect the chosen, open the door’ continued to linger in my ears.

I don’t even know what door they meant and where I was supposed to find it (much less what I would need it for). A problem for another time, I mused, feeling Amore’s crystalized coat against my chitin. I let out a soft murmur, watching as everypony around us lent their help to the artifact slowly expanding a shield so strong around us, the umbrum had no chance to even put a hairline crack in it. And they tried. Oh, they definitely tried, angry wails bashing against the impenetrable shield of pure love.

“Y-you’re... y-you’re such an idiot,” Amore scolded me. His voice was wobbling quite heavily as he let out a shaky sigh, hugging me tightly against himself while tears ran down from his golden eyes in heavy rivers. It made my heart clench with guilt at the sight of him being so distraught, never having seen him quite this emotional before. No wonder, after what I've just made him go through, seeing me collapse like that... I’d be no better off than him. “I have never met such an insufferable idiot that is so carelessly selfless. Do you have no regard for your own life?!”

“I’m sorry, ‘more,” I whispered, my voice growing even quieter as shame flooded my entire being. There were no words that could ever convey how much I regretted having had to do what I had to do, thinking it to be the only solution to our plight. We were lucky this time, our only saving grace having been the very thing keeping us safe right now. What a damn fucking Deus Ex Machina. “I’m so sorry... so very sorry...”

“You better be,” he said, crushing me even tighter, afraid he would lose me if he let go of me. I understood his fear perfectly, having felt it time after time in the short time since my reincarnation. I doubt this would be the last time, either. “You told me that you can’t lose me and go and do this. I can’t believe you, you... y-you damn moron. Y-you're a fucking hypocrite, Ara.”

“I had no idea what to do,” I murmured, sniffling. “They would have broken through, anyway... I-I... I couldn’t just have done nothing, ‘more...”

“We could have run, Ara! You could have done anything but throw your life away, for fuck’s sake!” he shouted, letting out trembling sobs as he buried his teary muzzle in my silky mane. Piercing hot stabs of anguish flared to life in my chest as I felt his distress and love, his concern and care, his fear and relief. It left me almost gasping at the intensity of his emotions, they were that strong. That I could even feel them from here was a true testament to that, the Crystal Heart was barely visible in the sky from our position were it not for its brilliant glow. And they were all directed towards me and nopony else. “By the light of the twin suns, don’t ever do that to me again. If you’re not allowed to lose me, then you’re not allowed to leave me, either! Do you hear me?!”

“Loud and clear,” I answered, leaning my head ever so slightly away from his chest in order to gaze into his frightened, tear-stained eyes. I gave him a tiny smile in reassurance, hoping he would believe my next words. I wasn’t certain whether I was truthful with them or not, but I swore to myself that I would always try to uphold them, no matter what. I owed at least that much to him. “I promise, Amore. I won’t leave you for as long as you don’t leave me, either.”

“Good,” he breathed out a shaky sigh, all of his tears spent. “I love you, you dumb bug. My heart almost broke into a million pieces as I saw you fall to the ground like that. Had it not been... had it not been for the Crystal Heart, I fear we would all be dead now.”

“What happened?” I asked, seeing everypony around us with the same type of crystalized coat. I wasn’t entirely unaffected either, I noticed. My wings sparkled and let out the faintest chime every time they so much as fluttered the slightest way. It was honestly the most beautiful thing aside from Amore’s eyes.

“The Crystal Heart reacted to... something... you did,” Amore began, gazing at everypony around us with me. “I think it was true love.”

“What do you mean?” I turned back to him, confused. True love? If that was the case, wouldn't it have gone nuclear as soon as I confessed my love to him on the mountain? Not that I would pretend to think that this was true love just yet. I kinda doubt I was his fated partner from another reality.

“For an empath, you really are clueless, aren’t you?” he chuckled, wiping his face clean with his fetlock, an almost imperceptible smile on his muzzle. I pouted up at him, wondering what I did to deserve that jab. Aside from almost dying again, I guess. That list of ‘dumb things I did since reincarnating’ got steadily longer, didn’t it? And that's without me having to give it a try (not that I wanted to make it into a habit, in the first place). “Love isn’t only something you hold for somepony else, it’s... more than that. It’s a connection, a gift freely given. And you? You love each and everypony here unconditionally and with such fierceness, you would do literally anything for them. If that isn’t true love, I don’t know what is.”

"Oh..."

His words resonated deep within me. They were true, weren’t they? Shadra, Arachne, and I... we would do everything in our power to keep our hive... our empire safe from harm. And what was our empire if not the ponies in it? They are our family.

I hummed, leaning my head against Amore’s chest again. It still felt like regular fur despite its crystalline appearance. And his comforting smell was still the same slightly musky scent that always made me feel... kinda horny for him, but also safe.

It was his love keeping us safe from the monsters at our doorstep now, so I guess he really was the only reason we were safe now. Without him finding the Crystal Heart and bonding with it, we might have never come so far as to defy the forces of Death like this.

My eyes went back to the crystal floating in the sky and I felt a smile worm itself upon my muzzle. Amore wasn’t quite the damsel in distress I first thought him to be, was he? Maybe he was also a knight in shining armor, after all. Or... a prince.

Shadra grumbled impatiently and I giggled to myself, doing just that. Amore's lips felt like a silent reassurance on mine. A promise to always be there for each other. And it brought that flutter I was so addicted to back. I hoped it would never ever leave me, it just felt so incredibly good, being in his presence like that.

Before long, we broke the kiss and were faced with a rather difficult question. What do we do now? We were surrounded on all sides by the umbrum seeking their way in, something that we can’t allow to let happen. That also meant we couldn’t exactly leave, which meant... no way to get materials to build with.

I suppose there were worse things than having to live in tents for the time being, but that wasn’t really my main concern. If we really need to, we could create a mine and get stone that way. No, what I was mainly worried about was water. We were nowhere near close enough to a river, let alone a stream. Our only option was to, once again, dig below the ground. I don’t think we would get lucky and find a network of underground caverns, and creating a well might have been a bit of a difficult task since the soil was so rich in crystals. Not like we had an alternative, I suppose. Sending out pegasi to collect clouds would be far too risky and dangerous with the umbrum prowling around. Not to forget, I have yet to see any of those icy horse-like spirits that I saw in the vision.

Whatever those were, I doubt they are going to stay hidden for long if we dare to leave our little slice of 'heaven'. I had kinda hoped we would find a place to settle down in that was a bit more... homey... but instead, we get a big ass shield with mad raving dogs on our front lawn. I really wish we had gone to the coast now, this was just depressing.

On top of that, our supplies were also starting to run out. Something that wasn’t quite as dire as I first thought it would be since the majority of the earthponies were quite well-versed with agriculture due to certain... circumstances. Setting up fields wouldn’t be that much of a problem, we had seeds aplenty. That is, if it weren’t for our little water predicament (and the soil being what it was: a pain to plough).

Luckily, we had Arachne to thank for a solution, one that was probably equally as risky and dangerous as just straight up leaving the shield in order to go scavenge. She modified our instant changeling-fire portal to be a bit more... stable, I guess... to keep it open for longer lengths of time, meaning we could temporarily sneak out with the umbrum none the wiser (leaving us with the only other problem of setting up a farm).

