There wasn't one pony in Equestria that liked change. Or perhaps those were only the ponies that Twilight Sparkle had met. They always tried to resist change, as most small town folk tended to do. Or perhaps that was only Princess Twilight Sparkle herself. After all, ascending to royalty was only exhilarating at first before the stone of fear dropped within her stomach. Saying that everything would be "all right" had been like a trigger for bad karma.

Well, at least she was still stationed at Ponyville. Twilight would have gone straight from worried to panic-stricken if she had to move back to Canterlot. In retrospect it was ironic. She had been so against moving to Ponyville and now she was so against moving anywhere else. Again, change seemed a popular thing to hate.

It was disappointing that she had to stay behind at the castle as her friends returned to Ponyville earlier that evening. With the coronation over, Princess Celestia needed Twilight to stay behind and go over some of the things that would be expected of her. Luckily, the older princess had gotten her out of most of the drawl elitist obligations. The unicorn-now-alicorn believed she would never be able to repay her mentor for all the things she had done for her throughout her life – excluding any mention of royal ascension.

Now, the newly appointed princess was taking a night ride on her chariot back to Ponyville. That was another thing to get used to. She had her own chariot, which included the two pegasus stallions that pulled it. She had tried to tell Princess Celestia that it was completely unnecessary but the mare had been persistent to the point of using a royal order to ensure that Twilight used it. So there was item number umpteen on the list of changes that she didn't care much for. Oh, she appreciated getting a free ride wherever she wished but it also made her feel guilty. Perhaps she would feel better about it if she could learn the names of the two stallions that were hauling her around. They had been tight-lipped and insisted that they were not worthy of her attention. Calling them by their names was certainly out of the question...according to them.

On that note, Twilight began to wonder why it was so taboo for her to simply fly where she wanted. She had her own wings, after all, and so did the other princesses. Prestige? Was that it? Or perhaps it was to save energy. Any further thoughts that Twilight might have had on the matter were utterly destroyed by the fact that her chariot was coming down to land in front of her library. Finally, rest. That was the plan anyways. First thing to do on her mental checklist was to make sure her guards were taken care of. Exiting the elaborately decorated vehicle, Princess Twilight Sparkle tiredly strode over to her home's front door and glanced back behind her.

"I'll get a few sleeping bags set up for you in the library," she regarded her drivers. "You both must be tired."

The suggestion, however considerate, was quickly denied.

"Oh, no!" they both hurriedly voiced.

One relented so the other could speak.

"We couldn't possibly sleep in the same quarters as your Highness!"

Twilight raised a brow in return. Was this how they were trained to act or were they sincere? Probably the latter, she thought as she turned fully to face them in Luna's pale moonlight.

"Please, you can just call me Twilight and, actually, it's not really the same quarters. My room is-"

"We will be staying at a nearby cottage so that we may continue to serve you. Princess Celestia has already arranged it," the second guard explained.

The first guard shot a look to his fellow pegasus and quickly spoke in follow-up, "Oh! But the princess no longer commands us. Your Highness, Princess Twilight Sparkle, is our master now."

The flustered look and hurried low-bow that the two gave was quite beyond Twilight's ability to comprehend. It was not that she couldn't reason it out as being part of their duty but rather it was that the matters of "servant" and "slave" seemed terribly confused here. She was too tired to think of it any further, however. Any other time she might have argued or tried to tell the two that they needn't act like a couple of lowly servants. At the moment, all she wanted was her soft comfy bed.

Thus a tilt of her head and "get some rest" was all she managed to yawn before turning back and entering her treehouse home. Spike was instantly coming down the steps and she had to wonder why he wasn't already asleep.

"Twilight!" he nearly shouted before stopping and suddenly looking very unsure of himself. "Umm..."

That's when Twilight remembered that she still wore the mess of clothing and accessories from her coronation. Ugh, she thought plainly. It would all have to be removed before she could have a date with that bed and a not-so-fond memory came to mind. It was the last time that she left a necklace on when she went to sleep. Waking up the next morning with necklace-shaped bruises had not been at all fun.

