Queen Chrysalis stood in the seldom travelled officer’s infirmary. She slowly paced around Generalmajor Jachs’ bed. In a greenish magical grip, she held a clipboard with a very thick packet of papers trapped beneath its clip.

Of course, even when wounded he’d still found a way to work. Across a tiny bed-portable table lay a spread of logistics reports, movement reports, supply reports and other things that Chrysalis’s eyes went cross to even imagine.

“As you can see,” The generalmajor started, hooves crossed over the small bed table he had beneath his chin, “With the recent events, I do believe strengthening the Canterlot Garrison is necessary. If the E.L.F. were bold enough to launch a raid while you were here, then when you leave such a battle is almost certain to happen again.”

Chrysalis stopped her pacing and flipped one of the papers up, nose scrunching in thought. “And you think this is necessary? This is a bit beyond ‘strengthening’”

“I do.” Jachs hovered over a spoonful of soup and sipped gingerly from it. Being injured wasn’t so bad when one got used to the warm food and soft bed every single night. “Cards on the table? If that were to happen again and you weren’t here I’m not sure we’d be able to repel them. The extra soldiers would go a very long way.”

“It’s not the soldiers that surprise me.” Chrysalis quickly retorted. She’d taken to colonizing the bed nearest Jachs’ own during her little visits. This was no different. Like a plush throne she laid upon one, hind hooves dangling over the bottom like an adult in a child’s crib. Her head rested upon the headboard, horn against the wall.

“What really gets me is the hardware,” she emphasized. “Modern automatic rifles. Advanced magical weaponry. Impulse carbines, really? If that weren’t enough,” her horn lit up as she dragged one of the pages up. “Armoured cars, infantry half tracks and…a platoon of prototype main battle tanks.” She let the page fall, the soft ‘thoomp’ into clipboard punctuating her words. “How did you get Carapace to agree to that?”

Jachs shrugged casually. “I actually know the C.E.O. We agreed to a...er, a trade of favours.”

Chrysalis settled the clipboard to her side, crossing her fores as she stared at the ceiling. “But one thing really stuck out to me. See, you asked for soldiers seemingly randomly. Mountaineers, an infiltrator regiment assigned to a mechanized division, a couple changelings from the garrison in Baltimare? So, I dug around a little. Tried to find what thread linked these seemingly random choices…”

She’d picked up the clipboard again, waving it around in her magic like it was a wand about to cast a spell. She pointed it at the blank wall in triumph. “Turns out, they were all in the ninth jaeger division, all the way back at the start of the war. And what an interesting division this was, see?”

Chrysalis hopped up again, trotting around the room excitedly. “A fine division by all counts. Performed exceptionally in combat. Dropped in behind Vanhoover, moved to secure it while the army pushed the line. In combination with the third armoured division, pinned and encircled Equestrian units on the border. Entire unit commended. They continued to serve with distinction throughout the war except, mind.” Her hoof wavered in front of Jachs’ face. “Seventeen disciplinary actions for ‘lackadaisical treatment of P.O.W.s’. During a write up, one officer said they were a ‘group of thoraxians pretending to be jaegers.’ and recommended immediately disbanding and trying them as traitors. Overruled, due to an otherwise exceptional service record.”

Chrysalis had stopped in front of Jachs’ bed. She leapt up and planted her forehooves on the hoofboard, making her look even larger as she loomed over the other changeling. “And how interesting is it, Jachs, that you were originally in that exact same division?”

There went that plan. Jachs’ ears twitched and he brought a forehoof up to rest on his cheek. “Found me out, huh.” In defeat, he rubbed that fore on his temple. He could almost sense the ‘disciplining’ what was coming. He braced.

But, it never came. Instead, Chrysalis smiled and leapt from the bed, throwing her mane in pride. She’d leant back on her hind legs in a surrendering pose, hooves lifted by her face, turned upwards. “But I approve. This works out for me both ways, you know?”

The queen picked up the clipboard once more and began to write. “See, if the Canterlot experiment crashes and burns, you will come to me and beg my forgiveness and lay into me with apologies. ‘Oh, my queen, you were right. The ponies took advantage of me! Oh, please send your army to save Canterlot.’ Then, your entire way of thinking will be proven wrong.”

With that, she handed it back to Jachs. The Generalmajor took it in his own magic, hovering it over onto the table. He beheld the Queen’s signature on the very last page. “And if I’m right?”

Smirking, Chrysalis happily replied. “If you’re right, however unlikely, the ponies will remember that it was the benevolence of their true queen who gave them such a wonderful home in Canterlot. My position as their single monarch will be all but secured.” She laughed heartily. “I only play these political games when I can’t lose, Jachs.”

The Generalmajor leaned over the table, eyes closed and forehooves pressed to one another, like a triangle, in thought. “I suppose that’s fair enough.”

“Capital!” Chrysalis beamed. “Although, just between you and me? I am honestly rooting for you.”

“Rooting for me?” Jachs had to chuckle. “Really?”

“Of course. It’s…uh?” Chrysalis’s hoof lifted and she wavered it about, like a napkin flitting in the breeze, noncommittal. “It’s quite novel, I suppose. Other commissariats show me legions of changeling soldiers and a subdued populace, but I come here and you show me hayburgers and theater plays. Isn’t that absurd? I…suppose I find the uniqueness here kind of comely. In a way.” Chrysalis bore her fangs in momentary anger at herself. She’d realized she’d been dottering, for whatever reason. As if she felt the need to explain herself to Jachs. That wasn’t right. She was a queen, she had no need to explain herself to anyone.

“Well, whatever. I have work to do. Rest well.”

Just like that, she turned on her hooves and stormed out of the infirmary, leaving Jachs alone with his thoughts, and a very thick packet of requisitions. He looked again at her signature. A cautious grin crept across his snout.

A victory is a victory, he supposed.

Chrysalis assumed the throne as though it were her birthright. With as casual and confident a strut as she may. She cast her gaze out to the pony petitioners. There were few tonight. Her reputation had the lovely side effect of scaring away some of the dumber ponies with particularly inane asks. Some.

She cast her gaze around and arched an eyeridge. “Where’s Second Wind?”

