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- nngh
- you wake up to the feeling of a hoof jabbing against your side
- you swat at it, still half asleep
- a pair of fangs digging into your hand is your reward
- your eyes snap open at the pain, yanking your hand (and with it the body of the changeling who bit you) up to your chest
- the drone lets go and jumps back off of you
- "Owowowow... the fuck? What?!"
- he flits his wings in annoyance and turns his head, sputtering from the taste of your blood
- "Ugh... disgusting. The Queen demands your presence in her chambers."
- you shake your head, rolling off of the pile of rags as you do so
- "It's... shit, I wish I had a room that faces outside. Isn't it late?... Or early?"
- the drone's eyes narrow as he stands, watching you climb to your feet
- "Immediately."
- is his only elaboration
- you're seriously beginning to regret the deal you made for Canterlot's sake
- your servitude to Chrysalis as her love-generator in exchange for the safety of the kingdom seemed okay at the time
- you should have known that the Queen would be a hard-hearted, unloving bitch without the ability to even comprehend kindness and mutual respect
- but months of living in sunshine-rainbow-lollipop land had clouded your judgement
- 'Of course she's capable of giving love' you told yourself, 'she just needs to be given some first!'
- yeah right
- when you aren't busy fawning over her every action and catering to her every whim, she has you writing her sonnets and odes and shit
- figures, the one situation where being an English major would've been helpful, and you decided to study physics
- so hear you are at fucked-o'-clock in the morning, trying to get your sleep-addled brain to fit "chitin" into an a-b-a-b rhyme scheme
- you trudge wearily towards the throne room, the changeling leading the way pausing at his post by the door
- "...What, not going to guard me while I swoon and fawn over her?"
- "My Queen demanded that none but you enter."
- you open the door a crack and try to slide in quietly
- okay, time to find something to praise her on, she always like to be greeted with a compliment
- "Greetings, My Most Beauteous Queen, how may I--"
- NNYEEEEEAGH
- you turn your head to one corner and see her snarling face almost nose-to-nose with you
- she's half-hunched and looks ready to pounce, black carapace glinting in the green, artificial light
- her wings flared and hair matted straight down in little tendrils against either side of her face
- she's exceptionally ugly like this
- she also has no eyes
- ...
- in the time it takes for you to register all this and stifle the yelp rising in your throat, she hasn't moved
- cautiously, you let out an unsteady breath
- her entire body rocks back from the force of your sigh
- then tilts over and clatters to the floor with a hollow 'plunk' like an empty bottle
- experimentally, you give the object a nudge with your foot, a gentle shove
- "...erm..."
- you hear a soft sound, like the coo of a dove
- you turn around fast and see a small Who
- wait, no
- wrong story
- you see the queen's cocoon, a rather large and luxurious version of the hardened ichor-filled bulbs most of the drones seem to sleep in
- from the opening, you can see a pair of green eyes watching you curiously
- "Chr-- uh, My Queen?"
- she always gets snippy when you forget her honorifics
- except this time, apparently
- you can see the eyes bounce up and down silently; you'll go ahead and interpret this as a nod
- "Er..."
- normally by now you've been given an order
- "...you sent for me?"
- the eyes widen as she realizes what you're waiting on
- "Oh, right! Sorry, yes, I just... I could really use some company right now. Could you come a bit closer?"
- this is worrisome
- it feels like a trap
- commands are so common, you practically forgot what a request sounds like
- and you weren't aware that "please" was even in her vocabulary
- still, it'll be twice as much trouble if you don't oblige
- so you walk over to the enormous container standing at attention next to it
- "Uh... you can sit down,"
- she suggests
- you scramble to plop down outside the entrance to her little hidey-hole
- the changeling queen seems a little put out at your choice of seating spot
- "Maybe... a little closer, please?"
- you do an awkward waddle so you can see her emerald eyes again
- that seems to put her at ease
- "Thank you. I just feel better when I can see who I'm talking to, you see. So..."
- this is the weirdest trap you've ever had to fall for
- she sits there with you in awkward silence for almost a minute
- "So...?"
- you can hear a little scuffle, like she's trying to move something inside the cocoon
- "I... I guess I just wanted to ask how you're liking it here?"
- the fuck kind of question is that
- she just woke you up to ask whether you're having a good time as her goddamn peon?
- you shrug, trying to be as honest as a courtesan walking on eggshells is allowed to be
- "It's not the worst thing I've ever experienced,"
- technically true, this is slightly better than that night you got dumped, wasted, and broke three fingers in a brawl
- slightly
- "though being woken at such odd hours, I worry I might not be in top form to praise your majestic visage."