The pegasi volunteered for the dangerous mission of filling as many carts with snow and ice from the mountain as quickly as they could, helping us immensely in the survival department. It left me worrying each and every time they went out there, though, hoping beyond hope that nothing bad would happen to them.

While I wanted to help them to the best of my ability, keeping them safe out there and whatnot, I was... sadly unable to do anything from the confines of the shield projected by the ever pulsing Crystal Heart. My body simply couldn’t handle the climate further up the mountain and Amore couldn’t go with them due to having to keep that shield up. Without him here, I fear the Crystal Heart wouldn’t be able to safeguard all of us for long.

Thus, it didn’t take long until something did go wrong. The umbrum weren’t stupid, it was only a matter of time until they caught on that they couldn’t starve us out of the shield and went to go investigate what the cause behind that was. Gentle Breeze didn’t make it back through the portal in time before my concentration waned and I had to close it or risk the umbrum finding their way right in.

It took me a while to get over that loss. I was careless and it cost me another pony. Understandably, I let my emotions get the better of me as I raged and raged, kicking and smashing my hooves against the crystals jutting out of the ground repeatedly until they started to bleed from ugly cracks in my chitin. Amore had to restrain me before I could hurt myself further, holding me gently against his chest as I cried my heart out even as Serene Orchard bandaged my wounds with clean strips of cloth.

There was a rather somber atmosphere hanging over everypony afterward as we held the ceremony for Gentle Breeze, hammering in the reality of our situation even further into us that we were by no means ‘safe’ even with the shield protecting us.

Noling ever said building up an empire from scratch would be easy. It would take a lot of heartache and loss, something that I knew on an intellectual level but... not on an emotional one. In books, those things had always only ever been numbers and nothing more. Statistics. Quantities with no real connection to. Out here, trying to survive to the best of our abilities? Any and all losses felt like a particularly vicious stab to the heart. I was in no way prepared for that soul-wrenching hurt, even after having gone through everything the revolution in Unicornia could throw at me.

I have seen death, been to a place no mortal has ever laid their eyes upon... and yet, losing somepony else always hurt the most. It was a deep-running agony, knowing that someone was just... gone.

The burden of the crown is a heavy one. I never thought I would get to learn what exactly that phrase meant, but here I was, sending ponies to their potential deaths for the sole purpose of our continued survival. And I doubted it would stay with that one time only, as much as I wished for it to not be so. It would happen again and again, I knew that it was but an inevitability. Things could and would always go wrong to some degree, no matter what. All I could do was to try and keep that loss to a minimum.

I needed to be smarter, not fight harder. And that meant I needed to be a lot more cautious from that point onwards. I wasn’t just cautious, though. No... I was ridiculously cautious with where and when I decided to open that portal.

At first, I tried using the cover of the night to our advantage, only to find out that the damn abominations didn’t even need to sleep. At all. It shouldn't have come as a surprise to me, to be honest. After all, I had been in the Realm of Death for who knows how long and knew perfectly well that ghosts don’t sleep (duh).

After that, we came up with the idea of opening them at random times as well as using 'decoy' portals to keep it as unpredictable as we could manage and were... semi-successful with that. It gave us enough time to make a quick grab and run, but the umbrum were starting to patrol through the mountains twenty-four hours around the clock, making it increasingly harder to find new locations to open portals to.

It only took one meager week for things to go from bad to worse. The mine we created did lead to a vast cavernous system of natural tunnels filled with nothing but crystals, the odd few mushrooms, and... something... that lurked within them. We narrowly avoided losing the group of ponies exploring the underground world we 'stumbled' upon to the giant worm thing-y biting through the massive crystals like they were made out of butter. The risk of encountering more of those things just to find a clear water lake was most certainly not worth the potential losses, in my opinion.

I knew that there must be (drinkable) water down there somewhere, but... it was just too damn dangerous. I couldn’t in good conscience allow my ponies to venture forth into the darkness in order to try and secure our survival for good. We would have to find another way, somehow. Whether that was by finding another source of water or by finding a way to slay that monstrous beast and any others we might find (I doubted it was the only one down there). From what we learned of it, though, that seemed like an unlikely possibility. The thing’s hide was as strong or even stronger than the crystals that it ate, and, on top of that, it reflected every spell that was thrown against it. It would take a miracle for us to get rid of it anytime soon (if ever).

I was beginning to think that we had simply exchanged one prison for another, moving away from Unicornia to this suns-forsaken place. There was nothing here aside from monsters out to seek the end of our existence. And I doubt aid would find us anytime soon with nopony aware of our unfortunate predicament. We were quite literally in the middle of nowhere, far away from any other type of civilization.

I fear that, if we were to send out a missive asking for help, we would be sending not only the messenger but also our allies straight to their own doom. Unicornia might have come to our aid, if for no other reason than Amore being best friends with Queen Gold Bar, but I doubt even their magical old farts council could defeat the umbrum without risking their own deaths in the process, and, in turn, the rest of the world. Without the daylight cycle, the umbrum might have won just as well.

It was a wonder they were that fixated on the Crystal Heart that they completely disregarded that possibility. Maybe they weren’t aware of the actual workings behind that, as doubtful as I was of that, myself. Until I saw them raise the moon and suns, I would remain healthily skeptical of that.

It was a truly maddening idea, that this world’s inhabitants’ survival was entirely dependent on a group of about ten unicorns in charge of the heavens. Laughable, that’s what it was. Laughably easy to bring about the end of this world, in so many ways. This world was a damn house of cards, taking just one piece out of it would bring everything toppling down. It was honestly a wonder that the ponies of this world had survived for this long, pitted against odds like that. And what do they do with that miracle? Enslave their fellow ponies. Pathetic.

What the actual fuck was wrong with this world? I was seriously considering cutting off my soon-to-be city-empire from the rest of the world until they grew the fuck up (if we weren’t already caged in like animals, that is).

As it is, I had little hope to see the other kingdoms get the sticks out of their behinds during my lifetime. As much as I wanted to see that happen, see this world come even a little bit closer to what Earth had become... it would sadly remain a dream, I fear. At least I could make sure my empire became a shining beacon for the entire world to envy... eventually. If we survive for that long, that is, seeing as that wasn't exactly a guaranteed thing right now.

A little glimmer of hope did come to us eventually, though. And just as I was about to lose hope entirely, too. One of the earthponies managed to... crystalize... the berries they cultivated, increasing their yield and lowering the water requirements drastically.

Apparently, they also tasted pretty nice, as well. I couldn’t actually tell, they tasted like every other plant I tried to eat (despite me knowing what the outcome of that would be): like stale, bland cardboard... which totally didn’t make me jealous of Amore and our subjects. Definitely.

One of these days, I will find something I could nibble on without it tasting like utter crap. After all, why do I even have teeth to begin with if they are next to useless? Aside from phonetics and my fangs, I guess.

That doesn't mean I was desperate enough to try out anything that crossed my path, though. I'd never sully my muzzle with other insects or have a repeat performance of what I remembered the cockatrice's blood to have tasted like. Meat was off the table entirely and I wasn't much of a fan of seafood, either. I might try my luck with mushrooms next, I wasn't looking forward to those as much as I had been with the crystal berries, but who knows? It can't be worse than eating literal garbage could be, after all.

As it was, more and more of those ‘crystal crops’ began to pop up as time went on (sadly tasting no different to me, as well). I began to believe that something in the soil was responsible for that. That or the Crystal Heart. They were completely edible as far as we could tell. And quite nutritious, on top of that.