Alcippe had taken the Advisor Inkwell's place at the side of the reigning Monarch, standing one ring below Chrysalis’s own. She bit the inside of her lip. “He has requested the day off, citing illness.”

“Again?” Chrysalis’s snout wrinkled. “That’s the fifth day.” She thrummed her hoof into the carpeted floor in thought. She’d need to have a talk with him about this eventually. As much as she felt she was in the right doing what she did, it probably hurt that little pony quite a lot. Chrysalis really didn’t want to make another apology but if she had to…

Alcippe didn’t seem to have a reply so the queen continued. “What, perchance, do the perfidious ponies approach to parlay tonight, please, oberstleutnant?” The queen of the changelings hovered a glass of red wine to her lips. She sloshed the liquid to and fro, inspecting the way it clung to the glass, and gingerly sipped upon it like a society mare at a fancy party.

It tasted horrible, of course, but it was about the image projected to any ponies in attendance.

Alcippe cleared her throat. “Houses Noel and Dusk are at odds again. The issue could not be settled in the lower courts, so you are called upon to mediate.”

Chrysalis' voice betrayed a hint of nervousness.“ The way you phrased that sounds like it is common.”

“It is.” The Oberstleutnant replied. “Noel Frost and Shining Dusk are often at one another’s throats. They live beside one another in the royal quarter. Today, the issue is about where exactly one ponies’ land ends and another begins.”

Chrysalis stretched her forehooves skyward. “Very well.” If Celestia could mediate this rabble, she knew she could do it too. “Send them in.”

Four hours later and two glasses of wine downed completely she’d not made any headway.

Noel Frost was a plump pony. Chrysalis didn’t know a pegasus could get that round and still fly. He had a blue coat and white mane. “As stated previously by my counsel, and the land grant signed by Celestia herself, my land extends into Ms. Dusk’s own! She has no right to claim ownership of the constructions inside it!”

Shining Dusk looked normal, thank Herself. A brown coat and thick brown mane. Still, Queen’s mercy, did she have a grating and nasally voice. “As I’ve told you a hundred times, Frosty, that grant was invalidated by the occupation, who signed their own land grants. The new one clearly states the construction is on my side of the land border. Therefore, I demand Noel Frost immediately relinquish all claims to it at once! In addition, I want damages for intentional infliction of emotional distress! And I want him to pay my legal fees!"

“Oh come off it, twerp.” The plump pony shot back. “You aren’t getting a bit from me, you weird little mud pony. I demand she be held in contempt for that outburst.”

“Contempt? You should be held in contempt you fat turkey! I’ll have you--”

This is all they said, back and forth, for hours. Chrysalis had fallen into the habit of letting her head ‘thunk’ quietly into the back of the throne, just because the pain gave her something else to focus on. Maybe she would have been better off if those bat ponies killed her.

“Fillies and gentlecolts,” Chrysalis put on her best ‘Jachs’ voice, diplomatic and even. “There’s no need for name calling. I’m sure we can find an amicable solution to--”

Noel Frost slammed his forehooves into his podium. “Turkey!? That’s offensive. I want that added to the court record. My opponent denigrates pegasi!”

“Wuh-- me!? You started it! You called me a mud pony you--”

Chrysalis slammed her hoof into the cold marble and let out a long exhaustive sigh. “Please. Let us not be unpleasant. This is hour four of this session and I’m still not sure what you’re even fighting over. What’s so important a building that both of you need it?”

“The fence.” Noel proudly proclaimed. “Right now, it’s white and matches my home. She wants to paint it green to match hers.”

Dusk snobbishly jutted her snout upwards. “Yeah, it’s super ugly. I need to have it repainted. I can’t do that because he claims it’s his. Wrongly, I add.”

Chrysalis blinked. “Are you kidding me? How many of the lower courts have you gone through?”

Noel bowed his head. “All of them, your majesty. That’s why we’re here.”

“Yeah, duh. Why else would we be?” Dusk snickered.

Chrysalis felt her teeth start to grind. “All of this…this bickering, this arguing, this name calling? These legal threats, forcing me to pay attention to this unimportant crypony whining…for a fence?”

“Hmph! I beg your pardon?” Noel snootily jutted his snout upwards in a pose Chrysalis was rapidly growing tired of. “I am Canterlonian nobility. All of my problems are important.”

“Tch-- yeah?” Dusk flicked an ear. “Do you get to the royal quarter very often? Oh, what am I saying? Of course you don’t. ”

Chrysalis did not like that tone. It was like somepony had walked up to Chrysalis, drew their hoof back, and slapped her in the face with all the force they could master. She stared between the warring nobles, her eyes boring a hole into the ground.

Queen Chrysalis, though she no longer really hated all ponies, she really really hated these ponies. “And there’s really no way to peacefully resolve this?” The furious shouts and barks that started answered her well enough.

“I’ve decided I’m going to have you both executed.”

“What!?” Both of the little noble whiners screamed in unison. Fear shot through both ponies. They scrambled in apology. Both of them threw themselves to the ground.

“Please I- I am sorry! I wasted your time. It’s no problem! I don’t even want the fence, really!”

“No-no it’s okay! I don’t even care that much! It’s okay, Noel can have it! I’ll just… build another one!”

Chrysalis sipped slowly from the bitter pony wine and smiled. The third glass of the night wasn’t as rank as the first. She let them debase themselves a bit longer. Begging and pleading and offering larger sums of bits and land and fighting each other for the right to kiss her hooves. Through it all, Chrysalis said nothing, but smiled and sipped her wine until the glass was finally empty.

“Alright, you’ve convinced me.”

Both ponies showered her with praises and thank you’s and ‘benevolent leaders’es. “But,” Chrysalis added, voice melodic and soft. “If I hear another word about this fence…” Nothing more needed to be said. She was met with a chorus of ‘thank yous’ as both ponies quickly beat-hoof out of the throne room.

Alcippe curiously arched an eyeridge. “I guess that’s one way to deal with them.”

“Finesse is for the young and the cocky.” Chrysalis hovered her glass over and Alcippe took it. “I don’t know how you do this. Five days and I’m already considering an artillery test fire over half the royal quarter.”

