"I just... I don't know if I can do it man... I mean, I love her and all, but if this is how things are going to go down... I may have made a terrible mistake," you muttered, rubbing your eyes with such fervor that you felt like you were going to give yourself a black eye. You had to rely on Chitin to guide you through the corridors through the hive because you were that drawn into trying to ease the tension from your own body.

Looking at you through Vespa's good eye, Chitin replied "Are you that shallow about appearances that if either Apocrita or Queen Chrysalis became like Pharynx and Thorax, that you would stop loving them?"

"Loving them? No, I'd still love them. Now, would I still be sexually attracted to them? Hmmm... probably not," you answered, pulling your hands from your eyes, leaving them a bit red from the excess rubbing. Of course, as you thought it over, it was weird that you'd say you were sexually attracted to creepy bug-ponies in the first place, or even ponies on the norm.

"I wasn't aware that you were capable of separating love from sexual attraction. I'd have figured you'd see it as all the same thing," Chitin stated, his tone showing he was being humorous about it.

Smirking, you said "I'll have you know, I can be attracted to something and not love it... now, loving something without being sexually attracted to it, that is a bit harder. However, for both of them, I think I ca-"

Before you got to finish your sentence, something struck your jaw hard and fast, sending your body into a spin as you collapsed to the ground, the back of your head colliding with the hive floor. You groaned out in pain, feeling your jaw for damage, hoping you didn't lose any teeth. To your meager pleasure, nothing was missing, although you did have a split lip that was bleeding now.

"Son of a bitch, what the fuck was that," you asked, trying to push yourself up, although the collision apparently left you feeling woozy. Looking up, you saw the world as though it was swimming, probably aggravated by the actual movements of the hive as it was drug along by the dragons. Even worse, you were seeing double, as two Chitins in Vespa disguise looked back at you... although, seeing double usually meant the same exact thing, so why was one concerned and the other angry loo- OH FUCK!

You barely registered what was going on with your addled brain when the angry Vespa, which you recognized as being the real Vespa, lashed out with a foreleg, slamming a hoof into your chest and pinning you to the ground, her face quickly over yours, snarling viciously at you. "You filthy, lowly beast. I should rip your heart out through your anus for what you've done! Not only to me, but to my queen, as well as my offspring!" Vespa hissed, fangs almost on your as it was.

Despite the now throbbing pain in your head and pressure on your chest, you gave out a weak chuckle and said "Heeeeey Vespa, nice to see you again. You're looking good, which I can tell better than you with the one good eye and all, and I mean that seriously. Looks like my love meals for you helped fill a few holes... wish I could have said my dick did that instead, wink wink." Indeed, Vespa was looking healthier than she had been before you kidnapped her, but didn't seem to care at all.

"Seriously, she's about to rip you apart, and you make jokes about her eye and your penis?" Chitin asked, seeming kind of silly since he hadn't removed his transformation.

Turning her head to view him, Vespa pushed off you and marched up, seeming larger than him, despite him matching her height, which was made only worse as he shrunk away from her. "And you! You sniveling little worm, you helped him! You wore my face! I should blind you in both eyes for that!" she growled, her words making Chitin remove his illusion.

Coughing, you rose slowly to your feet, not wanting to give Vespa a reason to slam you into the floor again, or worse. "So, I can't help but notice that you're saying a lot of 'I should', but aren't doing a lot of it. I'm hoping there's a good reason for that. At least, good for me, since you haven't ripped my heart out already," you inquired of the angry elite.

Snapping her head back to you, Vespa's upper lip twitched, but she calmed herself down. "Because no matter what I want to do, it will be up to the queen to decide what to do with you... whomsoever that ends up being," she explained, her words going soft as she averted her gaze at the end.

"Whomsoever... wait... you... she... she's out?" you asked, looking around the corner that Vespa had come from, your heart pounding in your chest now.

"Yes, she... I don't know what you did to her, but I know it's your fault regardless," Vespa stated, a slight frown tugging at her lips, but it didn't seem like she was fully disgusted.