One thing we did notice, though, was the fact that our ponies started to ‘resemble’ crystals in a more physical way. Don't get me wrong here, they were still very much made out of flesh and bones and all those squishy bits in between, but... some sort of element was beginning to turn them into what we began to call ‘crystal elementals’, for lack of a better term. Beings that were nature given form, something that could have come straight out of mythology back on Earth. Or a Dungeons and Dragons book.

I wasn't quite as affected by this phenomenon as the 'crystal ponies' were aside from my wings, tail, and mane (although, if one looked closely enough, my chitin did give off a subtle 'mystical' shimmer now). Like my subjects, my eyes had adopted a more crystalline-like appearance, and, to be honest, they made me look really pretty (which was all I actually cared about).

There was one common trait between everypony, though, and that was the fact that the change made everyone more 'sturdy' and resilient to blunt force. What would have broken a bone before (or my chitin, for that matter), only caused some minor swelling here and there, and I even saw some ponies completely shrug off things that would have previously led to a disastrous (if not lethal) wound.

That didn't mean we were completely invulnerable, though. The coat of my (very pretty) subjects could still be pierced by something that was sufficiently sharp enough to breach regular skin or hide (such as my fangs, for example). And no matter how much blunt force could be withstood by the crystallization, falling from high enough heights still ends up with you as a gory pancake on the ground (I'm not going to go into detail about how I knew that particular fact, but some pegasi were definitely better off living on the ground instead, seriously).

A few months after we had well and truly begun to settle down in our own little slice of ‘paradise’, having managed to build the first rudimentary houses made out of the crystals that were so commonly found around here, I started to get... urges. Not the sexual kind, mind out of the gutter, please. Okay, maybe those too, but I was constantly horny, anyway! It didn’t take long until Arachne, Shadra and I figured out why that was and what exactly we felt the need for.

We were about to lay our first egg, finally having moved past the virgin queen phase. Although... I didn’t feel nearly ready enough. Sure, we did kinda get a nursery ready (if one could call 'a hole in the ground' that), but... I had no fucking idea what to actually do. It was so very nerve-wracking and exciting and... and nerve-wrackingly exciting. I was, for all intents and purposes, crawling across walls (sometimes even literally, as we found out we were indeed capable of such things despite our initial assumptions that it wouldn't work due to our weight), I just wasn’t able to get my heart to slow down for a single minute as I was about to lay a freaking egg. Probably even multiple ones. Probably even a lot, for all I knew!

For the love of all that was sinfully sexy about Amore, I was about to lay eggs! Holy shit, I’m... I’m going to be a mother...

Shadra muttered, sighing exasperatedly as I ignored her in favor of, well... fidgeting anxiously around in the dark little cave we had ‘excavated’ ('liquified' would be a better word for it, to be honest).

I can't help but keep marveling at the multitude of things that our changeling flames were capable of (not that it was all that easy or pleasant going through the process of reforming the crystal-rich stone using the highly magical flame), I'll probably never find out every little thing they could do. I suppose the fires of change would be an appropriate moniker for them.

In the end, it was surprisingly warm down here after we were done with creating the room, making sure it was circulating fresh air to and from the surface world with the help of a few vents we dug out. It was also very pretty to look at, almost having an inner glow coming from it as it reflected the light of our magic beautifully back at us.

Arachne suspected that the crystals we had ‘melted’ to make the comb in the walls were able to retain heat more easily through something that she began to call the Crystal Emotional Resonance Theory. I didn’t quite follow the specifics of her mad ramblings when she began to spout off theories about magic suffusing our surroundings even more than we had initially assumed, but from what I gathered, the crystals could store different forms of energy.

Apparently, since the crystals were ‘resonating’ with the Crystal Heart, they could also store emotions. Something that wasn’t quite as useful as I had initially hoped, only able to hold a fraction of what we could store with our honey, but the passive suffusion of our surroundings had the nice added effect of making an ideal space to build a hive nursery with.

It wouldn’t be able to feed the brood, but it would keep it quite comfortable. That’s something I was very much glad for, even though I still struggled to find a comfortable spot to lie down on.

Shadra snarked, sending me a mental image of her sneering at me.

I hissed back, lying through my teeth as I grumbled grumpily to myself in the middle of the ‘modestly’ large room with hexagon-shaped holes in the walls. There weren’t that many of them (yet), we hadn’t gotten around to creating more for the purpose of laying our eggs in them, but it wasn’t like I didn’t already intend to limit the growth of my hive, anyway. While we didn’t have a shortage of emotions, we still needed to find a reliable source of water that wasn’t a quick grab and run from the mountain. I still held out hope we might find an underground lake down in the Crystal Caverns without having to fight off the damn worm every time we decide to go traipsing around in there.

Yeah, we started to name things, too. It was the Crystal Mountains, the Crystal Empire, the Crystal Caverns... very imaginative, wasn’t it? Sometimes my ponies were as creative as me on a good day. Oh, how very proud I was of them...

Shadra grumbled with a huff, mentally poking me like she always did when she was annoyed with me.

I asked, fearful.

Arachne commented, soothing my fears immensely.

I pouted, rolling over so that I was lying sideways while holding the end of the blanket in between my forelegs, finally finding a semi-comfortable position on the big fluffy blanket.

Yes, it's a fucking comfort blanket, shut up. I don't care what anyone thinks, it's either that or sticking my butt into each chamber like an idiot. Besides, it's the only real piece of ‘luxury’ and comfort that I was comfortable with allowing myself to have at the moment, preferring to give up most of those things so that my subjects could have them instead.

And here I always kept on insisting that I was selfish. I suppose my unending hunger for love made up for that part, huh? I really wish Amore was here with me, I could have really used a warm, snuggly pillow right about now, trying to distract me from the feelings running through my body and the damn uncomfortable ground just not feeling nice to lay on even with a blanket underneath me.

Shadra pointed out, mentally rolling her eyes at me and sending me a picture of her sticking her tongue out at me. I felt my eyelid twitch and I let out an irritated huff. I really am going to fuck her up that tight snatch of hers if she kept her attitude up like that. Amore still didn’t have sex with me even though my pheromones were starting to make him majorly horny for me. Stupid sexy Shadra keeping herself “pristine” for lover boy.

I argued weakly, still not understanding why I kept doing that. It probably had something to do with our instincts as a changeling queen for all I knew. Arachne came up with the theory that it might have got something to do with how a hive of honey bees releases alarm pheromones when something that definitely shouldn’t be in it intrudes upon them, threatening the survival of the entire hive. I don’t think it was quite as bad as that in our case, but it did have some merit. We did smell a little bit funny whenever it happened (kinda similar to bananas, actually), but... I still think that it mostly happened because this place was only meant for queens and caretakers. Well, that and the brood, of course.

Before I could complain some more, I felt something... shift... and I let out a quiet pathetic moan as a 'weird' feeling spread itself throughout my lower region. A warmth of an entirely different kind began to circulate within me like a wildfire, making me screw my eyes shut in fearful anticipation. On one hoof, I was very apprehensive of what was going to happen mere moments from now, but on the other hoof? I felt... giddy. So very excited to finally get to act upon my purpose of being a queen. Already, daydreams were running wild on me of how my brood would look like and what it would be like to have them fill up the hive mind with their presence.