The oberstleutnant chuckled. “Alcohol and migraine medication in equal measure. Then again, you have been at it awhile. Perhaps a break?”

Standing, Chrysalis let her wings extend. She gave them a test buzz and upon seeing that everything was in order, she nodded a quick agreement. “Perhaps you’re right. It has been awhile since I’ve had a day off.”

She let her eyes scan the throne rome and they zeroed in on a young changeling mare currently guarding Jachs’ office door. Reasonably attractive, an officer so due a bit of respect but low enough rank she wouldn’t be missed. She’d do. “You, over there. Junior officer looks like?”

She turned to face the queen and gave a polite salute. “Ja, meine Königin!”

Chrysalis hopped from the throne and slowly walked over to her. She eyed the changeling up and down. “What’s your name?”

“Fähnrich Reza, meine Königin!” She held the salute and stood at attention perfectly.

“You’re confined to your room for the time being. We’ve had reports of someling running around as you causing a ruckus. I knew it couldn’t be you-- but for now, to be safe, I want you to stay here while we catch this miscreant. Can you do this for me?”

Reza had purple pupil-less eyes, like Alcippe. They widened in surprise. “A...an infiltrator, your majesty?”

“We’ll find out. For now,” Chrysalis flicked her hoof in the direction of the Officer’s quarters and Reza quickly obeyed. Another salute, and she turned and marched towards her room.

Queen Chrysalis turned to Alcippe. Then, with a greenish flash of flames ensorcelling her, Fähnrich Reza spoke. “I’ll be back by tomorrow. Do try to keep Canterlot from being invaded again in the meantime.”

Alcippe gave a little nod and privately hoped she wouldn’t be held responsible later.

The cold night air shocked Chrysalis. She didn’t show it as she gave the single changeling guarding the palace grounds a polite tip of her officer’s cap and she was on her way.

Queen Chrysalis had never been to Canterlot’s streets outside of a parade. She had to admit, she was a little excited just to see things from a different perspective. All things, in time, grew boring. Even looking down upon a world of terrified supplicants, endlessly stumbling over themselves to appease her.

Not to mention all these strange feelings that endlessly smug bug had stirred up inside her. The queen was not often introspective. Her gaze turned outwards to the future rather than inside to herself.

Yet the past few days had been trying. Second Wind’s continued absences had left her feeling like she was partly to blame. Despite how silly of a notion it was, she recognized these feelings as ‘guilt’ and reckoned that if she was feeling guilt over the fate of a pony who didn’t even die, then things inside her head were messed up indeed.

It was all she could do to keep finding things to occupy herself with. Any moments of quiet and thoughts she did not enjoy would worm their way into her brain. Like evil little maggots, burrowing their way into her head and whispering uncomfortable ideas. Like that she should feel guilty for hurting Second Wind. It wasn’t her fault she hurt the stupid cretin! A starving queen needs love, and he had been conveniently there.

Then again, he’d only been there because he’d rushed to her aid. She was in trouble. Very possibly she could have died there and she’d repaid his kindness by…

None of these thoughts would be a problem if Jachs wasn’t such a pony-loving fool in the first place.

Ugh, she banished the parasitic intrusions. No, this stroll was exactly what she needed. She needed to clear her head.

The queen found herself grimacing as she threw her gaze skyward as if to curse the heavens for their part in her inner turmoil. It was a clear night. There were stars out. Here, in Equestria, there was little light pollution along the mostly rural land. It was rather serene to just stare up into space.

Briefly, Chrysalis’s mind wandered to the pony princesses. The Celestial and Lunar parents of ponykind. There were rumours among her own kind that each star was an eye Luna could see out of. If you plotted and schemed in the dark, Luna would find out. Luna would be there to keep her ponies safe.

Chrysalis softly sighed, seeing her breath catch in the cool night air. Preposterous whimsical fantasy, her conquest proved that much.

The queen checked her watch. 8:00 PM. There was time.

She trotted down the grand staircase and into the royal quarter proper. There were many ponies and changelings out at this time of night. She’d not caused much of a stir, junior officers travelling up and down the stairs seemed common enough.

The myriad creatures of Canterlot busied themselves eagerly with tasks of the day. Here the bureaucrats and nobility, changeling military police, regular pony merchants, and all other different flavours of creature mingled freely.

It was…astonishing, in a way. For a time, Chrysalis sat on the marble steps which lead up to the palace and watched. She saw a pony merchant selling fruits out of small stalls hastily making sales to a gathered group of changelings and ponies. Then, that same group turned to carrouse another stall. She tried to focus her hearing on them. It seemed to be a friend group, a little drunk, making a point to try to convince one of the changelings in the group to try many different pony foods. According to one of them, ‘earth ponies grow it best’

Then, her gaze found two guards-- no, one guard, and one pony volunteer. The pair were obviously goofing off on duty, and normally Chrysalis would be furious at this, but watching the changeling mime-out whatever foolishness he was doing to make the pony laugh made her feel proud. Strangely, proud.

Farther along, there was a two-pony couple halfway sneaking into an alleyway. No, one pony, and one disguised changeling. Chrysalis imagined she was seeing an infiltrator at work before something strange happened. The disguised changeling did a tiny transformation, and in place of his dull herbivore teeth a pair of razor sharp changeling fangs appeared in his mouth. The pony had a flush of deep crimson as the fangs nipped gently upon her neck. Then, just as quickly, the fangs vanished and they were a normal pony couple nuzzling on the sidewalk.

Why, in her name, was the atmosphere here so casual!? For her own sake, these idiots were just under attack-- what, last week? Now they were laughing and talking and whatever you call the crime against nature that the infiltrator was doing, like they’d been living with each other their whole lives!

Where were the changeling legions, the armed garrison patrols, the atmosphere of fear and subjugation? These ponies should be averting their gaze when she looks at them. Bowing low, shrinking from her sight. Yet, when she catches the eyes of a pony, they barely acknowledge her. If she’s particularly unlucky she’ll get a wave or a tip of the hat.

Chrysalis leapt to her hooves. There was one place in Canterlot she knew had to be as depressing as a changeling concrete bunker. One place they could not couch their occupation in filly’s gloves.

