Twilight was a little worried. She was staring down the transmutation array, though it wasn’t the first time. Before it was slight alterations and minor upgrades, but this one was a doozy. She had refrained from taking most of the traded improvements, as well as most of her own developments, due to time and not having the time to recover properly. Now, though, there was still a week before Crystarium’s grace period was over and all the preparations had been properly made.

“Are you sure you want to do it all at once, my queen?” Ceren asked, who was double checking the array and the template formulae it was going to use.

“Not at all, but I have to if I want to keep up. If I stagger it then the recovery time would be much too long. Mira said Crystarium was already amassing forces, some of her sentries spied large groups moving around nearby. Besides, this is the perfect way to test our newest theory on the link between a queen and her drones.” Twilight replied. Samuel sighed, who was going to be the one to activate the array.

“We’re ready to start when you are, then. Do your best not to summon up any magic, your brands may interfere with the array.” He warned. She nodded to him after a few moments, signaling him to start. The Biometal was still in its infancy for production, so they wouldn’t risk inputting its alchemical template into the array yet, but they had finally transcribed the formulae for Ceren’s Black metal.

It didn’t hurt nearly as much as Twilight was expecting. She could feel her teeth involuntarily clenching and most of her muscles stiffening, but she managed to concentrate hard enough to not channel protective or healing magic against her instincts. It was a grueling ten minute procedure, but when it was finally done she was far less exhausted than she had been last time she went through it. Which was surprising considering this was more than triple the change.

“How do you feel, my queen?” Ceren asked. Twilight stood from the transmutation table, only swaying a little bit.

“Not too terrible. Either I’m getting tougher or my body is getting used to this…” She replied.

“Perhaps it’s the healing salve’s addition, numbing the pain and exhaustion.” Samuel suggested. Ceren shrugged.

“Seems we thought wrong about the link, though. I admit I feel a little different, but I’ve yet to go through the reinforcement transmutation -at least the newest strain- and I can still feel the steel rather than black metal.” The young mage sighed. Twilight was honestly surprised at that.

“Really? I was so certain that would work… We’ll have to run some more tests after the war, let’s see if we can’t get that Biometal into production so that Rarity can make her armor blueprints a reality.” The queen said. The group all nodded and got back to work. Twilight was still pretty tired and almost famished with how hungry she was. She beelined straight for the nearest mess hall and asked them to give it a triple love infusion and to have her meal ready when she got there.

“Ah, perfect timing, I was just going to ask where you were.” A familiar princess of the night said when Twilight arrived. She had sat down next to Princess Luna without even realizing it.

“Oh, Princess! I almost forgot you were still here. Need something?” Twilight asked as a large steak was placed in front of her on an already opened pod plate. She waited to dig in only long enough for Luna to answer to be polite.

“I had just received reports of changelings that are not of your brood in many places around Equestria. I’ve ordered my people to have them watched but I don’t know what they’re doing. I was hoping you’d have an idea before I do something rash.” The lunar diarch said. Twilight paused before a meat filled bite.

“Well, Crystarium’s army surely isn’t gathering anywhere near Equestria… I know Mira has taken a personal interest in learning about Equestria, so that might be it. Otherwise it might be the other queens trying to gather information on me, I told you what I told them right?” The Queen replied. Luna nodded.

“If it’s all gathering information then I suppose I can’t have them uprooted. If we have proof they are of your enemies they will be dealt with appropriately, though. Declaring war on an ally of Equestria is like declaring war on Equestria itself. I still don’t understand why you refuse the aid of our military. Quite a few of both my Night Guard and Tia’s Royal Guard have openly volunteered to fight alongside you.” Luna said. She seemed a little unhappy about it.

“This is not Equestria’s war. The other queens may not be able to hold a feather to your armies, but the only reason my fight is coming to open warfare is because subterfuge and infiltration is impossible. Not with our hive mind. They got into Canterlot and the royal wedding of all things, I only found Chrysalis out because I knew Cadence too well…” Twilight explained, though her mood dampened at the old memory of Chrysalis. She looked off in the vague direction of where the old queen slept and sighed. Luna noticed it and, having spent a good amount of time here, realized where she was looking.

“How did the experiment go? Your carapace seems a smidge darker I think.” Lina asked, trying to get the girl’s mind off her sleeping queen.

“Well, my transmutation was a success. Even with so many elements to it it took far less out of me as it should have.” She said, her hunger returning in full as she started devouring her steak. She paused halfway through to speak again.

“But the general experiment about the link is inconclusive. Everyone I’ve asked admits they feel slightly different but no actual change has taken place. From all of our previous experiments any change in the Queen has yielded recordable results in most, if not all, of the drones. Even Vinyl started talking about weird things she’s been feeling according to Nel and Charon, and she’s a Harvester.” Twilight grumbled out. She was still annoyed that it didn’t work. Especially since over one hundred thousand transmutations would take so much time and arcane energy. Luna hummed in thought.

“Have you tried any of these changes on Chrysalis? Or, if you have, tried doing separate things between you?” Luna asked. Twilight was confused for a moment before she dropped her fork.