But the regalia was not what had Spike fidgeting. If Twilight had to guess, it had to do with the other occupant of the library. That not-exactly-pony had caused many interesting situations since she moved in. Situations that were really more interesting than bad, and at least she wasn't impersonating other ponies anymore. The purple alicorn had little energy left, so the latest issue could hopefully wait.

"What's keeping you up, Spike? I hope you didn't wait all night for me to get back," she remarked, thinking to ignore whatever issue it was until she had more energy in the morning.

"Well, about that..." he wavered.

Twilight stepped around him and began making her way upstairs as she began removing accessories with her levitation magic.

"Oh! Uh...um..." Spike began to panic. Twilight was heading straight into the problem. Finally giving up, Spike merely sighed out, "Enjoy the renovations."

The princess was about to answer with a "huh?" when she turned the proper corner and beheld the subject of the dragon's distress. Somehow, Twilight wasn't tired anymore. The various accessories that she had removed and levitated via magic suddenly dropped to the floor with an assorted clang.

Before her was her bedroom. Or what was still recognizable as such. Everything had been covered with some sort of greenish almost-black material that formed ridge-like patterns on the walls. In fact, it also made that pattern on the ceiling and floor. The only thing that let her know that this was indeed her bedroom was the large circular floor indention at the back of the room. It was only a few hooves deep but was immediately recognizable. The indention was called a "sleep ring" and was one of the many peculiar aspects of changeling life. Of course there was only one changeling that had ever taught Twilight about these things and only one changeling that could have ever made it. She was the third occupant of the library...

"Chrysalis!"

It was more a shout of complaint than anger. And it certainly wasn't shock. In any case, the purple mare was making hoof gestures that went along with her stress-relieving breathing exercise. It was necessary to maintain her aforementioned lack of shock.

A light tap sounded behind her and the purple princess twirled around to behold the former queen. She was standing not a hoof away with a look of aloof glee on her face. How she had suddenly appeared out of thin air must have been attributable to her growing stealth abilities, which Pinkie Pie was entirely to blame for.

"Welcome home, Twilight. You like your present? I knew I'd have to do something grand for your coronation. What with the white priss not letting me attend. Now you can have a good night's rest-" the changeling mare spoke with rapid excitement only to be interrupted halfway.

"My bed! What did you do with my bed? And the books?!" Twilight's calming exercise gave out as her eyes shone like saucers with fear.

Chrysalis seemed to pick up on Twilight's difference in mood and answered more solemnly. "I just put them in storage. You weren't reading those ones anyways..."

The princess sighed long and deep. At least her things were safe. But next up was a good lecture. "I've told you before not to do anything extreme without asking me first. How does this," she waved to the very changeling-like room around her, "not qualify as extreme?"

"But it's your prese-"

"Presents don't involve mass structural change to one's home, Chrysalis. They're typically things like expensive cakes, overpowering perfumes, and books that you'd never want to read. This," she waved again, "is not a present. It's about two weeks of remodeling that I'm going to have to do. How did you even manage to do all of this while I was gone?"

"But there isn't a single book that you wouldn't read, Twilight," Chrysalis commented dumbly, clearly forgetting the point.

At that, the still smaller mare slid down onto the floor. She was just too tired and her energy left her again so she couldn't argue or fix her room - if it could still be called that. Ever since Chrysalis had begun living with her, Twilight had been forced to deal with changeling culture that she never even knew existed. Thus she also had to instruct the mare in how normal ponies lived. It was as if Chrysalis was incapable of acting normal while in her default changeling form. Maybe it was psychological. Whatever the case, Twilight could feel her eyelids droop. So tired...

"Oh, we can't have you fall asleep on the floor, princess," the changeling beamed once again. "Not when I chipped a hoof to make you a ring."

