Taking the Queen

Chrysalis wondered whether she would see Twilight or Starlight today. If it was Twilight, her best bet was to create some manner of annoyance and force her to give up and leave. If it was Starlight, it would be much more difficult to make her leave. Then again, she had more energy now with her recent feeding. Perhaps she could find some way of making Starlight so uncomfortable that she would just walk away. If she had even one changeling under her command, she could send them as a scout to watch over Starlight and report back all of the small things that irked her, that she could double down on and convince her to leave.

She was called back from her thoughts as she heard hooves and wheels approaching. Somepony with a wheelchair? Was Twilight swapping out her teachers regularly to keep her from growing accustomed? That would be a clever move, though it did present a weakness. If always met with a new warden, she could employ the same tactics over and over, and not have to worry about how to scare them off, because she'd eventually find one that would work.

As they approached, Chrysalis saw that it was not anypony new. It was Twilight pushing a metal cart. "I'm disappointed in you, Princess."

Twilight pushed the cart up against the wall and locked the wheels. "Why is that?"

"Well, I'm not going to just tell you, you'd start coming up with ideas. And if you begin to impress me, then where would we be?"

"In a healthy, communicating relationship?"

"Right? And who wants that?"

Twilight furrowed her brow. "I do. And I would appreciate it if you would let me in. I want to help you."

Chrysalis chuckled, leaning back on the fold-out bed. "You don't really want to help me. You want to be able to sleep soundly in your bed at night, content in the thought that I have not been abandoned, nor have I been released to wreak havoc upon the land. You don't care about me, you just want a feel-good ending."

Twilight sighed. Once again, Chrysalis had hit the nail right between the eyes. Perhaps it was part of the changeling's innate ability to tap into emotions. They did need to feed on love, after all, and as such, would need to discern whether or not the emotion they were consuming was what they wanted.

"Regardless of my reasons, regardless of how much I personally benefit from this, should you not be cooperating?" asked Twilight, sliding open the cell door. "After all, you stand to gain, as well. Sure, I'll sleep better at night, but you'll be allowed to walk around outside, even to leave Canterlot if you so choose, and the ability to feed off of any consenting pony. Don't you want the ability to go wherever and eat at your own discretion? Don't you want freedom? That's quite a boost for you, and several more steps up than just sleeping better. In fact, you'll likely be sleeping better, as you'll have an actual bed. So will you let me help you?"

"As long as we're done pretending that you're doing this for me," Chrysalis smirked.

Twilight sighed and finished setting up. she had brought down a small folding table and chair, a wicker plate and bowl, and plastic silverware, which had all been placed in Chrysalis' cell, right up against the bars. On the opposite side of the bars, a much fancier table was set up, with real silverware and flatware, though the bowl was indeed quite empty.

"Come sit down across from me," urged Twilight. "We're going to look over dining etiquette today."

"Dining etiquette?" scoffed Chrysalis. "Do you really think you're going to change my physiology so much that I can subsist entirely on pony food?"

"Not at all," smiled Twilight, taking her place at the table. "It's just that, if ever you want to fit in with society, you'll need to behave as a proper lady, not as an uncultured oaf."

Chrysalis sat up and narrowed her eyes. "Is that how you see me? An uncultured oaf?"

"I have no idea how advanced your table manners are," shrugged Twilight. "For all I know, you're better at this than I am. There are two ways to find out, and one of them is inadmissible. So, you'll just have to show me."

As Chrysalis lumbered over, Twilight pulled out a book, Modern Etiquette. "This manual will be your guide."

"I thought that was your job?"

"It will guide me in guiding you. I can't be expected to know everything, and even if I did, it provides a spectacular table of contents that can easily be copied over into a checklist. That way we don't skip over anything."

"You and your damn checklists..."

Twilight shook her head. "That's not appropriate conversation for a dinner party. Now, Let's begin with the place setting."

As Twilight rambled on and on about what each particular spoon and fork was, their placement and their use, Chrysalis only grew more and more bored. Why did she need to know the difference between the salad fork, dessert fork, cheese fork, table fork, tuning fork and grill fork? The way she saw it, she only needed the biggest one, that she could stab it into her thigh and have a reason to leave if the event became too boring.

When the conversation shifted to the difference between the soup spoon, teaspoon and tablespoon, Twilight suddenly became very interested in a method of serving salads from quite some time ago, often referred to as Prench Service, where the servers would hold the tray in their left hoof and a fork and spoon in their right, squeezing the two utensils together to serve the food, and fascinated by how this style led to the creation of modern salad tongs. Chrysalis was glad to be back to silence, but still bored out of her mind. Weren't parties supposed to be lively?

Searching for something to do, she stuck a plastic spoon into her mouth and scraped at her tongue, gathering up a good amount of mucous and phlegm. Once the spoon was full, she tilted it back and applied tension. "Hey, Twilight?"

"Yeah?" Twilight looked up from her book just in time to have her face covered in mucous and saliva. As Chrysalis laughed at the glob dripping from her face, Twilight sighed. "I suppose that's enough for today."

Chrysalis was moved back from the table, which was extracted and put away. Twilight also made sure to retrieve the plastic spoon as well, as Chrysalis had proven that she was incapable of behaving with it.