There were no words to describe how much joy welled up in my heart at this simple act of bringing new life into the hive. The uncomfortable 'squirming' feeling within me was almost entirely forgotten as my body practically went on auto-pilot.

Sensations I have never felt before in my life shot through me in a rush of heat, evoking the strangest feelings of something slowly moving from within me and I let out a heavy moan as I avoided biting my fetlock and instead stuffed the corner of the blanket into my mouth, panting through my nostrils. The warmth spreading through me reached an entirely new height and I felt like I was going to orgasm from that alone had it not been for the feeling of unused muscles awakening for the very first time.

Instinctively, my body gave the tiniest little twitchy contraction within my abdomen and I knew with perfect clarity that my body had just pushed the egg past the 'mixing chamber' connected to my sperm pouches, fertilizing it in the process with the sperm from one of the random stallions I had fucked senseless. Things were far from over, though.

The fertilized egg traveled further through me until I could actually feel it slightly stretch my vagina as it was about to leave my body any moment from now. I turned my heavily flushed face towards my back half as my breath came out in ragged puffs, letting go of my comfort blanket as I watched in morbid fascination as the egg was pushed out of me by my clenching vaginal walls.

A warm smile wormed itself onto my muzzle as my very first egg entered the world, gently rolling to a stop on the fluffy blanket. It was just the first of many yet to come and I feared we wouldn’t actually have enough space to put them all into their own chamber in the brood comb. Already, I could tell another was on its way before its sibling was even out of me, the 'weird' feeling being no doubt an indicator that my ovary was hard at work releasing a oocyte into the duct where it would gain its yolk and later be fertilized by one of my spermathecae releasing sperm into the 'mating chamber', 'mixing chamber', 'seeding chamber', or whatever else it was actually called (Arachne was quite thorough in her explanation, but... I might have slept through half of her lecture about insect mating habits and how eggs came to be... suffice to say, you don't wanna know the exact details of how spiders or bees mate).

The egg lying on the blanket, sticky from my slick tunnel’s fluids and other 'leftover liquids', was... shaped more like a long pill instead of the usual oval shape that came to mind when I thought of eggs. Aside from its unusual shape, it was also kinda really tiny and sort of a little bit see-through. I couldn’t actually make out anything definitive from within it just yet, but I imagine that was something that would change very quickly in the coming days.

Arachne admonished me before I could actually scoop the little thing tiredly up in wonderment.

I winced, withdrawing my hoof before letting out a labored breath. My body was pretty much aflame in exertion, burning through more energy than I thought I would need for this (not like it was that much of a wonder, I was giving birth, after all). All of that from a single egg and a second one was already almost out of me, as well. Just a little bit further, I could tell, and it would join its sibling in the outside world. I suppose I could understand our instincts a little bit better now, seeing how vulnerable they looked and how much energy it took out of us during the process of laying them.

Arachne instructed me and I nodded, using up all of my focus to keep my hold on them as gentle as I possibly could. Thankfully, before the third one found its way out of me, I had deposited the other two in their designated spaces nearest to me, putting them in the back like Arachne told me to do. A proud feeling started to well up within me as I beheld my hard work so far. I couldn’t wait to see them leave the nursery as fully-fledged changelings...

I hummed, letting out a breathy moan as I felt another egg leave me. At this rate, I wouldn’t even know how many I was going to end up laying. With the assistance of Arachne, the three eggs that had piled up before I laid that one were carefully deposited in their new temporary homes. Without her help, I doubt I would have been able to screw up the necessary focus to use my magic in a sufficiently gentle manner. And yet, another egg was already almost out while the next one started its journey.

Shadra commented, quietly snickering to herself. I let out a muted grunt, ignoring her as I lazily reached a hoof out to a jar filled with pure love, one of the few that I had set aside solely for myself in preparation for this very day. I was too impatient to care about getting the lid off neatly and used my fangs to simply rip it off in order to get at my price faster. Laying about ten eggs was already enough to make me go hungry, I might have to keep a more substantial amount of honey around for the next time this happens.

I growled lazily back, dipping my tongue back into the sweet glorious substance that was changeling honey. It didn’t diminish my hunger as much as I had hoped it would, but the worst pangs were thankfully abated. I definitely need to store more honey for the next time, I mused. A lot more.

Arachne scolded our stupidly sexy bitchy little Princess and I heard Shadra yelp as if hit by something over the head. I chuckled quietly to myself as I tried to ignore one of the more painful shifts in my abdomen, getting the feeling like two eggs just decided to make the journey simultaneously. Or in short succession, I guess. That was probably the next best thing to actual twins, I would have to say. Can twins even happen with insects? A question for later, perhaps.

I asked, dumbfounded.

Arachne explained, mentally rolling her eyes at me in the way that only she could pull off.

I suppose that’s... yeah, no, it just seems weird. I don’t know whether the advantages outweigh the disadvantages considering we’re talking about my brood feeding me here. It would be a different thing if Arachne and Shadra had their own bodies and could take on the task instead of... well... my kids.

Arachne pointed out, sounding like she was talking to an idiot again. We really need to get rid of that habit of hers, I thought with a pout.

I shot back before she could ramble on about why exactly it was better than using the changeling honey, instead.

Arachne corrected me, probably on autopilot. I let out a sigh as I levitated the latest batch of eggs to their place in the brood comb, knowing she didn't mean it exactly like she made it sound. I probably should start thinking along those lines, too, lest I became too attached to them (...fucking hell, it still sounded incredibly cold to me no matter how I tried to word it). I had absolutely no idea how Arachne did it, to be honest.

I muttered, opening another jar of honey in annoyance, almost breaking it as I ripped into it a bit too angrily. We probably should also get started on creating that storing chamber, not only was the comb a lot sturdier than the jars, we could also store a lot more honey in those and that's one thing we really needed to have. Once we have a stockpile going, we could also think about export in addition to making sure we wouldn't starve during rough times. Aside from that, I’d rather not re-use the comb meant for the brood to store honey in it, ‘efficiency’ be damned.

Shadra snickered and I felt my eyelid begin to twitch.

I threatened, shutting her up pretty quickly. I huffed, rolling my eyes as my dear Princess was reduced to a stuttering mess of panic, and, to some small extent, arousal. Typical. It’s like she did this on purpose, the deviant.

Arachne denied while letting out an exasperated sigh.

I hated to admit it, but... Arachne had a point there, hadn't she? Drying the honey of moisture also caused it to be less potent, emotion-wise. It was still the best way to store emotions in the long term, but for the short term? It would be for the best to feed on something that was a bit less wasteful than our changeling honey and the Crystal Heart was out of the question in that regard, as well. I can’t default to draining it every time I had to lay eggs, after all. That would only serve to play right into the dirty smoky hooves of the umbrum and their ‘dear’ mother, something that I could under no circumstance ever let happen.

Arachne explained, sounding almost giddy. She really could get happy about the strangest things sometimes.

I admonished her, smiling ever so slightly at her enthusiasm (as much as her breast milk comment weirded me out, it does have its merits if we don't need as much honey that way). To be honest, though, she kinda had me there with the egg-laying part, the thought of being able to lay as many of them as I wanted excited me immensely. Still...

Arachne nodded, sighing wistfully.

