Author's Note

Before you start reading, you should know this is all first draft, ~~I don't have a beta reader, I don't have an editor,~~ I don't have chapters planned in advance, and I'm making this up as I go and I'm not sure when I'll lose steam with this idea. I have a vague plan of story beats but my main goal is mostly just to finish an actual story. If it's got grammatical errors or misspellings, please tell me and I'll do my best to fix those. And any feedback on what I should do would be appreciated, thank you. UPDATE: updated chapter after feedback on many issues from a friend

1

Twilight was delicious. A princess bottling up love and suppressing it to get through work was like aged wine. She was closed off on many fronts. Even Chrysalis, pulling with all her might, wouldn't be able to drain it easily. She could only eat a sliver. She anticipated Chrysalis might try and feed from her, and had cast protection spells before Chrysalis could eat too much. She promised Chrysalis plenty of food, just not from her.

That is, if she stayed. She could do that. After all, she had stayed at the bottom of a mossy lake for over thirty years. She had also laid in wait for five while waiting for a dragon to fall asleep. She would not be motionless and ready. She would be allowed some freedom – the length of Twilight's leash remained to be tested. She would remain focused, primed for any opportunity to slip through the cracks of Twilight's defenses. She may have been set free from her stone prison but Twilight would have been right to keep her there. Chrysalis was a proud queen, strong, immortal, and she could never forget the injustice that had been done to her.

“Now presenting the Princess! Twilight Sparkle,” a stallion said as Twilight walked ahead of her.

“Thank you, Fingerprint Shield,” Twilight said to the stallion. He was likely the head of guard, his golden armor boasting more purple than the others she had seen. His grey coat resembled a shade of stone Chrysalis thought was fitting of a guard.

Twilight approached the top of the stairs above the room full of creatures that all turned their heads to look at her. To Chrysalis' surprise, the crowd was filled not only with ponies, but yaks, zebras, hippogriffs, hippos, kelpies, minotaurs, and other races Chrysalis hadn't seen for centuries even before she was imprisoned. She was only taken aback for a moment but it was long enough for Twilight to notice as she turned and beckoned for Chrysalis to walk forward with her.

Twilight laughed to herself at Chrysalis' reaction before clearing her throat. She allowed Chrysalis to stand beside her, just far enough back that she still stood in the foreground before saying, “Happy Hearths Warming everyone!” The crowded room erupted in cheers, seeming to pay no mind to the dark and rough figure that stood next to the princess.

Chrysalis followed Twilight as she started to step down the steps and into the party below. Twilight was quickly stopped when a small pink pony rushed forward to try and greet the princess, and was halted by a grey and gold blur that stopped between the princess and the little pony. Twilight looked back to Chrysalis and gave her a small smile.

The Changeling Queen took this as a signal and came closer, opening her mouth and licking the air. It was full of love, so much, she would have liked to drink it all up and feel her power surge. She was smarter than her instincts, and as she arrived at Twilight's side and felt the love falling from the small filly that approached Twilight, she began to feed.

She was careful not to feed too quickly or too much from just this one pony, hoping to avoid any inconveniences that might occur. While she was Queen, and powerful in her own right, she was drained, hungry, and her body would not be ready to defend herself even against a crowd of lowly magic-less beings.

Twilight's promise of food came quicker than Chrysalis thought it would. She had expected isolation at first, at least until she was trusted, and perhaps heavily monitored feeding to assure she hadn't harmed any of her precious subjects. Twilight had no such hang ups and allowed her to feed freely. It was unexpected, but welcome.

The small pony finished her business with talking to Twilight and the guard eased up, and let Twilight continue forward.

“Quite a bit has changed in Equestria since you last saw it,” Twilight said. “For one, it has become a melting pot of sorts. When you were imprisoned the foundation for what it would become was being built with my friendship school.”

“I remember such a building,” Chrysalis said. “It housed some pupas of my former subjects. There was a strong breed that was whisked away thanks to your teachings.”

“And changelings have, for lack of a better word, changed quite significantly over the years,” Twilight said.

Twilight guided Chrysalis through the festive crowds, stopping briefly to exchange greetings or hugs with the citizens brave enough to stand in front of the princess.

“For instance,” Twilight said, “they are no longer called changelings.”

“Nonsense.” Chrysalis said. “Changelings are proud. Even if my hive defected they would still revere their nature.”

Twilight continued, “It was because of their highly adaptive biology. Changelings were changelings for their entire history, with very little deviation. Once a change occurred in just one generation, it wasn't a slow evolution like other races. Hello Mango Bourgeois, it's lovely to see you. It was more comparable to a snowball rolling down a hill. I believe a visual example might help you understand better.”