She checked her watch. 8:30.P.M. She made her way to the square at the lowest part of town, head held high. Chrysalis ran her tongue over her fangs in anticipation. Every commissariot had quotas and they all met them, even Canterlot. They had to meet them!

Queen Chrysalis would find her way to the love extraction building.

It’d been set up nearest the main gate at the South, by the railway station. Easy to find. Strangely, the sign said it was a ‘love donation clinic’ and a small piece of paper in the window read ‘bits for love!’ It looked like it was written in crayon. How one makes a mandatory responsibility a ‘donation’ she’d love to see.

Chrysalis pushed the swinging door open and a tiny bell above it rang. It was a clean place, small, could hold maybe twenty ponies at max, not counting the staff.

Behind the counter a pony looked up from a newspaper. “Oh! Hello, ma’am. Er…Ensign Reza? Is this another inspection?” She was a small little unicorn with a white coat and a whiter mane. Chrysalis quickly scanned the counter for a nametag with no luck.

“Yes and no,” Chrysalis replied, thinking quickly. “We will have some visitors to the capital soon so I want to see how well you can explain things to someling who doesn’t understand the extraction process. Can you help me with that?”

The marshmallow maned pony’s hoof tapped gently against her chin. “Uhh, sure, but we’re still open. There’s a regular in the back.”

“A regular?” Chrysalis approached the counter quizzically. “What do you mean? There are ponies who often visit?”

Confused, the pony arched an eyeridge. “Yes?” She cautiously tried, before a sudden realization flashed across her face. “Oh! Yes! Yes, Ms. Stranger ma’am.”

Chrysalis smiled quietly, letting the pony talk.

Jumping from her chair, she beckoned Chrysalis, or Ensign Reza, around into the back. “See, here in Canterlot, we get plenty of love just by offering incentives to interested ponies.” Chrysalis thought back to the sign in the window and rolled her eyes. If only she knew you could get ponies to willingly give up their love by just paying them. “We don’t even do the monthly rotation lottery anymore. You know, the Seaddle Protocol?”

Chrysalis nodded. A method of sustainable love harvesting thought up by the surgeon general.

“Well, turns out, right? The more one pony gets harvested and allowed to recover from, the more they can offer each extraction. For example.” She cleared her throat. Chrysalis imagined this was probably rehearsed.

“Say you’ve got one pony who gives you one single erote of love per harvest. You may harvest him twice a week safely. Now, say you continue this process for months. Eventually, the pony builds up an immunity to the effects of being harvested-- and a larger stockpile of love. So, where you used to only be able to take a little, now you can fully drain the pony and he suffers very minor effects. Some none at all, like our current regular. Not to mention, his stock refills quicker and to a higher maximum. Now, your one erote pony gives you three every single day, with hardly any side effects at all.”

Chrysalis immediately likened the effect to the love endurance training her own praetorians go through. To imagine it could even work on a pony was nothing short of astonishing.

“And now,” the snowy maned pony continued, “we simply have more love than we know what to do with, and most of it comes from a handful of ponies we employ as full time love batteries. As you’re aware I'm sure, love has an extremely small shelf life, so any excess of our quota would just be wasted.”

The changeling queen nodded, amazed, with wide eyes. “And the-- the love batteries as you call them. How do they feel about this?”

“Oh it’s all completely voluntary, doubly so for the regulars who make a habit of visiting. In pragmatic terms, they get paid to lay down and go to sleep in the clinic while we run the harvester.” The doctor pony shrugged. “If we weren’t already maxed out I’d probably run one of them as I napped. Why not, right? Get paid to sleep.” She mumbled something else under her breath. It sounded like ‘lucky bastard’

The queen’s hoof found her chin and she rubbed it in thought. “You’ve mentioned there’s a regular here? Why and may I meet him?”

She stuttered in response. “Usual donations. Er-- I suppose, sure. Just eh. Well, he’s…” The receptionist brought a forehoof up to tap at her head. “He’s not the most-- well, he’s strange.”

Chrysalis shrugged. “All ponies are strange to me.” She softly spoke in a smile, meeting the current pony’s eyes in hope it came across as a joke and not an insult.

She didn’t seem to take offense at least. “Sure, just-- he’s.” Her hoof fell down and tapped against the carpeted floor. “Well, you’re a grown mare, I’m sure you can handle him. He’s in the first extraction room. First door on your left.” With that she gave a polite nod and saw herself back to the counter.

Now the queen was properly curious. She stepped closer to the extraction room, hooffalls gentle on the carpet, and pricked up an ear. She could catch a few words over the gentle hum of the machinery. Apparently, this one wasn’t so keen to nap whilst being harvested.

Without so much as a knock, Chrysalis opened the door and beheld a blue pegasus with a blonde mane. It was tied up in a fancy pony pomf, but what caught Chrysalis’ attention more than anything was the prominent stubble along his chin. She didn’t even know ponies could grow beards.

“So I said to her, I say. ‘You know, all this talk about love? Why don’t we go back to my place and we can make it.” He made a show of bouncing his eyebrows, which the attending doctor didn’t bother to look up from her newspaper to see.

“Captivating, sir.” Her voice was as dull and slow as an inebriated sloth. It sounded like one too. “Uh-- excuse me?” That was directed at her. It was a changeling doctor. The shining blue eyes of Chrysalis’s brood looked back at her.

Chrysalis gave her best disarming smile. “Just a small inspection, Ärztin”

“Nehmen Sie sich Zeit. Not like I’m going anywhere soon.” The doctor lifted her newspaper back up and crossed her hind legs as she sat back in her chair.

“Whoa! Whose this!?” The pony, with the machine like a great drill hanging above him and glowing green whilst it drew love from his chest, leant up to get a good look at her. Chrysalis felt suddenly exposed. Like she was stepping from hiding inside a bush into a crowd all staring at her. “You come all the way down from the castle just to see little ole me? I mean, I knew I was important, but an officer! I’m flattered and humbled.” The pony bowed as best he could from his position in the medical bed. “Zephyr Breeze, Zu Ihren Diensten.”