Vaguely, the alicorn felt herself get pulled onto a hard but warm carapace and transported down into the indention. Once she was let down off of the changeling back, she could feel something that, darned to admit, was rather soft. The floor of the sleeping ring might actually have been more comfortable than her bed. A soft green glow began to emit from the sides of the ring and it was just bright enough to be noticeable but not so bright as to be glaring or annoying. In fact, it was rather soothing.

"Spike!" called Chrysalis' slightly buzzy voice.

A faint "coming" was heard from downstairs and the small dragon quickly emerged in the room, but Twilight didn't entirely notice it since she was drowsy to the point of knocking out. The ring was helping her along quite nicely to that end. The last thing the new princess remembered was Spike's voice. He said something that might have been "how do I get roped into these things."

Morning came as it usually did in Ponyville. Only this morning didn't shimmer or shine so much as it glowed faintly in the dark.

"Dark?" murmured Twilight Sparkle as she slowly came to. She was better at mornings than her scaly companion but less so on the ones that followed busy nights. The question was, of course, if the darkness around her meant that it was still that same night. She got her answer upon awaking more fully and taking in her surroundings. Behind her was the large mass of changeling that was Chrysalis. The black being was nuzzled snugly against her back. Spike was MIA. He was never MIA. Not in the middle of the night and certainly not early in the morning when he had a warm blanket calling his name. Speaking of which, his bed was gone along with hers. It wasn't just dark either. The whole room itself was black!

"Ohhh," Twilight mumbled aloud by accident. She finally remembered the previous night. So if Spike was missing then it was probably late morning and she had slept in. No wonders there. The sleeping ring was as addictive as the Apple family's cider.

"Slept well," Chrysalis startled her from behind. Apparently, Twilight was the last one up.

Knowing it was a statement rather than a question, the alicorn relented the reply. "Yes," she admitted. It had been better sleep than even her nights in the royal Canterlot palace. Changeling ways were often odd but rarely nonsensical.

"I knew you'd like it. You ponies spend an awful lot of effort on resisting improvement," the former queen laughed.

Twilight couldn't say otherwise. If she had any more energy the previous night then she would indeed have resisted - perhaps not slept at all in the ring. How many times would she have to embarrass herself by being a stubborn mule about every single change?

"Can we get some light in here? I feel like I'm trapped in a cave," the purple pony finally said.

"Ah," buzzed the reply. "I kept the film from going transparent so that you could sleep in. I'll fix it now."

Chrysalis got up from her spot and moved out of the ring to an otherwise non-unique spot on the wall. Tilting her horn and drowning it in green magical light, a round spot in the ridged wall started to glow. The glow was red at first and then started turning a gentler yellow until it became clear that the spot was where her window was (or used to be). Once the material became see-through, it was as easy to see outside as if it was normal glass.

"Nifty," the princess remarked.

Chrysalis smiled and started toward the stairs across the room.

"I think Spike has finished preparing breakfast," she explained.

Might as well, Twilight thought. She could settle the matter of her bedroom over the meal. Or perhaps just think it over. After that good bout of sleep, some thinking certainly was in order.

Getting up with a yawn, she followed Chrysalis out of the ring, downstairs, and then into the kitchen. It seemed the tiny dragon had thought to make a simple entree of oatmeal. Of course, simple was only in the sense that it wasn't accompanied by ornate side dishes or garnish. Spike always made the otherwise bland oatmeal with just the right amount of sugar and spice. With a keen addition of mixed berries, it tasted quite nice. Or at least it was to Twilight. Chrysalis only sat at the table as a formality since she dined with an entirely different food pyramid.

"I guess the bedroom is staying as it is, huh?" Spike started the morning conversation as he twirled a spoon in his bowl.

Chrysalis gave the alicorn a hopeful look to which the pony sighed. It was the sigh of relent.

"I'd like to think it over but, for now, yes," she answered, not meaning to sound as regal as she came off. Was that tone of voice just natural to the horned and winged race?