“I have been trying to call them,” Chrysalis admitted as she walked through the crowded room. “I cannot feel any here.”

“Don't sound so down about it. If this proves too much I can allow us to slip away and you can rest.” Twilight said.

Chrysalis licked her chitinous lips, feeling the almost liquid love in the air slip through and fill her if only a little bit. “I can continue. I already knew that I would need to start over completely after my hive left me all those years ago. My hope that they would return to serve me again was my link to them, they could not separate themselves from me.”

“You weren't wrong to put your faith in them,” Twilight said. “You may have been after my head, which I have already forgiven you for, but I understand.”

“It was foolish,” Chrysalis said. “I wasted too long hoping traitors would come back to me, and I wasn't worried that they might do the same thing again.”

“The reason you cannot feel any changelings is because there are no more changelings. They have evolved the ability to hide themselves, not simply through disguise but through magical pheromones.” Twilight held a hoof up to stifle a chuckle. “I had a blast researching the development and evolution. It's such a major area of study that is so difficult to study because it's usually unable to be observed because of how slow it is but the Cuckoo's have lead to groundbreaking– ”

“Cuckoo's?” Chrysalis asked.

“Oh, yes, I suppose I should show you one. They are not rare, and you have walked past many of them that have not been wearing disguises.” Chrysalis looked back around the room trying to distinguish any race that she hadn't recognized. “You wont see them like that, they are quite good at hiding even when not intentionally doing it. It comes quite naturally. Here.”

Twilight came closer to Chrysalis and pressed her horn between Chrysalis' eyes, an act that was noticed by quite a few onlookers which worried Chrysalis. Attention was nice if it was her subjects but she was a stranger here.

With a flash of her horn Twilight sent a tingling magic through Chrysalis' eyes that sent shivers through her skull.

Twilight brought her head back with a satisfied smile. “Now I can properly introduce you.”

Looking around now Chrysalis' could see many more creatures in the room. White, scale-like fur, golden ears, and long black antennae trailing from behind their eyes down the length of their body. One, flying around, revealed that they were not a similar body shape to ponies, only appearing so when on the ground. Their scaled fur from the neck down becoming wings to reveal a black thin stick figure form underneath.

“These are Cuckoo's,” Twilight began. “They still have the ability of transformation that you and your original hive possessed, but they are much less proficient in it. They are capable of mimicking creatures of similar size, however they can only create illusions of much smaller or larger creatures. When the first of–”

Chrysalis paid Twilight no mind. No doubt that Princess had documents about this to fill a room and then some. Instead, she decided to walk up to one talking to a yak.

Chrysalis had no patience for books at the moment, and she could hear Twilight trailing behind her, continuing her speech.

The Cuckoo had purple eyes, that seemed to be the only defining features of these things Chrysalis found herself looking at. She was aware she couldn't feel them the same way she used to, but she had heard Twilight mention pheromones early on in her educational ramblings. To Twilight, they were likely just that, pheromones, smells, markers. To Chrysalis, and her old hive, it was a network where thoughts and orders were able to be transmitted instantly across short distances, and long distances if given the time. She doubted Twilight could ever understand something as complex as that even if she studied them nonstop.

She stooped behind the yak the Cuckoo was talking to and tasted the air again, a fill of love entered and begged Chrysalis to take a bite, to devour all the love in the room, but she didn't. It was difficult, but she managed to weave a thread through the love that clogged her path and send a message through the air to the Cuckoo. Just something simple, a greeting.

The message reached it's target, not being interpreted as a sound, thought, or even perceived words such as the “hello” Chrysalis had sent. It went through the senses and the Cuckoo jolted upright, eyes wide and looking around.

“Something wrong?” the yak asked.

“Uh, no, nothings wrong. I just thought I heard something.”

“Cuckoo say silly things, it's very noisy, Yak hear so much Yak cannot hear.”

“I know what you mean.” the Cuckoo said.

Chrysalis sent the message through again, louder, and with an introduction attached, a statement of rank.

This time the Cuckoo shot straight up into the air in fear, causing the other Cuckoos in the room to do the same. Chrysalis hadn't expected that kind of reaction. She could taste the fear the Cuckoo now surrounded itself in. It was becoming difficult to focus on the Cuckoo at all now.

She focused harder on sending a message through and heard a loud “EEP” before seeing the changelings that were flying disappear from her sight entirely. A slam of something solid went through the sense that linked her and the Cuckoo, and she fell asleep.

Chrysalis could feel her mind smothered by something heavy, it was similar to the connection she would have to her hive, only this was suppressing her and keeping her out. She knew what had happened, she had been deemed a threat by this new species.