Chrysalis reeled. Both from hearing a pony speak her mother tongue and from the sheer audacity of this tiny pastel creature. “Charmed.” She said, through gritted teeth. Then, Chrysalis noticed he’d extended a forehoof out in a gesture to take hers. Like a visiting prince might do to a pony princess. A swift glare and he withdrew it.

He crossed his hind legs and hooked his forehooves behind his head, completely unperturbed. “Yeah, you’re lookin’ at the best love battery in the world. I can take anything you bugs got. I’m a pretty big deal.”

Chrysalis found herself glancing back at the doctor for an affirmation. She hadn’t noticed from behind her paper. She would be forced to interrogate this reprobate. The queen of the changelings mentally steeled herself. “Really?” Her voice shot up so high in pitch it threatened to break the shiny glass tube Zephyr’s love was being fed into. “How interesting! Do tell me everything. How are you even still conscious?”

Behind her wall of current events, the changeling doctor sighed, shoved the entire newspaper into her face, and used it to stifle a scream.

“...and that’s how I learned my life’s true calling! Du Schöne, I’ve never felt more fulfilled. The more I talk with you bugs, the more I wanna feed you! You’re all so beautiful and sexy and dangerous and smart!”

The doctor had shut down the harvester and extracted herself from the room over an hour ago. Chrysalis had found the story enlightening, although the constant tangents about his personal interests in individual changeling mares were a bit tedious.

“Well I’m glad the occupation has been a boon for some ponies.” Chrysalis fiddled with the instruments left atop the doctor’s desk, twirling a stethoscope around by holding it aloft in one hoof. “Would you say your life is better now that the changelings have taken over?”

“So much better!” He’d leapt up and jumped on her desk. “I make so much money just by coming here. I have my own house now! And…I get to meet so many lovely new faces.” This time he did manage to bow.

Chrysalis found him sort of amusing in a podunk pony sort of way. She could see herself keeping this one as a court jester, perhaps. Still, this meeting was growing stale and she still had hours to burn. She was about to beg her leave when he spoke up again.

“When I tell Fluttershy she’s gonna be so jealous.”

A tiny train crashed in the queen’s head. All her thoughts, like the sudden snap of a recurve bow gone taught, stopped. Then, she grinned. “Providence!”

“Proviwho?” Zephyr Breeze questioned but Chrysalis bowled completely over him.

“Have you seen her recently?” She nearly shouted into his face as she leapt from behind the desk. “I’m…a…I also like animals, so--”

“Oh, nah. Haven’t seen her since the war.” The pony shrugged. “Last I heard she vanished in the Everfree Forest. I am not going looking for her either!”

Chrysalis batted her eyes and put on the biggest smile she could. “You know, Zephyr Breeze, you’re just so interesting. Do you think you could show me around Canterlot? I am new in town you see.”

He looked like a filly in a candy store extending a wing to wrap around her back as the pair trotted from the clinic.

Queen Chrysalis caught the eye of the changeling doctor as she walked out. She looked some combination of confused and horrified. Like she’d just discovered a brand new disease. The doctor mouthed a quiet ‘really?’ as Chrysalis turned to leave with her new escort.

The queen ignored it. Not every meal need be gourmet. Chrysalis flexed her wings, snuggling close against Zephyr’s warm feathers. He looked happy as a clam.

10:00 P.M. Still time.

“That was really crazy. I didn’t know what to say. Then I thought ‘wow, I can’t believe you’d do that!’ and I still can’t! But of course as the gentlestallion I am I never said anything. You’d never believe it to look at him, but…”

Queen’s mercy this pony can talk so much without managing to say anything. He’d regaled the queen so far with local gossip, the tale of how he learned of his ‘natural talents’, his difficulties in how pony society before just ‘wasn’t for him’ and how ‘nopony ever understood him.’ This was broken up by him periodically extolling her virtues as one of the only creatures that really ‘gets him’ and how changelings are perfect.

Well, that last one wasn’t too bad. Stopped clocks and all that.

The sights weren’t terrible either. Canterlonian architecture did have a certain regality to it. The ponies preferred stark white on their buildings which gave the entire town a particularly royal flair.

Canterlot’s main street seemed to cater to all possible customers at every hour of the day. Even this late there was a crowd hundreds strong flitting between shops that sold outrageously expensive knick-knacks and overpriced dining places. Fancy decorations, gleaming baubles, a zebra shop that sold some sort of brass lantern infested with evil snail things that purported to assist with muscle fatigue.

She’d be lying if she said some of the jewelry on offer didn’t catch her eye though. Chrysalis was examining a platinum emerald necklace in a shop window when her escort’s wing went around her back. “Having fun?” He asked, his eyebrows bouncing in lecherous intonation.

“So much.” She smiled so widely she was in danger of breaking her mouth. “So, um. When do you think Fluttershy would--”

“Oh that’s a good piece. Should get the amethyst, though. It’d suit your eyes.” Zephyr flew up to the window, squinting into it to try and make out the inside. “Mmmmmm! Got one in stock. Want me to buy it for you?”

Chrysalis felt strangely offended. “I--, no you don’t have to do that. I wanted the emerald to match my magic. I’d prefer not to--” the words had scarcely left her mouth before her escort zipped into the shop and back out again with a shining emerald necklace. Which, he took great pride in telling her, he bought with cash.

“This is absurd. You really don’t--” He would have none of it. Zephyr took the necklace in his wings and clipped it into place on her neck despite her protestations. A chain hung above her uniform, which dangled a small emerald in front of her lapel. Suddenly, Chrysalis found her chitin cheeks glowing a soft rosy red.

Zephyr hovered in place, crossed his fores and smirked. “Yeah. Looks good, you were right. Give us a little,” he mimed tapping a horn on his forehead. “Would you, love?’

For the first time in her life, Queen Chrysalis cast a spell because a pony asked her to. Her horn glowed blazing emerald as she took the necklace in her kinesis and lifted it by her snout, comparing the glow of her horn to the green of the jewelry. Zephyr Breeze made a long, low whistle.

“Beautiful,” he said. “Almost as much as the mare wearing it.”

Where did this confidence come from? It was like he was a completely different pony. Chrysalis, though, only smiled. “Would you expect any different?”

