A Different Kind of Acceptance

“Hehehehehe. Eh, no. I won’t give you my Love” I reply, chuckling nervously. She got down on her hands and knees, crawling towards me like a predator stalking its prey.

She pouted and said, “But we need your emotions to survive. Without you, my Hive will collapse . . . plus . . . from what my parents handed down to me as a memory, it seems humans acquired special abilities when they willingly gave love to a Hive Queen, such as myself”

‘I could deny her my love, and possibly be erased from the face of this planet. I could say yes, gain who knows what power, yet be aligned with the Queen, becoming an enemy of Equestria. I could run, but I’ll quickly get caught, and probably executed . . . hmmm, what to say, what to say. . .’ I ponder, wanting to find an answer that’ll please the Queen, but still be in my interest.

‘Aha! I got it. I give them a bit of my love, and accept to be her adviser. I won’t give enough love to gain any powers, because I have enough powers as is. . .’ I think, coming to a sudden realization.

“Queen Chrysalis. I have a proposition for you; I give you love, but only enough to survive. I accept no powers, as I am already quite powerful. I become your adviser, and not a slave. . . That is my proposition. I could just walk away if you say no. if you say yes, I will do all that I promised.”

“I see your logic. . .” she says. She lies on her back and thinks.

After about a half hour of laying there and thinking, she gets back up and says seductively, “I accept your offer. Gimme some love”

I pull the queen into a hug and nuzzle against her, trying to love even more what is already quite pre-loved from her beauty. She gasps and jumps back a bit. She quickly calms and slowly hugs me back. She feels warm, soft, and smooth. Almost like a human body would feel. More or less like a rubber inner tube without the painful chafe when you slide on it when it’s dry. . .

“Just say when you’ve gotten enough love for a month or so, my Queen” I say from right above her soft, fleshy bosom.

‘squee!. . . I can see her cleavage!’ I think excitedly. Boys will be boys, eh? Whatever . . .

She shudders and pushes me away suddenly. “I took too much already. And I don’t want to betray your trust. The amount of love you just gave me will last us over a year on our current diet. Thank you, Human.” She said, blushing.

“How much love exactly did I give you?” I ask, frowning. “Plus, my name is Mark”

I look down the corridor to where a noise had occurred and saw multiple ‘drones’ approach the throne/bed and place many large, 50-gallon containers on the floor at the bottom of the steps, opening them in the process.

The Queen blushes, shudders, arcs her back, and moans loudly. As she does so, a large stream of the green goo I saw on the walls leaves her horn and flows into the thirty-or-so containers, filling them to the brim quickly. As soon as the stream of goo stopped, the containers were moved to the sides of the large corridor, and Chrysalis collapsed onto the bed.

“That isn’t even a quarter of the love you attempted to give me, my dear subject.” She said, gasping, after she recovered from what seemed to be an orgasm. “Where did you acquire all of it?” she asked incredulously.

“I never really loved anybody from where I was from. Everyone sorta treated me like crap . . . it was a living hell. I guess my love had nowhere to go, and it apparently just built up over the years” I say.

She blushed and said, “You must have had it much rougher than I did . . . I’m sorry . . . Mark”

“There is nothing to be sorry about. Without my life being like it was, I would never have been brought here . . . I am happy” I reply. Chrysalis blushed and hugged me again, holding me close.

“Are you taking more love from me?” I ask, suspicious.

“I can only take love from a human if the human gives it to me. I don’t want to take your love right now. Plus we don’t need any more love from you at the moment. . . I want to experience your love. I have never felt love directed at me, Chrysalis. I’ve only felt love directed at who I was imitating. I get quite depressed when I realize the love isn’t actually meant for me. . .” she said sadly, hanging her head. A tear fell from her muzzle and landed on my leg. “But now, you have given me the love I so unknowingly desired . . .” She raised her head, smiled a little and held me closer. “And I thank you for that, Mark Knight”

She suddenly pushed me away again, and said, “Now, we must begin our royal duties. First things first, ‘Hive Court’ and ‘Distribution’.”

