Anon owlishly blinked, "Wait, what?"

"She's surrendering! She's arrived waving a white flag and she's being transported to the dungeon right now." The guard explained.

"Where is the rest of your squad? Why did they send a private to inform us and not use the proper chain of command?" Luna questioned, raising an eyebrow in scrutiny.

"They were all afraid to take their eyes off of her. They just stuck a mana blocker ring on her and told me to inform you as quickly as possible." The guard hastily explained.

Celestia's eyes narrowed as she observed the pony. After a moment of silence, she looked over to Valorant, "Captain, have some guards cast the detection spell. I want to be certain." She ordered.

Without a word, Valorant nodded to a few of the unicorn guards in the throne room. They hastily marched forward, spears still at the ready, before their horns ignited and a wave of magical energy beamed out over the mare, scanning her completely. After a few seconds, they cut the spell off and nodded to Valorant.

"She's clean, Princess. Not a changeling." Valorant announced.

Celestia chewed her cheek while Luna pursed her lips.

"Then... Chrysalis really is surrendering and being taken to the dungeon?" Twilight questioned.

"It appears that she is indeed." Celestia replied, pensively.

"A-are we sure that a white flag means the same thing to a changeling as it does to us? I mean... it could mean something else... right?" Anon reasoned, a slightly nervous look on his face.

"As far as I'm aware... all nations understand that a white flag is a sign of surrender... even if Changelings don't exactly have a nation of their own, they're well versed in our laws and customs. She knows what she's doing." Raven replied, a calculating look on her muzzle.

"Precisely. There's something nefarious going on here..." Luna muttered, her brow heavily furrowed in concern, "Captain, send word to the rest of the guard. We need the entire city scanned from top to bottom. This could be another invasion." She ordered.

Valorant quickly saluted, before galloping out of the throne room, leaving a very pensive and concerned group of ponies and human behind.

"What... what should we do? This has to be a trap, right?" Twilight questioned, looking to her former mentor for guidance.

"For now... I think Luna and I should go and meet with her-" Celestia started, only for Anon to literally jump out of his throne.

"What!? Fuck no! Not just no, but FUCK NO!" He exclaimed.

"Anon-" Celestia tried, but Anon continued.

"There is no way in Hell I'm letting her anywhere near you two! Especially when you're eight months pregnant!" Anon nearly shouted.

"Nonny, please, relax." Luna cooed, wrapping Anon in a gentle hug.

"Honey, I know you're worried, but fear not. Luna and I are more than powerful enough to handle ourselves. Not to mention, we have the entire palace guard to back us up." Celestia offered, joining in the hug.

"Yeah, and last time she wiped the floor with the guard because she was juiced up on love magic shit! Who knows what she's doing this time!" Anon rebutted.

"Anon, we have to confront her. It's our duty to our ponies to protect them from creatures like Chrysalis. We have to go." Luna responded.

"No, I'm... I'm not risking something happening to you both." Anon responded, looking back and forth between his wives.

"Honey, you didn't let me finish earlier. We won't be alone. We have a third alicorn here that is more than capable, isn't that right, Twilight?" Celestia asked, looking over to the lavender alicorn watching with deep interest in her eyes.

"Wha-Oh! Yes! Of course," Twilight responded, her wings flaring out, "I won't let her hurt either of you, promise!" She proclaimed.

Celestia smiled the kind of smile only an expectant mother could, before looking back at Anon, "See, sweetie? We'll be fine. I promise."

Anon bit his lip as he looked into her warm, magenta eyes. He almost didn't notice the pair of soft blue lips on his cheek until Luna pulled away.

"We'll put a mana nullification ring on her horn as soon as we arrive... well, another, I suppose. She'll be neutralized before she has a chance to even try anything, honey." She comforted, hugging him tightly.

"Um... Your Highnesses?" The mare in the center of the room suddenly spoke up, redirecting all eyes to her, "I-I apologize for interrupting, but I don't think that will even be necessary..." She said, her voice trailing off.

"Why is that?" Celestia questioned.

"W-well, she looked... thin. Very thin, as if she were malnourished or... or something." The mare explained.