Grabbing her head and pulling it forward so her eye was trained on one of yours, you said "I need you to be completely honest with me, this is very important... does she look like a gay moose?"

"What? No... stop that!" Vespa commanded, slapping your arms away with a foreleg. "She looks like... no, you know what, I won't tell you. Words won't do it just anyways, just that I think you doomed her. She doesn't even have a horn to defend herself with anymore."

"A queen without a horn? That's completely unheard of. I'd be more interested in researching this phenomenon, but I'm afraid that if this is true, Apocrita is going to lose the fight with Chrysalis, and then I'll be torn apart for my part in this," Chitin considered, truly fascinated by what he was hearing, but already aware of how fucked he was.

"Well where is she? I'll see for myself!" you declared, ready to walk down the corridor Vespa came from, only for her foreleg to block your path.

"She already told me that she'll be meeting with Queen Chrysalis outside. She already crossed paths with a guard and sent them to deliver the message. As she stated, she does not want to damage the hive itself, so she will be taking it where nopony will be harmed," Vespa explained, pushing you to turn around and nudging you in the back with her horn. "She asked me personally to take you outside, she was hoping she'd get a minute alone with you before the duel."

Realizing how little time you'd probably have, you needed little further provocation as you started off down the tunnel eagerly. This was it! Ap was finally out of her cocoon! You were worried as to what she looked like, how she behaved. You knew that, despite your blossoming feelings for Chrysalis since the birth of your children and the realization that she actually loved you too, you still loved Ap, but if she had changed beyond the physical, who was to say the Ap you fell in love with was still there?

You, Vespa, and Chitin emerged from the only real tunnel you knew that led out of the hive, the same one that Ap showed you on that initial tour. From there, you could see the dragons that had been pulling the hive, stopped as Chrysalis had apparently issued a command throughout the hive, dragons included, to stop so that she may publicly defeat her latest challenger and would be usurper.

Looking around, you saw there were a few Changeling already hovering around, some of them likely on guard duty outside when the command was issued, while more emptied out through some of the other exits in the hive, prepared to watch whatever was going to happen between the two queens. While many were far enough away that you couldn't make out great detail, you knew that they weren't Ap.

"Where is she? I can't see her anywhere," you asked, straining your eyes and turning about all around.

Chitin seemed to struggle as well, but Vespa stepped forward, snorting as she rolled her good eye. "To think, of all the times you joked about my vision because of my eye, you can't see nearly half as well as I can," Vespa declared, lifting a foreleg so she could point her hoof to the sky. Following the path, you saw that she was essentially pointing to the sun, its glare making your eyes hurt. However, just within the bright light, you saw the silhouette of a creature, hovering in place, with only the slightest flap of wings keeping it up.

Gulping nervously, you looked to Vespa. "So... I know that you and I don't always see eye to eye, especially since-"

"Shut up, before you make fun of my blind eye or make some statement about mating with my offspring," Vespa cut you off, walking around behind you so she could wrap her forelegs around your arms. Her wings buzzed, building up power before she took off, carrying you toward the silhouette. You'd have thought that the closer you got, the easier it'd be to see her, but instead it seemed like the light only grew stronger, her black outline only growing as you approached. It was only when you were at the same elevation, facing her directly did you get a good look at her, and found your breathing halted completely, not even a gasp able to leave you as you looked upon her.

While she was flying, you could definitely tell that Ap had grown to such a height that she rivaled Celestia and Chrysalis while standing, with long legs and a neck, but with a fullness to her form that indicated she wasn't quite slender as Chrysalis was, but didn't look like she had bulked up. That was probably in part because in place of the black exoskeleton that had covered her body before, containing only the barest essentials inside the tough carapace, was what appeared to be a fine coating of white fur. It wasn't like pony fur though, which always seemed to be a smooth, neat coating that covered their bodies in an orderly manner, but instead seemed to be soft and fluffy, although short enough that it wasn't wild.