I hummed, slowly getting used to the stab followed by the twitchy feeling in my abdomen each time my spermatheca was used to fertilize an egg. Not to mention, it felt kinda weird how my muscles gently pushed each egg out of my pussy... sort of like reverse sex, if that made any sense.

Initially, I had feared it to be much worse than this, but... I suppose mammals were fundamentally different from us in that regard, weren’t they? I really didn’t have that much in common with them anymore aside from my general shape (if the total lack of internal bones didn't already give that away, me laying eggs sure as fuck would have). It was almost... sad... actually. Not that I would ever want to go back to being a (pure) mammal, that seemed like it wasn’t glorious at all.

Being gloriously buggy was magnificent, after all, and I wouldn’t trade it for all of the love in the world.

Still, I had hoped that laying eggs would be a bit more... pleasant... than this, but I guess for the very first time doing this, it wasn’t so bad. It would start to become less and less cumbersome the more I did this, acclimatizing my body to the process in the long run. Already, it felt like it wasn’t quite as 'weird' as it was when I had laid my first egg and I did feel pleasure here and there, every once in a while. That was far better than what I knew of (natural) human childbirth (and probably pony foalbirth as well, judging by the screams I’ve had the 'pleasure' of hearing a few weeks ago around the camp blaming their herd mates for their ‘fortune’).

As it stands, I only had to deal with my hungry stomach, gentle labor contractions, and cramps.

Shadra mumbled, shyly. I let out a questioning hum, sighing as I felt an egg complete its journey. I took it into my telekinetic grip and regarded it fondly for a moment. It was such a fascinating thought to me, to think that such a little thing would become a pony-sized gloriously buggy changeling desiring nothing more than lots of cuddles, love, and a whole heap of naughty wish-fulfillment.

I smiled, carefully placing the egg where it belonged before taking a backseat in our body. A silent snicker escaped me as Shadra let out a squeak, biting her lip a bit too harshly as she felt exactly how I had felt when I experienced the activity of muscles we didn’t know we had in the first place. I gave my Princess a reassuring mental hug, telling her that it wouldn’t always feel this weird while helping her along with the process of pushing another egg out.

Only after the fact did we take notice of the fact that our body hadn’t used any of our stored sperm in the process of producing another egg (the lack of a twitch should have given that away immediately, but with Shadra moaning like a little bitch, it kinda escaped my notice). It wasn't hard to spot the difference between the other eggs and this one, seeing as it was noticeably bigger as we beheld it in the light of our magic.

I hummed, studying the egg with Shadra curiously. It wasn’t only bigger, though, it also had a mottled gray pattern on the slightly see-through shell.

Arachne muttered, her presence brushing against mine as Shadra let out a little gasp as another egg joined the one floating in front of us. We were thankfully quick enough to assert control over our horn to keep the first one from falling down to the ground, giving Shadra a much-needed break from concentrating on two things at once.

I said, uncertain.

Shadra interjected weakly, pushing out another unfertilized egg as if she was doing it on purpose. Maybe she actually was, considering she took her purpose in the hive as seriously as Arachne and I did.

Arachne rolled her eyes, sounding like she was going to go off into lecture mode again.

I said, stopping Arachne before my Princesses could get into a fight over this. Although... I do have to agree with Shadra on this one, it kinda was sexist, wasn't it? Not that declaring them all 'soldiers' in favor of 'drones' wasn't slightly sexist, either. If anything, forcing them into roles (or castes, whatever) seemed pretty shitty to me, but... it wasn't like I had a choice in the matter. After all, I was also being 'forced' into the role of Queen (willingly, granted, but still...). In the end, the will of the hive was perhaps just as strong, if not stronger, than our biological heritage.

Arachne sighed and muttered a quick apology to Shadra, thoroughly chastised. <I shouldn’t be so quick to write something off as fact just because my knowledge from Earth says so. After all, half of our knowledge isn't exactly in the most reliable state right now and then there's also the fact we’re only partially related to bees. And we don’t even know what kind, on top of that.

Shadra quietly commented, pushing one last egg out before yawning tiredly.

I sighed, pulling her with me into the hive mind as no new egg started its journey. My Princess squirmed for a moment within my embrace as I gave her a meaningful stare, knowing perfectly well she had been way too close to blaming herself before she corrected herself by saying Tobias’ name, instead. "You aren’t him, trust me. For one thing, that ass never stuttered around like a flustered little filly~."

“Hah hah,” Shadra grumbled, huffing as she stopped trying to escape my grasp. “I hate having these memories. We should have never stolen them. Or repaired them. Same thing, I guess.”

“Then I wouldn’t have you here with me, my love,” I whispered, planting a tiny kiss against one of her ears. “And that would have devastated me. I wouldn’t have known, sure, but... then I would have never made it out of that forsaken forest, either. I wouldn’t be here without you, Shadra. We owe our life to you.”

“I, uh...” Shadra blushed, averting her gaze from me with a bashful smile. She really was cute, there was no denying it. “T-thanks, I guess...”

I hummed, nuzzling her cheek lovingly. I couldn’t help but grin a little bit wider as she leaned herself more into my affections. “How about I make you feel good, hmm?”

The way her whole head exploded into a bright white blush made me giggle from the sheer adorableness in front of me. My Princess gave me a barely noticeable nod while also biting her lip in heavy anticipation. With a swift roll to the side, I had her trapped underneath me and saw her gulp nervously, her arousal practically assaulted my nostrils with the need for relief. Not that I needed to smell her to know how much she was already leaking, her snatch was already soaking wet, smearing its fluids against my hindleg as I brushed it over her excited vulva and I could tell that there was no end in sight to that anytime soon.

“My, my, how horny you already are...” I whispered seductively, brushing my muzzle against hers. “You really won’t reconsider having me or Arachne be your first, hm?”

“N-no...” Shadra stuttered back, glaring fiercely up at me. “I won’t let that choice be taken from me, My Queen. Not even by you.”

“A shame, truly,” I hummed, licking the side of her head slowly and sensually, not at all bothered by her decision to keep her vaginal virginity intact for our dear lover boy. It would only make that moment sweeter when I do finally take her and make her mine for eternity. Oh, how I couldn’t wait for that glorious moment where we become one in the most raunchiest way possible. Mhh... “How do you want me to please you, then~?”

“Just... kiss me. Put that tongue to use where it actually matters, My Queen. I want you to grind yourself against me and... and m-make love to me,” Shadra ordered me, blushing again from the sounds and movements my tongue made trailing over her chitin. I raised a brow at her 'request', intrigued, but did what was asked of me without a single moment of hesitation. I mean, if she wanted to command me around, I wouldn’t say no to that. I've got to admit, it was kinda kinky~.

Shadra’s gorgeous lips made way for my slender wet muscle and for a moment, we engaged in a skillful dance, neither losing ground to the other as we thoroughly explored each other’s muzzles. We hummed in contentment as nothing, absolutely nothing, could have ruined this moment between us. It was a moment captured for eternity, a single instance where no thoughts were needed to convey how much we cared for each other. It was a stark contrast to our very first meeting and I couldn’t have treasured this heavenly moment more. It was utterly perfect. Glorious, even.

Then, I felt Shadra move her hindleg just the slightest bit and I moaned out against her, briefly losing the battle we fought against each other with our slimy wet appendages for a second or two. That was all she needed to take advantage of the situation, though. And take advantage she did, smirking devilishly as I cried out against her as she held me in place with her forelegs.