"She's a changeling. Changing her appearance to look frail and on the verge of starving wouldn't take much effort at all, I think." Luna rebutted.

Celestia scratched her chin in thought, "We will take this into consideration. As it stands, however, the three of us will still be going together."

Anon opened his mouth to protest, but quickly lost his steam and let out a sigh, "Well then let me at least come with too. I want to be there to beat her snout in if she tries anything."

"Honey-" Celestia started, only for Anon to cut her off once more.

"Don't even. You're both eight months pregnant and I'm just a nonmagical mortal. We're all making poor choices today or none of us are, so what's it gonna be?" He questioned, crossing his arms.

Luna and Celestia shared a look, before letting out a sigh that quickly turned to a pair of chuckles. Anon raised his eyebrow at the apparent humor of the situation, but before he could question it, Celestia spoke once more.

"That's what we love about you, honey. Never one to back down from us. Alright, fair enough, but let us stand between you and her. We may be pregnant, but we're still immortal." She announced, a fondness in her voice that made Anon blush ever so slightly.

"Fine... but I'm bringing my frying pan." Anon declared.

"She'll be quivering in fear at just the sight of you." Javelin teased.

"Shut up and let's go." Anon ordered, smirking at his guard.

The trip to the kitchen was quick, and within a few minutes, the group was walking down the hallway leading to the dungeon. Another dozen guards followed behind their prince and princesses as the group hastily made its way through the corridors of the castle to the lone staircase leading into the crystal cavern below. After a quick jaunt down the stairs, they arrived at a wooden lift, magically anchored to the side of a large cliff overlooking the vast cave system below.

Anon, Javelin, Celestia, Luna, and Twilight all stepped on the lift while Raven stayed behind on the cliffside with the rest of the guards.

"I'll see you all when you get back." Raven announced, walking over to Javelin.

"See you soon, hun." Javelin replied, planting a kiss on her muzzle.

Raven returned the kiss, before stepping away from the lift and casting a quick spell to lower it. After a moment for her magic to work, the torches on all four corners of the lift switched from a green light to a red hue, and the lift slowly descended.

As they were steadily lowered, Anon observed the massive cavern below, along with the dungeon structure built into the face of the wall. The walls looked like a normal prison, only the entire building was made of crystal, and reflected the many shades of green, blue, red, and purple all illuminating the cave system from various bioluminescent light sources, scattered along the walls.

"Maximum security, indeed." Anon whistled, looking out at the nearly two hundred guardsmares stationed all over the prison structure.

Unicorns, pegasai, and earth ponies all stoically stood guard at their posts. Some held crossbows in their hooves, some manned ballista's, and some simply roved around the prison walls, their keen eyes scanning for any signs of escape. At the sight of their quickly arriving guests, however, the guards quickly set about preparing for the princess. The gates were swiftly opened, and a trio of mares stepped out to greet the royals as their lift finally reached the ground.

The leader of the approaching trio, a black thestral mare with a scar running down her cheek and through her lip, to her chin, quickly saluted. Her blood red iris's focused on Luna first, before looking over to Celestia as the solar diarch approached. Her expression remained neutral, although Anon could clearly see that one of her fangs was broken, likely due to whatever created her scar. Her armor looked like the typical night guard armor, only her helm had a large black plumage on it that indicated her rank as a Major.

As the group approached, the other two pegasus mares beside her saluted as well, both of them looking like identical twins with green irises and snow white fur under their day guard armor.

"Princesses, Prince Anon. Welcome to Alcatrots." The Major announced, maintaining her salute.

"Swan, has the prisoner arrived?" Luna asked, returning the salute.

"Yes, your highness. She arrived just a few moments ago. We've moved her to the maximum security holding cell in section five, sub-block D. She's been quiet and cooperative so far, but we've taken every precaution to ensure she doesn't escape." Swan responded, almost automatically.

Luna nodded, "Very good. I trust that she's under watch?"

Swan nodded, "We have the new Day Guard detachment guarding her cell right now."

"How many of them?" Anon questioned.

"Aside from these two and a few on roving patrols? All of them." Swan answered, gesturing to the two guards behind her.