"I can add anything you like. Something to hold books, perhaps?" Chrysalis happily suggested as Twilight took a spoonful of the tasty oatmeal.

After carefully chewing and swallowing, she replied, "I'd say that I'd like to think about that too, but I'm curious to know how you did it all in the first place. Care to enlighten me as to how you morphed my bedroom within fourteen hours?"

Such was the time that Twilight had left for Canterlot for the coronation and then returned to Ponyville at night. Chrysalis had been forced to hurry but she had managed it all the same.

"Just magic, Twilight. It's nothing you couldn't guess," she failed to explain.

"I wouldn't be so sure. What is that black stuff anyways?"

Spike continued to sit at the table with them. Rather then eating the oatmeal with the former unicorn, which he occasionally did out of boredom or in the interest of refining the taste of it, he just nibbled on a small sapphire he had prepared earlier. He had, after all, finished his current chores for Princess Twilight Sparkle and was more than content to bask in the glory that he was in the upper echelon of royal assistants. Number one, that is to say.

The changeling mare didn't answer the question directly, instead taking a peculiar interest in the blueberry that occupied a corner of Twilight's bowl of oatmeal.

"Nothing important," Chrysalis dodged.

But that only piqued the alicorn's interest in the way that made most ponies worried. Twilight, princess or not, was a stickler for details.

"What is it?" she asked with a cooler and more serious tone.

"Detritus," Chrysalis frowned. The changeling knew that her pony friend wouldn't be fond of the idea.

"Detritus?" Twilight mimicked.

"Detritus," the changeling repeated. Taking the occasion to further Twilight's knowledge in changeling life, Chrysalis decided to extrapolate. "From the Everfree Forest. Changelings," she motioned to herself almost proudly, "take leaves and sticks from nearby forests and use their magic - it doesn't take much - to compact and transform the material into that black stuff. We just call it 'clod.' It doesn't deserve a fancy name but it's crucial to maintaining a clean and secure hive. It can take quite the effort to get if the nearest forest is-"

"Hive?" Twilight interrupted with a giggly mood. "You still consider the two of us your hive?"

Chrysalis considered it no laughing matter though. After taking in the changeling, Twilight and her dragon slave (as the original misunderstanding went) became the first two members of Chrysalis' new hive. Maybe it wasn't anything like a changeling hive but it was still a hive to her. What the newly appointed princess didn't seem to understand was that "hive" did not exactly mean what most ponies thought it did. They often thought that hives were bad things or else understood them only in the sense of beehives. Changeling hives were quite different though. And to the former queen, they were a matter of close family.

"As I always will. Besides," the changeling tossed her mane in what might have been a form of pouting. "You are the reason I'm alive right now."

Twilight smiled. She couldn't deny it any more than she could the delicious taste of the oatmeal to which she took another spoonful. Unicorns and alicorns really had such an easy time with silverware.

More to the point, Twilight had a better understanding of changelings now but then she also might still have more misunderstandings than she currently realized. The true nature of the "hive" was an elusive subject for her. It was simply not something that could be adequately explained with words. It was one of those matters in life that could only be fully understood in it's actual living context. In other words, Twilight had to live "hive" life to understand what it really was. And that, in turn, meant that she still didn't know what place she held in the "hive" in relation to Chrysalis. Was she like a worker or like royalty? Was she somewhere in between or just an honorary member?

Spike, on the other hoof (or claw), had been taking everything quite well. There were moments where he panicked like his caretaker Twilight and then moments where he exhibited unusual calm and logic. This must have been one of those latter moments because he made no further fuss over the bedroom or even to his unicorn "sister" becoming an alicorn. In fact, he took the moment to express his contentment with last night's sleep. A rather ordinary type of conversation that revealed his utter acceptance of life, the universe, and changelings.

"I liked my old bed and blanket, but I have to admit," he tilted his head to Chrysalis across the table, "that ring thing is definitely an upgrade."