“No.” He dropped beside her and hooked a wing behind her back once more. “I wouldn't.” And he trailed a forehoof under her chin, lifting her snout up, forcing her to look into his eyes. They were such a lovely purple.

Oh, what the hell.

Chrysalis leaned forward, capturing the stallion’s lips in a kiss. It was meant to be a short thing but ponies are so excitable. He tried to deepen it, pushing his tongue past her teeth, but Chrysalis extracted herself. She held his snout at bay with an emerald magic kinesis and demurely smiled, just out of reach.

“Hnf! Tease.” Zephyr made a show of flipping his blonde mane indignantly, breaking the kiss with an exaggerated cry. “All that effort I put into wooing you was completely wasted. I am so forlorn.”

Rolling her eyes, she beckoned him with a flick of her snout. “Come along, little stallion. The night is still young and there is more of Canterlot I want to see.”

Zephyr quickly trotted up beside her. “Your wish is my command!” He quickly retorted. Curiously, he seemed to be fond of walking with his wing around her. Perhaps a cavepony method of showing off his ‘mare’ to any onlookers?

Chrysalis pondered this before he started up again. “Oh, so this one time, I was hanging out with a bunch of my friends near the gate, and we were talking about how cool it is that--” She silenced that immediately with a magical grip on his mouth. He sputtered, raising an eyeridge beyond his forcefully pursed lips.

“Let’s just…focus on the here and now, hm? No more inane, repetitive, stories. Okay?” He responded with a quick nod of his head, lips still comically held in place by her magic, and Chrysalis released him.

Forced, for once, to find something to talk about that wasn’t himself, Zephyr trotted quietly at the queen’s side for a short while before he finally figured it out. “So, uh. What do you do for fun?”

Chrysalis had stopped in front of Celestia’s old school for gifted unicorns. She’d been reading the small ‘closed by order of the queen’ warning sign. That was strange. She couldn’t remember ordering this, specifically. His question shook her out of a deep thought. “Hm?”

“Like, you know, to kill time.” He shrugged. “I uhh, well actually, nowadays I spend most of my time at the clinic. It’s actually been awhile since I had time off work. I used to have a lot more.”

“We have that in common then. Apparently, I work so much I don’t even remember the orders I sign.” Chrysalis reached out to brush her hoof along the sign, looking for something that gave away who placed it there and finding nothing.

“You sign orders a lot? Do ensigns do a lot of that? I figured that was more like, the Generalmajor’s thing.”

Chrysalis’s tail flicked. Damnit, she’d gotten rusty and complacent. Long gone were the days of her being the unmatched infiltrator that effortlessly impersonated an alicorn. “Sometimes I pick up slack around the palace,” she answered evasively.

Now she had to get his mind off it. Luckily, for Equestrian stallions, there was always one thing they couldn’t resist talking about. “Were you telling the truth earlier? Saying you’re a changeling mare magnet,” she made a show of giggling. “How many have you known so intimately?”

“Hundreds!” He blurted out and then immediately shoved his hoof into his face. “I-- oh Celestia, even I don’t believe that.” He hooked a hoof around the back of his neck and sheepishly continued. “Uh. You’re actually the first that’s ever really, you know, stuck with me this long.”

This long? For a quarter of a night? At least she knew she’d caught him off guard. Chrysalis didn’t voice how sad she found that but instead offered a placid smile. “Well, don’t beat yourself up over it. Changelings are very pragmatic. If you don’t interest a changeling immediately they are likely to ignore you completely.”

He perked up. “So, does that mean I interested you somehow?”

Yes, I wanted to use you as a hostage to lure in and capture or kill your sister.

“Was it my awesome stories!?”

Chrysalis stuttered. “No! Goddess no. No. Please, just-- just stop blabbering for five seconds.”

He deflated a little bit. Chrysalis swore, if there was a fire in that pony’s eyes, it just went from bon to camp. “Oh. Sorry.” He dragged his hoof along the cobblestone road, kicking a loose pebble. “So. No stories? Can I at least talk about--”

Red anger flashed in her eyes. Let none say she was not the most benevolent queen to ever grace this continent with her presence.

Chrysalis turned on her hooves and looked Zephyr Breeze square in the face. “For the love of all that is good in this wide, empty world! Listening to you blabber on and on nearly drove me insane. I do not care about your friends. I do not care about your past conquests. I do not care about the crazy adventure you heard Dinky Doodle and the donkey had!” She was shouting now. “You are MY date. You ask politely about me. I ask politely about you. Repeat, until rapport is built. You don’t hijack the conversation and talk about ‘this’ or ‘that’ again and again nonstop until your vocal chords strain!” Finally, Chrysalis panted, lifting a fore to rub softly at her temple. “A date is a collaboration between two individuals. Not an excuse for a captive audience.”

Zephyr tucked his ears down apologetically. He didn’t want to meet Chrysalis’s gaze, just staring downwards at the ground like a beaten little puppy, and the queen immediately felt that familiar pang of guilt that ponies were so adept at stirring within her. “S-sorry.” He stammered. “I guess I just--”

Her magic gripped his lips again. “No! Just. Quiet. Listen. No excuses, just listening.” He nodded and she released him with an indulgent sigh. “You’re not hopeless. You can be quite charming with anything that isn’t talking, but my word, you just talk and talk and talk…if you learned to listen you’d actually be quite the catch.”

“You mean it?” He brushed a lock of blonde mane from his eyes.

Chrysalis shrugged. “Oh, of course. Beyond the wealth, I imagine many changelings would adore having an infinite source of love they can drink like water every morning.”

“Oh.” Zephyr looked away again. “So just for the things I can give them.”

Chrysalis rolled her eyes and took hold of her necklace again. Glowing green, just like her magic, she lifted it and waved it about in front of his face. “And that you’re a very thoughtful and emotional stallion, with a penchant for creativity judging by your fancy mane. All attractive qualities.” Then, she grimaced. “But seriously, you really need to shave.”

Zephyr Breeze let out a chortle half through his nose and Chrysalis found that he was smiling again. “So, uh. You never told me what you do for fun.” Regaining his stride, he stood beside her, laying his wing across her back once more.