‘Sheesh, women and their mood swings. . . I guess I’ll have to live with it . . . forever’ I think as I am pushed away suddenly a second time.

I looked at her, confused, and asked, “’Hive Court’? What’s that?”

“Any Changeling with a complaint about anything in the hive comes to me and tries to convince me to change something about the hive, if it isn’t major. But I always have this small group of changelings that demand we start ponynapping random ponies as Emotional sustenance. You’ll help me shut them up quickly.” She finishes happily.

“Okay, as long as I don’t get physically harmed without my consent, that’s fine. I currently am giving my consent, so I can get into a fight with them if they offend you, my Queen. . . And what is ‘Distribution’?” I ask.

“‘Distribution’ is just giving all my changelings love out of the containers you helped me fill.” She replied.

“Simple enough. Bring in the complaints.” I say, readying myself for problems.

The complaints of the changelings that were brought before us were mediocre at best. A changeling doesn’t like their neighbor’s habits*they probably all do the same thing at their home, though*, the changeling’s assigned family unit doesn’t believe they have enough Emotion to survive the month*doubtful since they all get the same amount of Emotion as all the others do, plus this Hive now has an abundance of it from me*, and, finally, the group that deemed ponynapping ponies as an alternative to stealing Emotion in secret*I finally meet the idiots*.

“We don’t want the ponies of Equestria to be able to cut off our already-limited supply of Emotion if they catch us. The Canterlot invasion proved that stealing from the shadows of a guise isn’t productive enough to give us enough Emotion to survive. We must resort to Ponynapping!” The leader of the group explained, as I was hidden behind the headboard of the bed.

“Iron Skull, I have something I want to show you.” Chrysalis said. She pointed out the 29 full containers of my donated Emotion.

“Iron Skull, do you know what that is?” Chrysalis asked the Changeling too cheerily to be real happiness.

“Hate collected from after the failed Invasion of Canterlot? Considering how angered the Princesses were, and how long it’s been since then, it makes perfect sense.” Iron Skull said, smirking.

“Love, Iron Skull. Love. We now have a nearly unlimited source of love” Chrysalis replied, annoyed beyond measure. I wished I could see the bewildered look on that damned Changeling’s face.

“What?! Love?! Where did you get this, my Queen?!” Iron asked, bewildered.

“Mark, you can come out now.” Chrysalis says to me. I climb out from behind the headboard*it was actually quite comfortable in there, oddly enough*, and sit next to Chrysalis on the bed. I felt like being an ass, so I tried to look like a changeling at that moment.

It took a good few minutes for the transformation to complete while I was behind the headboard, but it’ll all pay off in the end.

Chrysalis glanced at me, did a double take, and whispered, “Mark? What are you doing?!”

I simply replied in a whisper, “Play along. It’ll be a good laugh.” I stepped forward, and waited for Iron to talk.

“How is another changeling going to help us get Emotion?” Iron asked, chuckling.

“I am a rare breed of Changeling. I can . . . give off. . . Emotion.” I say, smirking at Iron. “Unlike you idiots standing before me.” I heard Chrysalis snicker behind me.

Iron’s eyes bulged, and his face puffed up immediately. “You- . . . you dare call us ‘idiots’? We are important Changeling Warriors. We will not stand for this insolence.” He said, highly offended.

“No, you’ll fall for it.” I reply cheerily, knocking their legs out of from under them with an arc-burst of magic.

They all fell to the floor, causing good, solid thumps when they landed flat on their faces.

“I told ya so, you bastards” I say, grinning from ear to ear. “Now, are you going to stop requesting the idea ponynapping ponies, or will I have to bust some changeling skulls?”

I turn back into a human and go down the steps to look them in the eyes.

Iron Skull was the first to stand back up, spluttering words like a babbling idiot. “What?! A human?! Impossible! Humans died out centuries ago! How are you here?” he growled.

I answer his questions in the order he asked them with mild disinterest. “A human. . . Yes, a human. . . Not really . . . well, I’m here right now. . . I choose not to ask why things happen, and just live with it.” I reply nonchalantly. “You should too, Iron Skull. They shoulda called ya ‘Stone Head’ though,” I say. He looked shocked.