- wow, almost no sarcasm in that last bit
- you've gotten good at this
- "Oh? Oh! I didn't realize, I've been in here for a while. I didn't mean to wake you,"
- you feel a clammy squelching on your arm
- you look down
- a milky white hoof is patting you sympathetically, leaving behind a thin sheen of slime
- you stifle another yelp of surprise
- she doesn't
- "Eep!"
- the hoof withdraws quickly and you hear her scuffling again
- her eyes back up deep into the cocoon
- "Sorry, sorry!"
- you begin to stand up, but that just prompts another frantic shuffle and two holed forelegs shoot out, grabbing onto your shin
- "No, please! Don't go, I just, I need..."
- slowly, her head snakes out of the darkness as well
- her face is pale, and blond tendrils of hair droop across it
- is she blushing?
- can changelings blush?
- "I just need someone to guard me right now,"
- she explains, as you step back towards the cocoon and she withdraws back inside it
- you sit back down, dumbfounded at the audacity of that statement
- if you were any sort of a warrior or soldier or fighter, admitting that would have been a death sentence
- which makes her either smart enough to know you're not any of those
- or dumb enough to trust you despite the danger
- "...and maybe someone to talk to..."
- second one it is
- eh, you're already up, and she did ask nicely
- (that's never going to stop sounding weird, the idea of the Queen of a hive that devours love asking nicely)
- you're starting to get the impression that there's something else going on here though
- so you take a calculated gamble
- "Alright Chrysalis, I'm here, what do you want to talk about?"
- one second, two, three...
- no green bolts of arcane light to the face
- all that comes floating out of the cocoon is an anxious sigh
- "Just, I don't know, anything. I can't talk to my brood, and this is the first time I've ever molted with someone around who wasn't mind-bent and or cocooned or stuffed full of eggs."
- you arch an eyebrow at her
- "Molted?"
- her eyes do that little bobbing thing again
- "When I feed on enough love, I have to molt to keep growing. It leaves me, well... like this."
- she waves a hoof out in demonstration
- but the way she said it, you get the impression she wasn't just referring to her skin
- "Can... can I see it?"
- those big green eyes blink once
- "I mean, if not, that's cool, I get it, it just sounds really neat is all. I've never seen you like this."
- "Nopony has,"
- she replies
- but that's not a no
- and after a few seconds, she crawls through the slightly too-small entrance, her body squeaking like latex as she squeezes out and climbs to all fours
- towering over you when you're sitting, she's actually very pretty
- her wings are whole again, and her mane is much curlier than the straight green seaweed-like mess she usually has
- "So..."
- cautiously, you reach out and touch a hand to her face, feeling the texture of it
- it's soft, but slick and kind of rubbery
- not entirely like a hard-boiled egg
- the contact makes her blush again as she leans slightly into your hand
- for the first time in weeks since she took ownership of you, you let out a real, heartfelt smile at how goddamn cute that is
- "Truly beautiful,"
- you compliment her offhandedly, and she lets out an embarrassed chuckle
- "You're just saying that."
- the one time you're not, and she doesn't believe you
- the irony is palpable
- she gives a little shiver that runs down her neck to her whole body, and she stands there trembling as you take in her delicate features
- "You okay?"
- she nods silently as though it were no big deal, but it's obvious she's freezing
- heck, it's a little chilly even for you this far underground, and you actually HAVE your skin
- and clothes
- and occasionally something to cover yourself with
- "Well, you don't look too comfortable. Thank you for showing me yourself like this, Chrysalis. I'm honored, really, but if you want to crawl back in and warm up, you should."
- oh my god she does this cute little dance at your words like it's the nicest thing anyone's ever said to her
- as she crawls back into her cozy cocoon, you get a good look at that full, ivory plot
- the blond curls of her tail are woefully inadequate to cover all of it
- she gets most of the way inside before it actually gets a little bit stuck
- you can hear her trying to keep her struggle quiet
- but little "nnfs" and mutters reach your ears nonetheless
- as discretely as you can, you scoot closer
- and give her ass a gentle push, just enough to squeeze past the very entrance
- you see her eyes whip back around as she turns within the changeling bed, wide at first but slowly calming back down as she realizes what you did
- "...thnkyu..."
- you can barely hear her from inside her little safe spot
- "For what?"
- you reply innocently, acting confused
- the two of you sit in silence a little longer before you clear your throat
- "So, how long does a molting last? Does this happen very often?"
- she pokes her head out, resting it on your knee as you sit right near the entrance
- she looks up at you through that curly mane and sighs as you stroke it idly while you listen
- "As I said, it's whenever I get enough love to grow out of my old skin. This is the first time in... two years? Maybe a little longer."