Bold, this one. He certainly regained his confidence quickly. “I seduce Equestrian stallions.” She daringly retorted, leaning into his embrace to plant her teeth upon his neck in a way just like she’d seen that infiltrator do a short while ago.

“Whoah.” He shuddered visibly. The stallion ‘gulped’, and the movement of his throat pressed his flesh into her fangs just that little bit more. “You’re doing a really good job.”

The tour of Canterlot’s lower portion continued on into the night. Chrysalis discovered the seedy part of town where the probable revolutionaries frequent and she rather took a liking to it. The pony lower classes all politely ignored her when she was in their presence. Whether out of genuine fear or apathy she didn’t know and she didn’t care. It was wonderful to not be the center of attention for once.

Eventually, they’d swung around from the lower districts back to the royal quarter, and Zephyr Breeze stopped in front of a large two story townhome. Typical Canterlot style; stark white and marble. Expensive.

“So. Uh.” Zephyr hooked a hoof behind his neck. “This is me. Sooooo…” He trailed off, looking to Chrysalis for assistance, but she only smiled and arched an eyeridge, playing up the clueless and innocent mare.

“So?” She finally added, tilting her head with a smile.

Zephyr trotted in place, shoving his hoof into his face, before clearing his throat and righting himself. “So. Do you wanna, like, come hang out?”

Chrysalis burst out into laughter. She couldn’t help it. Of all the ways she’d been propositioned before, ‘come hang out’ was perhaps the single most absurd. Zephyr Breeze was blushing furiously, but she decided to throw him a bone. “Ask me again. Be a little less…casual?” She snorted. “You’re inviting a mare into your home. Show her some respect.”

Zephyr thought for a moment, not meeting her gaze. “Would you like me to cook you dinner?” He finally got, looking back at her with a sheepish shrug.

Chrysalis lifted a hoof in thought. “Hm. Welcoming, open-ended enough, polite enough to not be asking outright, respectful enough to not sound like a frat colt talking to a ‘bro’” She tapped his snout with a forehoof. “Alright, I have decided I am seduced.”

Zephyr practically sprinted across his lawn, fumbling with his wings to get the key into the lock. “I uh-- I actually wasn’t expecting guests so I don’t have much.” He managed it, shoulder-checking the door open. “But damnit I’ll go foraging if I have to!”

Chrysalis slid past him and into the foyer. He was saying something else but she didn’t hear it. As Zephyr was speaking, his entire body was lifted aloft with an emerald green kinetic magic. He looked quite silly held in the air mid wing-flap. Like a still image. “How about we skip dinner?” She slammed the door closed behind her with a hindleg. In the same motion, she threw the pegasus back and onto the large rug that dominated his living room.

He tried to say something, but Chrysalis was already feeling that tingling in the tips of her fangs-- her real fangs, not this fake vessel’s. The love this pony gave off was coming in waves like a torrential downpour. Every beat of his heart, which was rapidly increasing in pace, sent waves of hazy love into the air around him. Just being near him was giving her a contact high.

She stepped over him, her fore pressed onto his chest. Saliva fell from her fangs onto his cheek. “I have,” she said, but it came out more as a growl. Baring her fangs, she shook her head quickly, banishing the onrush of instinct.

“...other appetites.”

6:00 A.M. No more time.

Chrysalis looked over the sleeping stallion. He snoozed peacefully and deeply, one hoof thrown out exaggeratedly above his head like he was throwing a ball. She slid out from beneath the covers, at some point during the night they got back to the bedroom, and exfiltrated herself from Zephyr Breeze’s bed with the skill of the infiltrator queen. She had left him without so much as a note on the nightstand.

Despite herself, she hoped he wouldn’t take it personally. He seemed like a sensitive fellow.

7:00 A.M. Queen Chrysalis trotted through the throne room doors one hour early. She’d stayed over a little longer in the end, stealthily sneaking a morning snack from Zephyr’s fridge and his ambient sleeping love haze. She had quite a pep in her step, as the ponies would say, and wore a casual happy smile.

She’d still need to be in the throne room at the appointed time. Despite being Herself, she had promised to take over the royal duties of Canterlot and she wasn’t about to shirk that. She passed the Oberstleutnant, who was at her desk outside of Jachs’ office, coffee in magic, reading something convoluted and innocuous.

Alcippe didn’t stand up to salute. “Quite the smile, my queen. Did your sojourn go well?”

“That is because it is a great morning, Alcippe!” Chrysalis flipped her mane and her whole body shivered in the dull fuzzy feeling of overflowing love. Then she realized she just used the Oberst’s name. Then she realized she didn’t care. She was the barking queen of the changelings! If she didn’t want to use titles, she wasn’t going to.

Instead of making her way to the throne, though, Chrysalis sat beside Aclippe’s desk. “Has Second Wind come by?” She asked, as casually as one would a friend at the office.

Alcippe was admittingly a little put off by the sudden familiarity. Then again, these past few days working so closely with her, she’d come to expect a few eccentricities. “He’s--” she began, and thoughts of lying crept into her skull. Alcippe had her issues with Chrysalis and she had more than one reason to protect Second Wind.

Still, outright lying to her sovereign was a new step she wasn’t sure if she wanted to take.

As if reading her thoughts, Chrysalis disarmingly smiled at her. “I’m not going to hurt him, you know.” Chrysalis’s voice notably dropped a few octaves. She spoke…softly. Aclippe thought she detected remorse. “I recognize that I--” She interrupted herself, scrunching her face in thought. “I mean to say. I find it--”

“He’s not called out today, at any rate.” Alcippe’s voice lowered to match the queen’s own. “His shift starts at eight. If you’re going to apologize you can try to grab him before he’s on duty.”

Chrysalis scoffed. As if she’d apologize for taking what she needed from a soldier pledged to guard her life. That was his job, after all! She didn’t vocalize that. Instead she gave a polite acknowledgement and resigned herself to that most embarrassing of activities a monarch is forced to do: waiting.

The ever punctual Second Wind was there for his shift at eight on the dot. He trotted in through the grand throne room doors, politely nodded at the guarding changeling, and immediately made his way to Alcippe’s desk. Only to stop himself part way there.