Not to be outdone, I gave a single buck against her and was instantly rewarded with a little shriek, our panting breaths mingling with each other as we ravaged each other’s throat with our tongues. My Princess was relentless in her offensive, making me sing beautifully while my wings buzzed up a storm, which, in turn, caused her to sing back even louder with those gorgeous moans of hers.

We didn’t take our eyes away from each other as we made it into a competition of who would give in first, daring the other to surrender and admit defeat as we picked up the pace from there. Pretty soon, we were grinding against each other with reckless abandon, our dicks sandwiched between our stomachs, further increasing our pleasure each time they rubbed against the smooth shell of our abdomen.

“S-Shadra...” I moaned, gazing hotly down at my precious love, getting ever so closer to the finish. I could see it in her eyes, as well. My Princess was just seconds away from her own finish and it made my heart quicken in pure, unadulterated joy.

“Ara, I... I’m so close. P-please, I...” Shadra shot back breathily and I nodded, buzzing my wings fiercely. A few more frantic grinding motions and we both cried out against each other, our passion muffled as we captured the moment with a needy kiss while shudders wreaked absolute havoc on our bodies. The sticky feeling of our cum mixing together made me even hornier for my little Princess and I moaned in pure bliss.

“I love you,” I whispered, holding her close. “I love you so fucking much, my Princess. You. Not Tobias. I love you. You, dammit. Don’t ever forget that, my love.”

“I...” Shadra breathed out exhaustedly, a vulnerable look in her eyes. “You... you really love me that much?”

“Of course,” I smiled, capturing her lips greedily again while I caressed the side of her head with my hoof, trying to convey how much I actually meant it with my actions alone. Sadly, the lip-lock didn’t last for as long as I would have liked as we were forced to ultimately break it in order to come up for air again. “You, Arachne, and Amore. I belong to you and only you.”

“I love you, too, Ara,” she smiled back, closing her eyes in contentment. “As much as I loathe those memories of Tobias, I’m glad to have them if it means I can be here with you, My Queen.”

“We will learn to live with them, I promise,” I said, brushing a hoof through her mane lovingly. “As long as we never let them define us, we will be just fine. We are our own beings.”

“Wise words,” she mumbled, yawning ever so slightly. “How about we... take a little nap? I’m feeling kinda exhausted here.”

“Sounds like a plan to me,” I whispered back, stifling a yawn of my own. “Laying eggs is far more draining than I thought...”

“Not helped by hot lesbian sex afterward,” Shadra commented tiredly, grinning back at me with that little sparkle in her half-lidded eyes as she watched me snuggle into her side with a content little hum. “Say, where’s Arachne, anyway?”

“Dunno,” I mumbled back sleepily, hugging her a bit tighter in a fit of possessiveness. “...don’t care. 'm gonna sleep now...”

Arachne let out a little hum as both her Queen and her Princess succumbed to some much-needed slumber. She gazed at the twenty-five-ish little eggs within the hexagon-shaped holes and smiled in satisfaction. The coming days would only get better, that much was almost a given. Already she couldn’t wait to see the little ones wriggle around for food as they grew to be the first of thousands to come. In the meantime, there was still work to be done.

A small little random thought entered her mind at that, and, after a brief moment of debate, a quick flash of fire replaced the typical magenta colors of her Queen with the purple ones of her own form before she slowly climbed out of the little nursery into the light of the mid-afternoon suns. Ponies were bustling around closer to the center of the shield while the Crystal Heart spun serenely up above, pulsing every so often.

"It's time for a little 'chit-chat' with Amore..." she hummed, and, with a little mischievous smile, Arachne hopped up into the air while her wings began to buzz in a steady rythm.

They were getting better at this whole flying thing even with the constant ache that act brought with it, she had to admit to herself. Still not anywhere near close to what she had observed the pegasi do with their wings, but it was a start. At least they weren’t crashing around every few minutes, anymore. Her Queen was still cautious about flying, especially after their wings got torn so badly, but that was something that would probably never change. It was endearing in its own way, her fear of flying at higher altitudes.

Quite ironic, too. The savior that fiercely brought justice to those standing in her way was afraid of plummeting to her own death from what amounted to the height of a tree sapling. Just the thought of what their brood would think of that made Arachne giggle silently to herself. It was cute. And a little bit pathetic, but who cares? She certainly didn’t, her Queen was her everything. Not even Amore could say that about himself and Arachne had to admit, the stallion was a fine specimen of his kind.

Speaking of said stallion, Amore was currently overseeing the construction of the very first road, or rather, the squabbling that had ensued between the dozen or so crystal ponies about where it should go.

“Eventful day?” Arachne asked, landing beside the tall lord. Or should she say prince, seeing that more and more ponies were starting to call him like that? It was a little bit mean of her Queen to go behind his back like that, but she had to admit, it did fit him pretty well. He certainly held himself like one, in her opinion.

“You could say that,” Amore grumbled as he dragged his hooves tiredly as he turned around to regard her giddy self. “Arachne?”

“Yep,” she smiled, popping the ‘P’ proudly. “Do you like what I did? I thought it would be easier to differentiate us like this.”

“Is that what you look like in your hive thing?” he asked, studying her curiously for a moment. “To be honest, I thought Shadra would be the one with the darker colors.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Arachne asked, narrowing her eyes on him.

“Nothing, nothing,” Amore chuckled nervously.

“That’s what I thought,” Arachne huffed, rolling her eyes in mischief. “After all, I’m the one that’s the sexy, tall, mysterious librarian kinda gal that deserves the dark seductive colors truly befitting of her magnificence.”

“You know, has anypony ever told you that you guys have a habit of being a little bit... narcissistic?” Amore smiled, nudging her side. Arachne pouted back at him, not at all insulted by what was essentially the truth, anyway. “It’s adorable, really.”

“That’s not quite the word I would use when talking to an obviously narcissistic person,” she shrugged. Then she grinned. “But thanks, I try.”

“I think we both know that it’s mainly for show, isn’t it?” he chuckled, rubbing his cheek against hers. “Are Araneae and Shadra busy?”

“If you categorize asleep as busy, then yes, they are very busy,” Arachne snorted. “You should have seen Shadra, all shy and meek as she asked our Queen if she could lay a few eggs. It was so cute~.”

“You three laid your first eggs?” Amore asked. “I suppose that’s the reason they are so tired, then? How many did you lay?”

“About two dozen or so,” Arachne shrugged. “They already filled about a quarter of the comb we had built so far. To be honest, we’re running on fumes right now, it took a lot out of us. All of us, I should say. I can still feel the after-effects from their... well, I can't really say labor since it was anything but taxing on our body. The worst they had to deal with was some abdominal pain and a minor fever. And being ravenously hungry...”

“Oh, dear,” Amore muttered, concerned. “Are you okay?”

“I'm fine, love. I wasn't the one that laid the eggs, you should be asking our Queen that,” Arachne said, giving him a small, calculating look that belied her true thoughts. “Thanks for the concern, though. I appreciate it.”

“Always,” he whispered, placing a kiss against the side of her head. Arachne leaned herself against his side in contentment, turning back to watch the ponies move around every which way, changing the position of the little sticks jutting out of the ground every so often as they argued about the path going from the center out towards where they had planted the fields with the crystal berry bushes.