Chrysalis beamed all over again. It would seem that nothing in Equestria was going to lower her mood now, which was quite a switch from how she had been some months prior. The way she used to mope about the house seemingly in mixed pain and depression was, needless to say, not healthy in the ways of conviviality. She looked again to the purple princess.

Swallowing her food properly, Twilight struck up the obvious question, "What exactly happened last night...?"

"You came home and nearly passed out on the floor. I got you into the ring in time, though. You slept quite well and I'd say you enjoyed it quite a bit since your wings twitched so much," Chrysalis started to explain.

"And you drooled," Spike added flatly. The changeling nudged him in the side as an indication that he lacked tact.

"My wings twitch..." Twilight seemed to say more to herself than the others. She had a lot to learn about the two things on her back.

Chrysalis decided to explain further, as her royal host was still very much in the dark. "The three of us slept the usual way. I mean the changeling way," she corrected. "It can be dangerous to a changeling's health to sleep alone. It is normal and entirely necessary to fall asleep while gazing into another's eyes."

The alicorn raised her attention from her oatmeal to face her dark colored housemate. "So that's why I've caught you staring at me when I'm trying to get to sleep. I thought you were just trying to give me nightmares," Twilight smirked.

The look of shock and insult on the changeling's face was near comical, but Spike was the only one laughing. Attempting to recover, Chrysalis explained further. "Lower members of the hive sleep together in large groups. Sometimes as many as sixteen. Upper members sleep in smaller groups but rarely in less than four. As queen," she reflected, "I would sleep in any ring I chose. The workers were always so happy when I would sleep in their rings..."

Twilight may have been lacking in some cultural knowledge but she was able to pick up on the reminiscing. Chrysalis had some very special connections with her past hive. Perhaps it was motherly affection. The princess hoped not because it would only have made the changeling's cut-off all the more painful and such pain she would not wish on any pony...or changeling.

What did Chrysalis feel now? Was she masking sadness?

"Chrysalis," Twilight Sparkle started before the changeling spoke instead.

"I sleep in a different ring now. Yours," Chrysalis smiled but it seemed to have taken on a bitter sweet taint. "And Spike is not as cold at night as I had thought."

The dragon puffed up in response. Somehow it seemed it was a matter of pride to him. Must be a dragon thing, the changeling concluded.

"I conserve my heat, not lose it," he stated.

"Oh, I recall," the princess thought back to Spike's earliest years. It seemed nostalgic somehow. She was a little filly having to take care of a hatchling dragon that was attached to her like a magnet. "You were especially clingy during winter. I guess you wanted to add my own heat to yours when you slept. Sometimes I'd have claw marks on me when I got up in the morning."

"Twilight," Spike drew out the name in complaint. "Stop it."

Chrysalis missed the fact that the poor dragon was blushing in embarrassment. Perhaps it was due to the fact that the concept of "family sleep" was so natural to her.

"It's important to maintain physical contact before and during sleep as well," the changeling decided to continue the conversation. Twilight could use something to listen to as she finished her meal anyways. "Familial love between changelings is not a possible form of food but it's necessary all the same. Without some foundation of affection through family, we starve a whole lot faster. Since we all have our own things to attend to during the rest of the day, bedtime is the perfect opportunity to express care."

Twilight looked back up from her now empty bowl and regarded her changeling friend. The former queen held a lop-sided expression that told of her difficulty in presenting all of the cultural information to Twilight in a manner that she would understand.

"I see," the alicorn decided. "It does make sense even if I can't picture any of those drones having feelings like love or friendship. No offense but I'm inclined to say that you're the exception to the changeling rule."

To that, Chrysalis looked away from the alicorn.

"I guess I was a little different..."

"Different?" Spike interrupted, crossing his arms. "Join the club. I'm not exactly the poster example for a dragon."

It seemed more a light-hearted encouragement than a legitimate complaint so the other two laughed mildly in return. They were all unusual in their own way but everything had managed to work out.

So far.