Queen Chrysalis herself was sitting by Alcippe’s desk. She was smiling. When she noticed him, she nudged her nose towards herself in a ‘come here’ motion. Second Wind groaned inwardly and braced himself. He knew he’d have to pay the piper eventually.

“Your most serene majesty.” The pegasus gave a bow as he approached, which Chrysalis immediately dismissed with a wave of her hoof.

“Today I want to skip the pleasantries, Kommandant.” She said, “I’ve been thinking you’re avoiding me lately.”

That familiar diplomatic tension every time he talked to the Queen snuck into his mind. The sense that anytime he says one wrong word or mutters one wrong phrase all of ponykind would face the consequences. Second Wind didn’t reply. He didn’t know how to.

“Originally, I found that very annoying. I am your queen, after all. It’s quite petty of you, I thought.” Sighing, she exhaled. “Then I tried to see things from your perspective. There I was, asking after you for days, only to forcefully harvest you when you didn’t have a choice in the matter."

Those damned little 'feelings' maggots were crawling around in her head again. The devils were telling her that she had hurt him badly, one of the only ponies that had ever shown her respect without being tricked or forced to at the end of a gun. It was like she was at war with herself. Part of her knew that he was livestock. Food, for her changelings, as was the natural order. The other part felt...what was the correct word? Tolerance? Respect?

No.

Protective. She felt protective over them. At least the ones willing to follow her. That was natural. 'It is the duty of the sovereign to secure the lives of the subject' as her mother would say. That's why they needed livestock in the first place. A changeling without love was a step away from death.

Yet, what was she to do when the lives one had to secure were but livestock to her truest and first servants? But if that's what this pony really was, why did she still feel so damned guilty?

She'd been quiet for long enough it was starting to get awkward. Banishing the maggots to Tartarus, she continued. “For any of my changelings, such an act would be nothing more than their duty. But for you I imagine it was…unsettling. I thought, too, that in that moment you might have feared for your life and worried that if I didn’t stop, you wouldn’t be getting back up. A pony should not fear for their life in the process of performing their duty, especially if that duty is the protection of their monarch, nor should a monarch instill such a fear in her subjects.”

Thus, for the second time in as many weeks, Chrysalis found herself forced to say those three damned words that the simple act of being in this ponytopia hellhole kept dragging from her throat. She hadn’t even planned on doing it. It just seemed to fit after explaining her thought processes. Even if she knew she was justified, he might...have incorrect and backwards pony ways of looking at it.

“I am sorry, Second Wind.”

Alcippe, too, had a tiny train running around in her head. It delivered ideas and thoughts where they were needed most in a miniature example of perfect changeling engineering. Her train of thought was engineered better than most. Its conductor was exacting, it was never behind schedule, and its staff was so urbane and pleasant. As she heard those words coming from Queen Chrysalis, that train ran off the tracks, overturned, and exploded in a balefire megaspell.

“I was not expecting that.” Second Wind had to laugh. He trotted over to Alcippe’s side and leaned against her desk. “Thank you for…trusting me enough to say that.” He nervously brushed his hooves over one another.

“Yes. Well, are you okay, really? If it was truly that unsettling, I can see about getting you permanent medical leave, if you require--”

“I’m fine.” He assured her. “I wasn’t. I’ll admit that. I mean, I’m stallion enough to admit that I wasn’t.” He corrected. “I mean. Sorry-- I mean to say. I always figured I’d get shot or blown up to get taken off duty not, you know, that. It was hard.”

Chrysalis apologetically nodded. “Wounds of the mind are as debilitating as wounds of the body. Please, I promise you none shall think less of you for taking the time you need.”

“You know, that’s a pretty good way of looking at it.” Second Wind’s hoof tapped Alcippe’s desk in agreement. “Just another injury that needs time to heal?”

In Alcippe’s head the survivors were tending to the wounded and nearby good samaritans were rushing to help. “Yes, I agree.” She said lamely, ears still twitching as she tried to process what she just heard.

“I’m not going to ask you to forgive me,” Chrysalis continued. “But I sincerely hope my actions won’t have you thinking less of the rest of my changelings.”

“Of course not!” Second Wind heartily responded. “I’m not that kinda stallion.”

Chrysalis nodded and tapped her hoof against the cold marble floor. “I believe that was everything I had to say then. I’ll see you-- oh, no it wasn’t. Excuse me.” And just like that, she cast a quick teleport and poofed out of existence.

Then, she was back, holding a small metal object in her magic. “I noticed changelings buying up property in the Eastern section of town, seeing how it was mostly vacant and doubly so now. I thought it rather unfitting. So, in the interests of desegregating the species, I’d like to offer you a home.” She set the object, now clearly a key, upon Alcippe’s desk. “Recently rebuilt by changeling reconstruction efforts, so lacking in furnishings, but a respectable address by all counts.”

Second Wind could hardly believe it. He stared, dumbfounded, at the small shining key. “Are…are you serious? A house in Canterlot?” He stuttered.

“I did say I would reward any who distinguished themselves, did I not?”

Second Wind gleefully took the key in his wing, bowing gratefully. “I don’t know what to say. That’s…a wonderful gift, thank you your majesty.”

Queen Chrysalis smiled softly. “Acta non verba. Do continue expanding the pony volunteers, by the way. I shall be watching with great interest.”

The pegasus happily smiled. “I won’t let you down.” Then, his eye caught something. A flash of green on the Queen’s neck that wasn’t there the last he’d seen her. “Is that a necklace, your majesty?”

Chrysalis had forgotten she was still wearing it. She hovered it up. Pony-make. Emerald inset. “I suppose it is.”

“I like it.” Second Wind added. He hooked a forehoof up to check his watch. "It matches your eyes.”

“And my magic.” She chuckled, tucking the pony-made trash down close to her chest. Chrysalis repeated the motion with her own watch.

Just a few more days and Jachs would be up again and she could go back to Vesalipolis where the wonderful smell of acrid smoke stacks would be there to welcome her home like a big, polluted blanket.

For now, she turned, stretched, and trotted back up to the throne.

For now, there was work to do.

Author's Note

A little bit of levity to start your year off better. Also I named this chapter after my favorite song on the EAW sound track.

Please leave comments! Reviews! Concerns! Questions!