- a pale, mint-green magic envelops a brush on her nightstand, floating it over to you as you run a hand through her mane again
- you take it and start combing, stopping to unto any knots you find as you brush
- "Once I manage to finally get out of my old skin, the new one usually hardens in about 36 hours. Less than that if I have a source of love to drain, though..."
- she winces as the brush hits another snag, and you try to pull the strands apart
- "And what do you do with that?"
- you nod in the direction of her fallen exoskeleton
- even tipped on its side and empty, it's frightening
- actually, probably more frightening with it empty
- "That? Usually it's broken down for materials for the hive. Why, do you like it? You can have it if you want."
- you shudder at the prospect of keeping a life-size Chrysalis skin replica in your room
- that's some serial killer level shit right there
- "Mmm..."
- she giggles at the face you make
- "No?"
- not as is
- maybe you could find something to do with it though
- you shrug your shoulders noncommittally
- "How about this: I'll think on it, but if the hive needs it for something, don't save it on my account."
- she nods, closing her eyes as you brush her mane again
- you ask a few more questions about the molting process, like whether drones do it too, whether it hurts, where the color comes from, things like that
- she's more than willing to explain, occasionally asking her own questions about your world
- eventually, her mane is immaculate and you can see her eyes drooping
- you give her cheek a gentle stroke, smiling down at her
- "You need sleep. The hive doesn't exactly stop running just because you have to shed, right?"
- she shakes her head
- "Well, it does, actually. I'm just that important. No drone does anything without my consent, so until I'm back to normal, they can all sod off."
- her face has turned a slightly dull grey from its pearl whiteness before
- her skin's already starting to harden up again
- you give her a gentle nudge, and she grumbles sleepily
- this is going to be rough if you're not allowed to move from this spot until she wakes up
- ...
- idea
- you nudge her again as you hear the start of a snore coming from her muzzle
- her eyes flutter open and look up at you again
- "Hey. You said this whole molting thing goes faster when you have someone loving on you, right?"
- she nods, nuzzling her cheek against your abdomen in an effort to get comfy again
- "And you need to get through it quick to get the hive back on its feet, yeah?"
- she nods again, cracking one eye and looking up at you inquisitively
- "So..."
- you lean down, to keep your voice low in case the guards outside are listening
- "...is there room in the cocoon for two?"
- the blush is much fainter now that her skin's started to darken, but she still manages a lovely shade of crimson
- she pokes her head back inside, just like before, so only her eyes can be seen, and seems to look around the space inside
- shit, ya blew it
- "...Not comfortably. I'd probably have to sleep right on top of you."
- one eye closes briefly in a wink, and then a slate-colored hoof with pits in it reaches out
- and gives you a "come hither" wave
- it's a tight fit, but you manage to squeeze yourself in, the tender Queen accommodating you as you try to find a comfortable spot
- once you do, she does her best to take up as little space as possible as she lays down beside you
- now now, none of that
- you pull her into a warm hug as the two of you spoon
- your warmth flowing radiating into her
- your nose buried in her silken hair
- smells like the woods after a rain
- she lets out a contented sigh as your love rolls off you and she absorbs it
- "Good night, My Marvelous Queen."
- she scoots herself as much against you as she can
- "Good night, Anonymous."
- you're just on the edge of a powerful sleep when you hear her whisper something
- it sounds a lot like
- "L'vy'u"
- and you don't even pay attention, as you let sleep take you, to what you say back
- but it sounds an awful lot like
- "L'vy'utoo"
- ...
- nngh
- you wake up to the feeling of a hoof jabbing against your side
- you swat it, still half asleep
- a pair of fangs digging into your hand is your reward
- "Owowowowow, god DAMMIT you need to stop that!"
- you glare at the guard whose fangs are still lodged in your hand, snatching it away from him and back into the cocoon you'd fallen asleep in
- he narrows his eyes at you and turns to spit the taste of your skin out of his mouth
- "You require a bath, disgusting creature. And then the Queen demands your presence in the Throne Room."
- a bath
- in this place
- you grimace, but pull yourself from the now-empty cocoon, trudging wearily to the bathroom adjacent to the queen's private quarters
- you don't understand how plumbing in this place works, and you don't want to
- as you approach a green-tinted mirror (everything in this place is fucking green or black), you notice a piece of parchment stuck to it with a glob of (of course) green goo
- Anonymous,
- You have the next 15 minutes to compose a ballad detailing the exploits of my hive and the unparalleled greatness of its flawless Queen. Should you fail me, look forward to a week of incubating my spawn in your worthless belly and half-rations until they are born. May whatever god you pray to grant you mercy if there are no flutes. And shower, you unwashed disgusting ape.
- Your Ravishing, Unparalleled Queen.
- you almost miss the heart above the i in ravishing
- and at the bottom is a P.S.
- Thanks for last night.
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