I chuckle and grin widely at him. He shied away a bit.

“I submit . . . you win this verbal battle . . . will you please stop with the insults?” he asked nervously.

“You submit, eh? I didn’t say this was over, but I’m feeling generous today. Get outta here before I insult you again. . .” I reply in an annoyed tone.

He quickly left the corridor, his goons hot on his heels.

“Okay, now that’s done. Anything else to do?” I ask.

“well, we just need to finish distributing the love you gave us, and then we’ll have the rest of the day to ourselves” she says, ending in a seductive tone.

“I have two things to say. First, no. I want to get to know you better, and you should do the same for me. Second, how do you know it’s daytime or nighttime?” I ask.

“The old, unusable love is applied to the walls, ceiling, and floor in a thin layer, which is somehow absorbed into the rocks, to cause a mild chemical reaction related to the sun’s position. If the sun is there,” she says, pointing up to the cave ceiling. “The glow will be mostly down here” she finishes, pointing down at the floor.

“What you’re saying is this; the old love that can no longer be absorbed is put onto the cave wall, which absorbs it. The love in the rock around us in the cave causes the sun to somehow react, causing the love to make the rock glow on the opposite side of the sun? Interesting. . . You have a 24-hour clock on your hands, eh?” I ask, summing up what Chrysalis just told me.

“Yeah, but we need to reapply the love every month or so, or the old love that has been absorbed into the rock will dissipate, and if that happens, we won’t have a clock for a few days” she said. “It takes time for it to be absorbed into the rock.”

I put on my think face and just sit there for a few minutes. She looks the same as me.

“What are you doing?” she asked me.

“I dunno” I shrug “. . . is there something else we could talk about?” I ask.

“We could talk about each other,” chrysalis said shyly, her cheeks acquiring a light, green blush. Her smile was small and cute as well.

With that cuteness, I couldn’t say no. “Sure, Chryssi. Why not?” I ask.

She giggled (totally OOC, I know, but it’ll make the story better this way) and said, “okay, you first.”

I began the story of my life.

I grew up in a big, bustling city called Detroit, Michigan. Also known as the automobile capitol of the world. It was a rough life, as I lived in the slums most of my life. I was picked on a lot until middle school. I nearly committed suicide at least three times.

My parents were the ones who made my life worthwhile. I was an only child. My parents died when I was 12. A few months after that, I found a note in my parent’s old bedroom that told me I had some necromancer blood in me. I didn’t know what to think, so I tried practicing things that related to necromancy. I was shocked to find out that I was magically inclined, yet just barely enough to lift a small pebble with my magic.

I got myself a job, and paid the bills with some difficulty. Some weeks, I couldn’t even buy food for myself. I couldn’t even eat some days, during middle school. When I reached high school, I could finally get a good-paying job to support myself easier.

In high school, I was the kid who was too soft, too weak to fight, but I at least looked hard enough to not be picked on too much. In simpler terms, I looked like a cross between a jock and a geek.

I kept to myself most of the time in high school. I tried dating, but with my occasional money crunches, dates were usually done at a Taco Bell or a McDonalds. Therefore, most of my girlfriends left me after the first date, saying “you didn’t give me a nice first date, mark.” Or “you’re too poor to afford me”. I just shrugged at them and moved on.

My senior year, an accident happened. I was trying to replace a broken window when I cut myself on it. It was shallow, but it hurt like a motherfucker and bled like a stuck pig. I quickly patched it up and continued with the window replacement.

As I lifted the new window into place, my hand slipped and the whole pane shattered when it hit the ground. Thanks to the muddy spring, I slipped and the broken glass found my face, neck, and upper body. I was more aware of everything at that moment. The glass shards were impacting my chest, neck, and face. The blood vessels and capillaries were being sliced apart, one by one. And finally, the biggest glass shard falling. . . falling. . . and slicing . . . into my carotid artery. The flesh and artery were getting cut perfectly apart by the falling shard of glass. I was dead within five minutes. The last thing I saw from that life before darkness claimed me was my latest ex-girlfriend kneeling next to my body and crying. But this was far from the end. I wandered inhabited planets as a spirit, not knowing when I’ll ever rest.

