Cadance grit her teeth and screamed through them: “These drugs aren’t working! Give me something else!” She thrashed against her bed, blind to all else as yet another involuntary squeeze wracked through her body.

“They’re working fine for me.” Shining squeezed her hand from the next bed over, where he was also going into labor … or whatever the Changeling equivalent was. “Just try to relax.”

“Relax? Relax? You … you…!” She had to stop herself from screaming. Or saying something entirely unforgivable to her fiancé. How the heck was she supposed to relax as this baby ripped its way out of her?

He chuckled a little. “How am I the calm one here, when you’re not even going to die from this?”

“You did this to me, remember that!”

“Well, you helped do this to me…” Shining rubbed his distended belly with his other hand. “Feels so weird… I can feel them moving in there…”

Cadance wouldn’t dignify that with an answer. Instead, she lifted her head to peer down at the Changeling Queen between her outstretched legs. “What’s…” She took a deep breath as another pulse hit her. “What’s going on down there? Is it almost over yet?”

The Changeling stared closely down there, much too close for comfort. Despite having Chrysalis’s tongue womb-deep inside her just nine months ago, Cadance felt unnerved at the closeness and intensity of the Queen’s inquisitive stare. Chrysalis glanced up only momentarily to respond. “Are all human females like this? It seems very inefficient to stretch so much. Your species should learn how to incubate in males instead.”

Cadance’s whole body was trembling by now. “Are you … are you a doctor?”

“No.” Chrysalis went back to watching between Cadance’s legs. Cadance growled out in frustration and ache.

To her surprise, her shout was matched by an equal cry of pain from Shining Armor. “Oh! Oh crap!” he yelled out. “Cadance is right, these painkillers aren’t good enough!”

If the Changeling drones administering them had any better drugs, they apparently didn’t see any need to use them. Instead, the swarmed around Shining, taking readings with strange instruments and massaging his swollen belly. “It’s time!” one of them cried out. “They’re hatching!”

Shining let out one last, blood-curdling scream, then went limp as the Changeling grubs ate his body from the inside out. In the tank across the room, his new clone body suddenly twitched to life. Because his new clone body was blindfolded, he was spared the sight of Changeling grubs devouring his body like little wriggling piranhas. Cadance, however, was not. She very much regretted looking, and yet she couldn't tear her eyes away from the gruesome sight. She couldn't move at all, from the shock of what she was seeing. Not until they devoured Shining’s arm, leaving her as the only thing still holding his hand up from the floor. And a grub was working its way up the rest of his arm, eating and growing rapidly as it went!

In sudden revulsion and fear, she threw Shining’s hand – and the grub munching it – into the writhing, bloody pile of what was left of his old body. Would that grub have started eating her if she’d still been holding onto his hand? Would they come across the gap between the beds and eat her anyway? She did not need this kind of stress right now!

Thankfully, the Changeling drones surrounding Shining’s bed quickly took custody of the wriggling grubs … which seemed to instinctively know not to bite fellow Changelings. Once all the grubs were picked up and carried out, they wheeled his bed out of the room as well. To who knows where…

Just in time for the new Shining – still nude and dripping from that gooey green cloning liquid – to come over to her and grab her hand again. She tried not to think about the hand much. He made it easy, kneeling next to her and stroking her hair. “You’re doing great, Honey. Just a little bit more.”

She grit her teeth and stared up at him. “You’re … you’re okay?”

“Yeah, it’s fine. Just kind of felt like a really big sneeze, actually. Now come on, and I’m sure yours will be even easier! No big deal, right?”

Of all the insensitive… She looked down again at the Changeling Queen between her legs. “Do you have another clone of him? Because I’m going to kill this one as soon as this baby is out of me!”

╠════════╬═════╬══╬══╬═════╬════════╣

Thankfully, holding her new infant baby in her arms had quickly softened any murderous urges Cadance might have felt toward her fiancé. Flurry Heart – as they’d agreed to name her – just had this wonderful way of calming her down. All the pain and stress was only a distant memory now.

Also, it helped that the tables were now turned. While she cuddled and nursed her adorable little baby girl, Shining was swarmed by disgustingly writhing Changeling grubs. Chrysalis had insisted that he spend time with ‘his brood’. At least now they weren’t quite as ravenous as when they’d first been born, though he was still the victim of a few playful nibbles here and there. Chrysalis looked on with a benevolent smile as the brood had a little quality ‘play time’ with their father.

“Can we go home now?” he asked Cadance, looking up at her with beleaguered eyes.

Cadance shook her head. “We still have no idea where home is… But as soon as Queen Chrysalis’s astrogators manage to find—”

The blaring of an alarm prevented her from finishing.

A Changeling drone rushed to Chrysalis’s side. “My Queen! An unknown ship has emerged from warp space! It appears similar to the vessel these humans arrived in.”

Instantly, Chrysalis was all business. Her smile vanished. “Have they signaled us?”

“Yes, My Queen.” The drone held up one of the small electronic devices the Changelings used, almost like a phone, but apparently with far more functions.

Instantly, Cadance recognized Twilight Sparkle’s voice on the other end of the line, even though she sounded a little disheveled and panicky: “Shining Armor! Cadance! Are you there? Do you read me? Your ship’s emergency beacon seems to be coming from inside that huge asteroid thing. Are you in there?”

Chrysalis snatched the device from her drone, but before she answered, she stared at Cadance and Shining. “How in Hive’s name did she find us before my master astrogators could even locate your home planet?”

Shining grinned and shrugged. “That’s my little sis for ya…”

Author's Note

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