Taking the Queen

The day passed by rather quickly for Chrysalis. After sucking her breakfast out of Spiceberry's cock, he stood up and walked to the kitchen, showing her how to make fresh hot apple cider by the cup. He talked about making it in the back, eight gallons at a time when he finally had the means to do so, but for now, going from refrigerator to stovetop was enough. She even talked him into making a whole quart just for her.

"So, what else do you want to do today?" she asked, laying across his lap on the freshly folded couch. "I'm okay with whatever you want to do."

Spiceberry stroked her mane. Starlight had not sent her along with a brush for her mane and tail, so this would have to do. "I'm not really sure. Most of my time off, I either spend honing my craft or taking care of little things like laundry. Not really date material, to be honest."

"Are you telling me that mares that you've brought here in the past don't want to see you rubbing your boxers against a washboard?" smiled Chrysalis.

"Actually, we have mechanical drum washers to do our clothes here. And tumble driers, too."

"You don't do anything else in your free time?"

Taking the hint, Spiceberry pushed her aside and went to the closet. As he opened the door, the butt plug case fell out again, as expected. He shifted a few things around until the record player was at the top of the stack. He pulled it out and set it up next to the bookcase and slid out a record sleeve. The cover depicted a scene at night, with dark trees and a moonless sky. The only bright things were two digits, a one and a three, woven out of grass and set on fire in the middle of a field.

As he placed the needle onto the spinning disc, a dirge of slow, heavy guitar chords slammed against her eardrums, accompanied by the heavy banging of drums. Before long, it calmed down and lightened up as he pulled out a board game.

"How about some very simple games?" he asked. "I have some that are very intricate, but this one, I think requires very little explanation."

"We have all day," replied Chrysalis. "If you really want to try for a more complicated board game, let's do it."

A slow smile crept across Spiceberry's face as he returned to the closet.

Eight hours later, they walked together back to the castle. They hadn't finished their game or even come close. It took over an hour just to explain all of the rules and math, then they started on opposite ends of the battle mat and had to push their pieces toward each other, collecting resource tiles, establishing cities, fighting barbarians and rescuing nomads. The combat alone was a massive undertaking, counting cards, rolling dice, adding, multiplying and subtracting with every impact. Despite not knowing how to play at first, Chrysalis picked it up around hour three and began to catch up. By the time they had to pick up and put it all away, she had the larger army, and was right at his doorstep, but rather than attacking, she just boxed him in, taking all of the points and drops from barbarian raids while not allowing him to move any more than his scouts.

"Face it, I had you beat," she chuckled, elbowing his ribs. "Just admit it."

"We didn't make it to the end," he answered back. "I'll have you know that I was about to take flight. My universities were giving me so much extra science that you wouldn't believe what I had planned. Tech victory, all the way; I was going to put a pony on Alpha Centauri."

"But you didn't," she chuckled.

As they made their way up the steps, Starlight came out to greet them. "Good evening," she smiled, holding out her hoof to take the lead from Spiceberry. "I trust everything went well?"

As evidence, Chrysalis took her lead from Spiceberry's hoof, and placed it into Starlight's. "Very well," nodded Spiceberry. "We need to have our meeting, right now. Gather everypony together and go to the conference room."

Starlight nodded. "Let me just put her away, first. You go tell Twilight and Shining Armor; they should be in the archives. I'll gather everypony else."

Nods were exchanged, and they separated, with Starlight following Chrysalis back to her cell. "Did you have fun?" she asked.

Chrysalis relayed her entire experience to Starlight, especially about her fear of what Fluttershy might have said to Spiceberry that made him want to rush home. "Other than that little hiccup, I thought it was great. I just have to wonder if this will ever happen to me again."

"I will try to make it happen," nodded Starlight. "Not to dampen your mood, but you take up a lot of my time these days. If I didn't have to be looking over your shoulder all the time, it'd be a real nice boon for me."

"Well, gee, tell me how you really feel," grumbled Chrysalis. "Look, I don't want to be a burden on Equestria; I'm past that. I have other things I want to do. The last twenty hours have shown me what I was missing, and what I'm going to continue to miss."

Starlight's smile broadened to cover her entire face. "You have no idea how delighted I am to hear that. In you go."

Chrysalis was about to let Starlight secure her to the wall, then stopped. "Rarity made this dress without the intent that I would be tied to the wall. If I'm secured, I can't take it off without tearing it."

Together, the two of them removed the dress and hung it up in her wardrobe. Rarity had not given any details on its washing, but it wasn't particularly dirty. No doubt, when she came back to finish it, she'd make sure to have it cleaned, as well as leave instructions on how Chrysalis could do it herself.

Bound to the wall, Chrysalis lay down on her bed. After spending the day on a cheap futon in a run-down apartment, she noted how shabby her cell really was. She liked the cold and damp, certainly, but she'd forgotten how hollow and cramped her cell was, having been away from it for an extended time. She hugged her pillow tightly, burying her face and weeping for all of the joy she could have had if she had cooperated sooner.