“That’s it! There IS a connection between the Queen and her Drones. But we have Queens, TWO Queens. Changes may have to happen to both while we both still live.” She exclaimed. She didn’t even need to direct Ceren and Samuel to ready the array again. She got down the rest of her steak in a rush and quickly hugged Luna.

“Thank you so much! If this works then it’ll be our greatest discovery yet!” She continued to almost yell. Luna was surprised by the sudden embrace but returned it in full.

“It’s the least I can do since you won’t accept my soldiers.” She chuckled, patting the queen on the head. Twilight happily accepted the gesture and the love that came with it. Celestia may have been her mother figure, but Luna was like her big sister rather than aunt. “Come on then, I had better get going and you have experiments to run. Keep me posted, I’ve setup my dragonfire network to accept messages from your arcane signature.” Luna continued, ending the embrace. Twilight nodded.

“Once the fighting is over, if we can resolve this peacefully I’ll be sure to try and get the other queens to make diplomatic advances with Equestria and its allies. Mira’s contract means she’s already on board, and she hasn’t regretted it yet.” Twilight replied.

“I’m glad, be sure to come back and visit once you’re no longer needed here. Celestia certainly misses you.” Luna suggested. Twilight giggled and gave her another quick hug as her affirmative before shooting off towards her chambers. Luna asked for a meal pod for the trip and gathered up her escort of Night Guards, the Dark Valkyries getting along well with the hunters in the hall.

Twilight was beyond careful, carrying Chrysalis’ sleeping form across the hive. She didn’t like risking teleporting normally, for fear of hurting herself or someone she accidentally teleports into, and she certainly wasn’t going to risk it with Chrysalis. Normally the corridors were busy with her brood scampering about their days, it was actually starting to get just a little cramped in here, but right now the corridors were almost empty as Chrysalis was moved through them. It was almost like there was a tangible field around them as Twilight carried her, the tidal wave of chitin and buzzing flowing around them like water.

They wouldn’t dare risk bumping them for fear of causing Chrysalis to fall.

“I recommend monitoring her very closely, I don’t know how her body will take to the transmutation. This is all of them at once, even more than yours. She is love stuffed, though, and you’ve been keeping her body fit through magical exercise correct?” Samuel asked. Twilight nodded as she carefully laid Chrysalis on the transmutation table.

“I’ve been massaging her muscles to keep them awake and strong and making sure she gains all the nutrients they need though Love.” Twilight explained as the array started glowing to signify that it was ready. She was preparing all of the healing magic she knew just in case. Twilight nodded to Samuel, who looked to Ceren. She gave the thumbs up and he activated the array.

Twilight noticed that the energy the thing was giving off was much lower, Samuel must have lowered the power output to put less strain on the body. It would take longer for the transmutation to finish, but it would do less damage immediately. Especially if something went wrong. Twilight was almost brought to tears as she sat through a grueling hour of watching Chrysalis’ sleeping body twitch and occasionally convulse.

The worst part was that Twilight could feel Chrysalis’ pain.The whole hive could, and it was terrible. Twilight even made sure to check her manifestation in the forest of their minds. It was still sleeping happily, though, which meant that this pain was only physical and would not last. The reassurance seemed to seep from her as everyone else in the room visibly let out held breaths.

The long hour was finally over, and Chrysalis was back to her peaceful expression. Twilight looked around and was going to ask the others how they felt, but she noticed the changes before she could get the words out. Their Chitin had taken a darker tint and the two noncombatants even seem to have gained a bit of muscle. They were looking at their hands and arms and their confusion was heard over the hive mind.

“This is… different. These changes… they’re not just what we outlined. I know you have very good muscle volume from your combat training my Queen. Queen Chrysalis’ muscle mass is being maintained by you, so perhaps this change may also affect your natural state as well?” Ceren theorized.

“No… we did not change before when the Queen had minor changes like that. Perhaps it was only the case due to the transmutation? We’ll have to study it further.” Samuel retorted.

“Absolutely. Princess Luna was correct, though. Our link is based on both of our queens, rather than just the active one.” Ceren summarized as she looked at Twilight. Twilight had starting stroking Chrysalis’ hair again, the sleeping Queen’s smile seemed just a little larger at making the discovery.

“I hope we figure out a formula for the love production then…” Twilight said softly.

“We’d need to examine quite a few of the other races to find a consistent strain. Your signature is too different from ours to get a clean scan of it to translate, either way we should prepare the Biometal. Come on, Sam.” Ceren replied as she turned to the other researcher.

“Uh, yes. Right. The first pod should be almost full by now.” He agreed.

Twilight brought Chrysalis back to their chambers and decided to take a nap with her. She was still exhausted from her own transmutation, and these new discoveries were starting to take a toll on her mental strength at the moment. Too much thought in too little time. She let it all melt away as she held the sleeping Queen close.

“We’re getting closer, Chrysalis… One day we’ll be able to wake you up…” She whispered, kissing the sleeping queen goodnight before nuzzling into her neck.

Author's Notes:

Hopefully we'll get to some action next chapter. That's my plan at least. Who knows, though, we can always use more fluff.
Hope you Enjoyed.