The only exception was her tail, her mane, which seemed to go from the top of her head down the back of her neck in a manner similar to her fin when she had it, and what seemed to be a large collar of fur around the base of her neck, all of which seemed to be a fair bit fluffier and colored a light shade of violet.

Her eyes were now the same as Chrysalis' appeared to be, but with a lighter violet replacing the whites of the eyes and a deeper purple serving as the iris in which her now present pupils rested. Above her eyes were two large, feathery golden antennae, each matching the length and thickness of her neck, switching between an upright posture and a relaxed one as she seemed to find fit.

Finally, her wings were no longer the ragged and torn transparent set that looked like they could barely support her weight while gliding, let alone flying. Now they were four large, magnificent wings, covered in brightly colored scales the way you would see on a moth. The wings had a design on them, with black stripes that seemed to be patterned so that the rest of the primarily violet wings had an almost flame-like appearance, along with what seemed like two giant eyes that were positioned at the upper 'corners' of the wings, with a large red circle inside of a yellow ring.

Smirking at you, her mouth now devoid of fangs, Ap said with a voice that told you it was still her "Hey Anon, like what you see?"

Reaching a hand out almost reverently, you gently caressed the light violet fur around her neck, enjoying the softness and warmth it exuded. "You're... you're... you're like a violet horse version of Mothra..."

Lifting her brow, causing one of the feathery antenna to twitch, Ap asked "Who the fuck is Mothra?"

Something about hearing her curse, something that only she and Pupa did among all the pony people in this land, helped trigger this was indeed the pony-bug you had fallen in love with. Lurching forward, you actually shook free of Vespa's hold, which would have sent you plummeting to the ground below. Thankfully, Ap seemed to recognize rather quickly what you were trying to do, and quickly enveloped you in a golden aura that seemed to come from her antennae. With her support, you were able to wrap your arms around her neck, pulling yourself closer so that you could kiss her.

For the moment, you started with a sweet, loving kiss, lips simply pressed together, both of you shutting your eyes to enjoy the embrace... then, you started to get a bit raunchier, your hands traveling down her back, letting your tongue lick her lips as you whispered "I'm going to make you wish you still had an exoskeleton after I make a mess of this fur," you groaned out, quickly earning you a slap across the face from her antenna, apparently fairly prehensile.

"Dammit Anon, you had to ruin the moment, didn't you?" Ap grunted, glaring at you, but her lips failing to keep a proper frown as the corners of her mouth twitched upward.

"What? I can't help it, you're looking pretty damn good for a moth-horse, and Mothra is one of my favorite kaiju anyways. Plus, best of all... you're not a gay moose," you responded, defending your actions with what you could only see as an ironclad rule.

"Gay moose?" Ap asked, looking to Vespa for clarification.

"Don't ask me, I've been tied up for the past couple of days, you know that," she grunted, glaring at you, but at the same time finding it difficult in the presence of her enhanced child.

"Oh yeah, neither of you know. Well, let me explain. Thorax and Pharynx returned to the hive as a pair of gay moose and-" you started to ramble, only to get Ap's fluffy hoof in your mouth. Mmm, it smelt nice.

"We can discuss that later, honestly... I just want to talk to you before I fight Chrysalis," Ap stated, slowly removing her hoof as she simply looked at you with a sort of need you weren't quite familiar with.

"Need a power boost before you guys fight? Because I'll be honest, I... have been feeding Chrysalis a hell of a lot more than I expected. She kicked Thorax and Pharynx across the throne room floor, it was totally badass... oh god... I just realized, if you're Mothra, then she's Battra!" you declared, your knowledge of old Kaiju movies suddenly drawing parallels, only made worse as you looked down, eyeing one of the dragons that looked suspiciously like Godzilla now that you thought about it.

Shaking her head, Ap said "No, I won't be needing that."

"Oh? Confident huh?... I like it, very sexy, very authoritative. I'll let you be big spoon tonight," you joked, although you could totally see yourself wrapped up in the warm, furry body of the moth-pony. Her wings would be like a blanket, so very comfy.