After a year of wandering, I found a world that was all spirits, and powerful spirits at that. They knew I wanted to live again, and that I wasn’t from this planet. They restored my life to me and allowed me to keep the ability to planet-jump until I found a place I wanted to stay. I wandered as a living planet-jumper for another year afterwards.

That was when a jump was somehow screwed up, and I ended up in Equestria. That is my story up to finding Equestria.

I must have been crying at some part of my story, as my cheeks feel wet and my eyes felt puffy. I unconsciously let out a small sob.

Chrysalis suddenly jumped up and hugged me. “It’s okay, Mark. You’re here and you’re safe now. . . I’ll keep you safe.” She said protectively.

I just sat there and enjoyed her soft bosom pushing against my cheek. I sighed in content.

“Thank you Chryssi . . .  I know I’ll be safe here. But I have a question,” I say, pulling away from the hug.

“. . . Do changelings have heat seasons?” I ask nervously. Chrysalis looked confused for a second then laughed.

“What!? That’s what you’re . . . wondering? . . . Oh, you’re serious. . . ” she said, her face going from tear-causing hilarity to business-like seriousness in a second. My face was set in stone, being a perfect poker face.

“Well, I believe we do, but only once a year and it isn’t that powerful. Not even a quarter as powerful as a pony’s heat . . . this is how it is because we only need males when we want to expand our hives. Otherwise, females are the dominant gender in the Hive.” She says. I sigh and slump my shoulders.

“Great, more women- err, mares . . . not that it’s a bad thing, but I don’t think I’ll be a virgin much longer . . . I know I’m not ready for it, though. . .” I say, reserved to my thoughts.

“More mares?! You don’t want to be around me? I thought you gave me your love . . . I thought you loved me for me . . . I could have you executed for treason or doing this to me!” Chrysalis growled at me.

“What? I didn’t mean you, Chryssi! I meant all the mares that I don’t know! Like any female that approaches me and I don’t know them and they don’t know me! That’s what I meant” I say pleadingly.

“Too late, you hurt my feelings! Come back when you feel like revering your Queen.” Chrysalis said, crossing her arms.

“. . . no, I’m not leaving. I’ll die for you in my servitude. I’ll do almost anything for you!” I said, hoping to regain her favor.

“What won’t you do?!” she barked at me.

“erm, well to make a list, I won’t have sex with you yet. That’s about it.” I smile weakly, hoping I’d pleased her with my answer.

“That’s it?!” she laughed scornfully. “Who said you had a choice in the matter?”

I glared at her, pulling my magic to the forefront of my mind. “I’d say I have a choice. Don’t make me leave. I’ll just take my love with me.” I say, smirking. “And if I leave, I’ll tell Celestia of this Hive, and she’ll probably have it wiped out. You don’t want that, do you?”

As I said that threat, I knew I had regained the upper hand.

“You wouldn’t!” she said, shocked and fearful.

“You’ll only be right with that statement if you stay on my good side.” I reply. “And if you agree with my plan, I will help your hive with acquiring emotion when I’m gone.”

“What’s your plan?” she asked suspiciously.

“I will help you get on good relations with Celestia, allowing changelings to stockpile emotions in the cities of Equestria, at Changeling-pony relations buildings. Ponies who volunteer their emotions will willingly give their emotions to you changelings. Another plus of the business relationship between the Hive and the ponies is this; Celestia will give you POWs and death row inmates to drain their emotions dry. But I need your full support with this plan to enact it the way I said, and have Celestia agree with it too.” I explain my plan to the Queen of this Changeling Hive.

“But first, I need to know if changelings can look like humans. Try to change into me.” I order.

She was enveloped in a flash of green fire, but as the fire dissipated, nothing happened. The process was repeated over a course of a minute, changes being attempted every five seconds.