“Aren’t you going to tell them that the position doesn’t even matter?” Arachne asked, looking up at him.

Amore raised a brow back at her, silently asking her if she really thought he hadn’t already tried doing that. “Believe me, they will find arguments that completely negate everything I say to them. It’s not just this road they are trying to keep in mind, the problem lies with the roads that follow this one and it’s just a massive headache to get them to come to a compromise on.”

“That does seem like a difficult task,” Arachne muttered. “How long has this been going on?”

“Since you locked yourself away in that nursery of yours,” he grunted, rolling his eyes. “They won’t even listen to anything that I say. Trust me, if there’s one thing earthponies are known for, it’s their stubbornness.”

“Well, they haven’t come across human ingenuity yet, have they?” Arachne smirked, momentarily confusing Amore as she let out a loud whistle, silencing each and every pony as they turned towards her. “Alright, before anypony says anything, hear me out. You guys are all trying to come up with the perfect plan for the roads, right? I might have an idea that will shock the socks right off your... uh... hooves.”

Beside her, Amore dragged his hoof through his face at the weird phrase his marefriend just uttered (was that even the right word for her? Them? He was uncertain about that, their relationship certainly was a weird one), but to his surprise, everypony was currently hanging on to every word she said. It was like they were... looking up to her. As in Arachne, not just Araneae or even Shadra.

If anything, the reclusive Princess was like the older sister that practically knew the answer to every problem there ever was, which might have actually been the case, Amore mused silently to himself.

And she was seriously sexy like this, drawing the attention of the whole crowd with just a few sentences, a part in the far back of his mind couldn't help but point out.

The more embarrassed part of him tried to desperately stop the boner from happening.

“The simplest way to do this,” she began, grinning proudly in that sort of manic way only she could pull off. The thing she said next, though, didn’t bring quite the enthusiasm she had hoped for. “Is a straight line going from one end of the shield to the other.”

Before anypony could raise a protest that they thought otherwise, she grabbed Amore in a surprisingly strong grip and turned him around so that his Cutie Mark was visible to everypony around them, much to the dismay of said stallion. “Ah, ah, ah! Don’t say anything yet! This isn’t quite as simple as ‘just’ a straight line like I made it out to be, but do tell me what you guys see on His Royalness' butt here?”

“A snowflake?” a rather young stallion pointed out oh-so-helpfully, ignoring the grumble of the one whose Cutie Mark was currently on full display. Arachne suppressed the snicker of glee at making everypony stare at his butt like that, her inner exhibitionist loving the attention going his way.

“Correct!” she exclaimed in glee, clapping her hooves together. “Now, who here has wondered: Why a snowflake? Why not the Crystal Heart? Or suns forbid,”—she let a sneer of disdain show on her muzzle for the briefest moment—” Amor’s bow and arrow?”

“Ara, please,” Amore huffed, trying to shake her telekinetic grip off of him as he was getting ever closer to dying of embarrassment. The situation wasn't at all helped by his body wanting to display his arousal in its full glory. “Everypony is staring at me!”

“I know!” she giggled, grinning happily back at him before turning back towards the crowd she was currently addressing. She couldn't honestly remember a time where she has had this much fun and it was absolutely thrilling to know the effect she had on him. “No? Really? Not even one of you has an idea? Ugh, fine! Then let me tell you: Our special snowflake here has the very emblem of our Empire on his butt! Now, don’t let that fool you, an emblem is all nice and good, it’s very pretty even. Nay! It's the most prettiest of them all! This very emblem here represents our bond with each other! It is our very pride! And shouldn’t we pay tribute to it? Shouldn’t we wave it proudly on flags? Shouldn’t we design our very capital after it?!”

“You really have a ‘butt’ fixation, don’t you?” Amore commented snidely, but Arachne, to his dismay, simply ignored his remark. Not that he was wrong, his butt was a treat to stare at~.

“So, in the wise words of a man that I can’t remember the name of, don’t ignore what’s right in front of your eyes and build the streets to the likeness of his butt mark. Simple, right?”

“It’s not a butt mark, Ara,” Amore sighed, exasperated. “How many times do I need to tell you that?”

“Oh, I don’t know...” she hummed, smiling brighter as the crowd of ponies slowly came to an agreement, seeing the wisdom in her words as they were desperately in need of some national pride. After all, what better way was there to defy those that had suppressed them and the umbrum just waiting for the opportunity to strike against them than to show them they could never hope to bring down their morale? “But... maybe remind me one last time?”

Amore gulped nervously, watching her give him a come-hither look filled with nothing but primal lust and need. He shifted awkwardly on his hind legs as he placed his forehooves just a bit closer together to hide his body’s reaction to her pheromones. Already, his mind was losing the battle against his body and the devious seductress in pony form. He had to admit, Arachne was perhaps worse than Araneae in that regard.

“What’s the matter, Snowflake~?” she giggled, trailing a hoof along his side as she bit her lip softly. "Don't you want to take this sinfully sexy body and have your way with me? I would let you do anything to me..."

“Ara, p-please, n-not... not now,” Amore stuttered, a heavy red flush replacing his usual pale coloration around his muzzle. His eyes trailed everywhere but her general direction. Well, aside from the few glances going over to her tail, thoroughly displaying her arousal for everypony to see. Not that she particularly cared, he mused in frustration, knowing how much she was turned on by the mere thought of her sex being in full view for anypony bothering to look their way. Which was pretty much everypony, to be honest.

Arachne frowned, both in disappointment and displeasure. There was even the faintest hint of shame visible in her eyes. “I’m sorry, Snowflake. I suppose I’m a bit hungrier than I thought I was... which makes me think Ari might have it even worse...”

“It’s okay, I...” Amore began, but he was cut off by Arachne silencing him with her lips. His heart skipped a beat as he tasted the emotional residue from the honey Shadra and Araneae had used up. Even just the taste of it was enough to make his stomach do flips and shorten his breath considerably.

“Don’t,” Arachne muttered after she broke the kiss, a sneer coming to her lips as she looked away from him with a less than pleased scowl. Her hunger was already driving her crazy and she could tell Araneae might have actually drawn from their combined pool of emotions instead of only hers to fuel their body with the necessary energy to deal with the process of egg laying. It was pretty clear to her that she had to do something about it or it might not end so well for them in the long run. Especially with her Queen's habit to store most of what they gathered as honey for the larvae. “I know we’re... difficult... to deal with most of the time, and, to be honest, you’re not making it easy on us. I’m going to be brutally honest with you here because I know my Queen won’t be and Shadra is like a lost puppy around you. Without the Crystal Heart, we would have died the first week after we pledged our heart to you,”—she stopped him from opening his mouth as he gave her a horrified look, only a muffled cry of shock escaped his lips behind her chitinous hoof—” and as much as she keeps joking about things like these, Araneae wasn’t lying when she compared us to a succubus. We are, in the most simplest terms, a being entirely reliant on the goodwill of others.

"Without us constantly nibbling on everypony’s emotions and taking a bite or two out of the Crystal Heart whenever the situation allows us to do so safely, I fear we would have long since been forced to be unfaithful to you or, suns forbid, force ourselves upon you. And believe me, I have far fewer inhibitions about spreading my legs than my Queen does, whether you like it or not.

"Had Ari not stockpiled the love she had gathered over the last month, she would have had more likely than not starved herself laying those eggs or drained the Crystal Heart dry in desperation, and... you know what would have happened then.”