Chuckling, Ap didn't seem to mind the implication as she replied "I am. I know we had some... worries before, about whether or not things would succeed, or if I'd be able to take Chrysalis on, but... after we had that argument, when you told me exactly what you wanted, I started thinking about it and knew that we can do it."

"Because I believe in you and that's all we need to win?" you implied.

"Yeah... and because I'm a badass elite whose had a lot more recent combat experience than Chrysalis, combined with your love empowering me, and even my own love for you somehow making me stronger," she acknowledged, smirking a bit as she wasn't willing to let you cheese this up.

"... and yet you're not a gay moose. Thorax and Pharynx are going to be so upset they didn't become moths," you answered, steepling your fingers as you considered it. Ap rolled her eyes, an act so much more obvious now that she didn't just have the compounded bug eyes, and clocked you in the shoulder with a hoof. Damn! Despite being so fluffy, she was still pretty damn strong.

"Easy there Mothra, you're a lot more powerful than you were before," you hissed, rubbing your shoulder. "Do that again, and I'll go fuck one of these dragons to get a Godzilla on your ass... or maybe a three headed one to get King... no, Queen Ghidorah."

"Considering you, I'm sure Dragon Lord Ember would be a possibility," Ap muttered.

"Who?"

Realizing she said something she shouldn't have, Ap slapped you across the face with one of her antenna. It didn't hurt, if anything felt oddly nice, but definitely confused you. "Stop that, you're thinking about other women too much. It's bad enough I'm going to have to share you with Chrysalis when we're done and through with this, I don't need you planning to fuck other females any further than you already have," Ap chided you over, her brow furrowing with her antennae maneuvering to add to her annoyed expression.

"You didn't seem to be thinking that way when you and Luna were kissing around my cock," you stated, grinning like the Cheshire Cat at this point.

"... Fine, but only if I'm around as well. I don't need you going around making every creature in Equestria fall under the sway of your 'scepter'," Ap replied, her tone indicating she knew something.

"... Luna told you?"

"Yeah, Luna told me," Ap admitted.

"Can you both not talk about this in front of me? I'd really rather not learn anything further about how my offspring betrayed the hive by mating with this... thing," Vespa groaned, glaring at you venomously, although her expression softened a bit as Ap moved you closer to her.

"Sorry ca-... Mom. Sorry mom," Ap stated, apparently finding it important to express how she viewed Vespa, surprising the yellow eyed elite, but not angering her.

Looking between the two semi-awkward Changelings, you snickered. "This is such a cute family reunion," you stated, earning you an irritated glance from the both of them.

Before either could respond, you heard "Funny, because from the way I'm looking at things, this seems like a family splitting apart." All three of you turned your attention to the source, finding what you feared, but knew was coming.

Rising up to meet with you was none other than Chrysalis herself. While she was always rather menacing, you'd grown used to the soft, loving looks she gave you. Tender eyes and longing gazes that indicated she was enamored with you in a way she had never been before with any other creature. Now though, her eyes were harder than diamond and colder than ice. Her pupils were thinned to the point of being razor sharp, lips curled back with her jaw so firmly set in a snarl that you thought her exoskeleton was going to crack under the pressure.

You'd never seen Chrysalis look so truly furious before, not even when you'd been hurt. But worse than the expression of pure, unrelenting murder that she was exuding, was something that you wish you didn't see. That despite the burning rage she had, she felt even more, as tears welled up in the corner of her eyes, and like everything else about this situation, it was all your fault.

Author's Notes:

This is it. Ap's new form revealed. I'd honestly had a hard time deciding what direction I wanted to take it way, waaaaaay back, but I remembered someone commenting about a moth design and I liked it, this sense of regality that came from the wings, especially when they're resting, like a large cloak or cape.

Unfortunately, their reunion is obviously being cut short right now, but I think that in the short period of time, a sense of where they stand with one another is coming off fairly well. Too bad it's time for the fight. Ring the bell!