By the end of the last attempt, the queen was weary and the farthest she had gotten was the simplest part of me; my hair style.

I smile and say, “thank you, Chrysalis. I must go see Celestia, to explain this plan to her. If I am not back in two days, assume the worst. . .” I say, shuddering.

“What is the worst I should assume?” Chrysalis asked me, confused.

“Celestia has taken me hostage from her heat craze . . . add a week to my return date if I do not return by the two day deadline.” I say, shuddering in fear.

Chrysalis took on a military attitude. “yes sir. You will not be disappointed.” She says, saluting me.

I return the salute and teleport as close to the castle as my magic levels will let me; which is about a ten walk to the base of the mountain that Canterlot is located on. I am currently at the base of Dragon Mountain, I believe.

I walk towards Ponyville, which is about four miles away in the same direction as Canterlot.

I morph into my wolf form and sprint towards the town, knowing I am heading an Easterly direction.

A good half-hour later, I spot the west side of Ponyville, along with Sweet Apple Acres and the school.

I run to a tree, climb it with a single bound, and hide in the leaves, looking into Ponyville. There are a few forms out there, but, at most, three. . . mares? I think they were mares. . . don’t want to risk an alarm.

Anyway, I needed to get to the train station to the East of Ponyville.

I could either skirt around the south edge of town, and risk running into Fluttershy and her heat. I could skirt around the north side and risk being spotted by hundreds of mares from their back windows. Or I could go straight through town, possibly being mobbed by horny Pegasi, Earth Ponies, and Unicorns going through daily business.

The Pegasi are fast fliers, the unicorns have their spells, and the earth ponies are fast on the ground, so I know that all ponies I spot are now “considered hostile. Do not engage any hostiles!”

‘this is a stealth op, men’ I think to myself as if I was leading a SEAL team. ‘Do not get detected. If our cover is blown, run like hell and do not, I repeat, do NOT engage!’

Thinking like that gives me a good idea, as well as the thought of playing Halo: Reach again someday.

‘Aha! The hologram armor ability is excellent at this moment’ I make a semi-tangible physical representation of myself in pony form and send it out to run like hell through Ponyville. I made sure it was a unicorn-type clone.

Almost as soon as the semi-tangible clone is out of the tree and within Ponyville’s city limits, I hear screams and yells.

“OH, THANK CELESTIA! A STALLION!!!” I hear being shouted throughout the small town. As soon as the echo fades, I see over 150 ponies leave their houses and look around frantically

“THERE HE IS! GET HIM!” the yellers say again. The whole crowd turns and looks at my clone, which is running as fast as I can at max speed.

I see some pony anthros shoot into the sky, and give chase to the clone from the air, obviously pegasi. Other pony anthros’ horns glow, and cast paralysis spells at the clone, obviously Unicorns. Thankfully the clone was also programmed to dodge the spells (from the unicorns) and dive-tackles (from the pegasi) effectively. The Earth pony anthros just run fast and follow almost right on the clone’s heels.

I smile and send him to the South side of town, so I can go around the North side, or straight through the middle of town. The pegasi promptly turn and fly leftwards in hot pursuit. The mob of ground-based ponies round the town hall and disappear from view.

I quickly input an ‘evasion protocol’ into his ‘programming’, and then I fall from the tree into open view. I transform quickly to my Earth pony form as I fall.

I don’t hear any yells, screams or anything of the like when I land on the ground. I look around and see nothing but buildings, trees, and clouds. I walk purposefully in the direction of the Ponyville Library.

Any foreign noise and I immediately dove to the shadows and masked my aura, making myself invisible. It is slow progress, as I walk slowly to conserve my energy for a real chase. I open my mind a little wider to the clone’s awareness.

-Clone’s POV, third person-

He was being chased at a speed that was scary. He was running at over twenty miles per hour, and the earth ponies were keeping easy pace with him.

Every second, he dodged a dive-bombing Pegasus trying to grab him and rape him in the sky. Every other second, he dived out of the trajectory of a paralysis spell. Some spells were close enough to ruffle his hair as they passed by.