“I...” Amore whispered, falling down on his rump in disbelief. “Why? Why didn’t you say anything to me earlier? Ara, if you need to feed you should have come to me!”

“And force you to have sex with us?” Arachne asked, raising a brow challenging. “You know we couldn’t do that to you, as much as I want to. I’m only telling you this now because of how much energy my Queen drained laying those eggs. I’m sorry, but if there’s a choice between you and her, I would always choose her first.

"Don’t take it too personally, dear. She's just... more important to me. Not just to me, but to the whole hive. We have to protect her and if that means confronting you over this, then I will do so. Even if the end-result of this is us breaking up with each other. If I have to, I will do everything to ensure the survival of my Queen.”

“I’m sorry, Ara, I...”

“No, you are not,” she shot back, sending a tiny glare back at him. “You are not sorry for how much you romanticize the idea of ‘making love’, and... you shouldn’t be. Don’t you dare blame yourself for this, Amore. We like you. A lot. We’re not going to make you do anything you are not comfortable with or ready for yet. Believe me, Ari isn’t that different in that regard, she really does idolize you a lot. As silly as I think she is sometimes, comparing reality to fairy tales, I... I care for her more than anything. I don’t want her to get hurt, intentionally or not.”

“I understand, Arachne,” Amore apologized, drawing her in into his hug that was just a little bit too tight from time to time (not that she minded, it did give her plenty of opportunities to breathe in his scent... and subtly grope him). “I’m glad she has you looking out for her. I fear she wouldn’t have told me any of this in a misguided attempt to spare me from what troubles her. I just... I want it to be something special, you know?”

“You don’t need to tell me that,” Arachne smiled, kissing his cheek gently. “But hugs and kisses won’t keep us alive for very long if her hunger was any indication. And we can’t keep opening more than a few jars of honey at this rate or our brood will starve. I can’t allow that to happen.”

“Nor will it come to that,” Amore reassured her. “I really am a prude, aren’t I?”

“A little bit,” she giggled back. “Don’t worry, not everypony can be as sinfully sexy as I.”

“Not the message I was trying to convey,” Amore muttered, blushing ever so slightly again. “You really can’t help it, can you?”

“Where would I be if I did?” she asked, eyes half-lidded as she moved her muzzle dangerously close to his ear, breathing hotly into it. “I’m so very tempted to go behind my Queen’s back and have my way with you, dear. But I wouldn’t abuse her or your trust like that, as much as it... pains... me to admit as such. Mhh~, you smell so good, it truly is a torture to hold myself back like this. Just a taste of your lust for me is enough to get me going...”

“You aren’t the only one feeling like they are being tortured,” he said in a quivering whisper, breathing in a deep whiff of her pheromones in a brief moment of weakness. “Each and every day you tease me with your mere existence, but I can’t allow myself to give in so easily. It’s improper of a noble to desire such things...”

That managed to bring out an amused snicker from her. “You poor, poor thing, you! You have no idea, do you?” Arachne hummed, whispering raunchily into his ear and delighting in the twitches she observed run through his body. “Did your mother tell you that it is improper? That’s almost cute how sheltered you are~. Oh, how tempted I am to corrupt you right now...”

“I’m not sheltered, I know plenty of things,” Amore protested weakly, but he was fooling nopony. “I’ve read perhaps one too many romance novels, I know how a noble should conduct themself.”

“Aww, you really are sheltered~,” she giggled. “Don’t tell me you’re keeping yourself pure for your wedding? I’m so tempted to shatter your worldview of just what nobles got up to in my old world (and not just in the modern world~). Trust me, some nobles didn’t stop at the word ‘no’ and even took it as an invitation.”

“The more I learn of your world, the less I want to know...” Amore commented much to the amusement of the changeling clinging on to him. “Is it so wrong of me to want it to be reserved for that special moment?”

“No,” Arachne smiled. “I’m teasing you, dear. Although...”

“Please, don’t make another jab at my ‘prudishness’...”

“Aww, do you trust me so little?” she giggled, an evil glint in her eyes, making him frown. “Don’t worry, I'm not going to do anything. Yet. What I was about to say, though, was that you shouldn’t make my Queen wait for much longer. She’s already having hot, steamy lesbian sex with my precious Princess and that’s saying a lot of how much Shadra is faltering in her resolve to stay pure for you. Well, her vaginal virginity, at any rate. Who knows how long that will last for before she starts to contemplate stuffing, say... a dildo... into herself because she's getting impatient.”

“Shadra is keeping her virginity intact for... for me?” Amore asked, astonished. “I thought you guys were...”

“Fucking like horny rabbits?” Arachne smirked while she licked her lips seductively. “Oh, we most certainly are~. She really knows how to work her dick into all the right places, nhh...”

“Thanks for that image,” Amore grumbled, receiving a mischievous giggle from her in return.

“If it makes you feel better, we could always marry first,” she proposed, a faint blush appearing on her muzzle as he gave her a stare. A stare that was filled with as much surprise as it was with uncertainty. “My Queen has been thinking a lot about it lately and you are the only one we could see ourselves engaging in that kind of relationship. She meant it when she said our heart and body would be yours to do with as you wish. She truly does love you with all of her heart, she would do anything for you if it meant you were happy.”

“You aren’t lying,” Amore whispered, not even asking her to confirm it for him. He could see it in her eyes, the absolute honesty. “She would actually want to marry me?”

“Why wouldn’t she?” Arachne asked, blinking in confusion as his surprise utterly stumped her. “Is it really that much of a foreign idea to you?”

“No, I... I suppose I just never thought the day would actually come that I consider it to not be a mere dream,” Amore answered, looking to the ground in thought. “I had almost resigned myself to marry... f-forget it...”

Arachne touched his cheek with a hoof, turning his head gently back towards her, a look of realization in her purple eyes. “You really were sheltered, weren’t you?”

“I...” he gulped, a weird feeling blooming to life in his chest. The stone weighing his stomach down paled in comparison to the awe he felt at the sheer concern she showed towards him, never having thought he would find somepony that cared that deeply for the pony behind the noble title and not just the fame and riches his family possessed. Not that his legacy was all that important to him in the first place, he supposed. He was the rotten apple in the family... or rather, the lone apple that wasn't rotten, in all honesty.

“You’re cute, you know that?” Arachne smiled, bumping her muzzle against his ever so slightly. “I’m going to corrupt you yet, just you wait...”

“Please, don’t...”

A mischievous grin replaced her previously gentle one as she gazed deeply into his golden pools of amber, her eyes sparkling beautifully as she no doubt had some insidious plan concocting up in that pretty little head of hers. Amore wasn’t sure if he wanted to find out what it would entail, but... he was nonetheless looking forward to what would await him, despite his better judgment. It was never a boring day with the changeling queen around, he found out.

He had to admit, though... the thought of marrying for real was an enticing proposal. That it came from the mare he had come to care for very much only made it that much more exciting. Perhaps it wasn’t a bad idea, after all, allowing himself to dream once more of the day he had always dreamed of as a little colt...

This time... this time his family wouldn’t be breathing down his neck. There would be no expectations holding him down, no plot for the crown to poison his relationship with the one he truly... loved. He was free to make his own decisions and that... that scared him perhaps just as much as he was excited by it.

And all of that thanks to one overly perverted changeling.
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