He seemed to be nearing the Carousel Boutique. As he neared the Boutique, a voice yelled “Get over here and sate my heat like a gentleman!”

I guessed it was Rarity, as she had just left her Boutique at the exact moment the voice came across the mental link.

The clone ran towards her, expertly dodging the spells cast at him from two directions. When he was about ten feet from Rarity, he jumped, spring-boarded off her shoulders, and climbed onto the highest defendable part of the spire like a boss. He placed small shield spells in the small open spaces around him and made it look like he was taking a breather.

Pegasi flew around the spire like debris in a twister, occasionally tacking the shield. Unicorns fired off spells in waves, the shield barely holding up to their attacks.

He made it look like he was recovered and he suddenly jumped out of the spire, the shield dissipating, as he falls towards the ground. His hard fall ends with a tuck-and-roll style roll, and his horn leaving behind a divot in the ground. He sprinted towards the edge of the Everfree Forest, and ran along the edge, skirting trees and dodging low-hanging branches.

He passed by Fluttershy’s cottage, and through the link came this statement: “LOVE MEEEEEEE!”

The clone turned and ran down the path between Ponyville and Fluttershy’s cottage. He glances back to see a yellow and pink blur flying out of the cottage and barreling straight towards him at shockingly fast speeds.

So fast, actually, that the clone and I both knew the jig was up.

But I then remembered the clone is a unicorn.

The clone teleported right behind Fluttershy’s charge and started running again, being right behind her.

Even though Fluttershy was less than a foot in front of him, she flew over 100 feet away in the second after he teleported behind her.

The clone didn’t care as long as he wasn’t caught. The clone turned back to Ponyville and set its sights on Ponyville Town Hall.

-Marks POV, 1st person-

I went back to looking through my eyes, and saw that I was passing by Sugarcube Corner. I could see the bridge across the stream on the edge of Ponyville.

If I had been paying attention, I would have felt an aura charge and release a spell at me from behind. Thankfully, I heard the spell slice through the air, and dived out of the way as the spell singed my hair from the closeness.

‘That wasn’t a paralysis spell. That was a destructive spell. . .’ I think. I turn around to see a fire-maned, fire-tailed, white-coated, red-eyed pony charging a spell.

“What are you doing here?!” it growled. “Stallions get raped around this time of year. I should kill you for being out in the open!”

I recognize this pony as flaming twilight, with an anthro modification.

“Twilight, wait! It’s me, Mark! Calm down, please!” I say, transforming to human.

Her mane and tail fizzle out and her eyes and coat return to their proper colors.

“Mark?! What are you doing here? You need to hide somewhere!” she whispered loudly at me.

“Wait a second . . . why are you not attempting to rape me or anything?” I ask, easily confused.

“I developed an experimental spell to prevent heat from getting as bad as the mares chasing that one crazy stallion in southern Ponyville” she stated.

I chuckle sheepishly and rub the back of my neck, saying, “That’s actually a distraction so I can get through town without being caught. Pretty innovative, eh?”

She deadpanned, saying, “Just hurry up and get out of here before your spell-”

“HE TELEPORTED! FIND HIM! HE HAS TO BE SOMEWHERE NEARBY!” a yell echoes from our direct south.

“That’s my sign to hustle it outta here!” I say, turning and sprinting away from Twilight.

I mask my aura with a bit of difficulty and continue running, invisible to everything but anti-invisibilty spells.

I finally see the Ponyville Train Station. It’s about a half mile away. I redouble my efforts and sprint to the ticket booth.

“One-way ticket to Canterlot please! And double-time it! I got all of Ponyville’s mares on my tail” I bark at the ticketmaster.

The ticketmaster jumps to the ticket roll and rips one off hurriedly. He passes it under the grate and I grab it without a thought.

I fumble in my pockets for any bits I might have, but the ticketmaster says, “Just go, buddy. I’ll do ya this one favor.” And then he promptly closes the ticket window.

I leap onto the platform and dive into the train’s caboose just as it lurches into movement.