Celestia and Luna both gave a satisfactory nod, "Well then, best not delay any longer. Lead on, Major." Celestia replied, nodding toward the prison.

"Of course, your highness." Swan responded, before swiftly turning tail and heading toward the front gate.

The group followed suit, and despite the slower waddle-like walk Celestia and Luna were relegated to due to their pregnant bellies, within mere minutes, they were strolling through the prison halls. Guards snapped to attention and saluted the royals as they passed them, before quickly resuming their duties. The inside of the prison was designed in such a way that it almost appeared as an impossible maze. Walls curved around each other, and doors almost seemed to disappear without a trace as the group passed through.

"Jesus, this place is fucking with my brain right now." Anon muttered, looking at the walls as if they were moving.

"It's intentionally designed to be almost impossible to navigate, your highness," Swan explained, slowing down to get closer to Anon, "We house the most dangerous criminals in Equestria and beyond, here. If they somehow manage to escape their cells, they still won't be able to find their way out. The walls are designed to shift and change every time somepony walks through." She elaborated.

Anon let out an impressed whistle, "Damn... wait, what do you mean 'beyond'? We have prisoners from other countries here?"

Swan nodded, "Short of Tartarus, this is the most secure prison on the planet. Our neighboring nations have been requesting prisoner transfers constantly to ensure we house their worst."

Anon shook his head, "And you guys built this place just three months after the changeling invasion."

Swan nodded once more, "Three months, twelve days. It's amazing how fast you can build when you have a budget the size of the grand galloping gala, and a lot of earth ponies willing to lend a hoof." She smirked.

"I still don't know where you got them all from. I thought Canterlot was mostly thestrals, unicorns, and griffons." Anon raised an eyebrow.

"From Ponyville and Appleloosa. I called in a few favors." Twilight chimed in.

"Wait, Twilight got to help build this place? I wanted to help." Anon muttered, looking to Celestia and Luna.

"We needed this prison operational asap, Nonny. Learning how to be a prince took precedence. It wasn't something you needed to be concerned with at the time." Luna offered, giving him a hug with her wing.

Anon rolled his eyes, but dropped the subject as the group arrived at the end of the hallway. Swan quickly unlocked and opened the door, revealing a massive room filled with dozens of royal guards, all with their magic or weapons pointed at the smaller cell in the center of the room. Sitting in the cell, behind steel bars and with naught but a small mattress and sink, sat Chrysalis.

Anon peered over Celestia's wither to look at the changeling Queen. Much like the frantic guardsmare described, she was noticeably thinner and more frail looking than before. Even her legs appeared to have more holes in them than Anon remembered her having. Her mane looked thinner and somehow even more unkempt, and her eyes, frightening as they were, looked melancholy.

It was enough to put an air of sympathy around the man as he followed his wives into the cell. The group swiftly made their way toward the queen, finding that she didn't even seem to register their presence until they were just a few feet away from the bars of her cell.

"Chrysalis." Celestia announced, looking down at the queen.

Chrysalis slowly looked up and met Celestia's gaze. A look of defiance instantly flashed through her eyes, but just as soon as it appeared, it faded away, only to be replaced with the same look of melancholy as before. A sad smile formed on her muzzle as she looked back down to the floor.

"I was beginning to wonder if you were going to come see me, Princess. I see you brought the whole family, foals included. Hello there, Anon. Congratulations on the upcoming family." Chrysalis replied, giving a short wave to Anon.

Anon hesitantly returned the wave as Luna stepped toward the cell bars.

"We have no qualms with dealing with the likes of you, pregnant or not." Luna responded, a harsh glare in her eyes.

"We know you're just putting this on as an act, so why don't you just drop the 'woe is me' look and show us what you really look like." Celestia demanded.

Chrysalis chuckled, "Oh, fine."

A blaze of green light surrounded the changeling queen's horn, only to fizzle out almost immediately. Celestia and Luna gave the Queen unamused looks as she tried again, only for the same to happen once more. Both princesses leveled a harsh glare at the changeling as she shrugged and fixed them with a bored expression.

Chrysalis looked the exact same.

"Tadaa," She tutted, giving a fake smile, before slouching back down on her bed, "Not an act. This mana blocking ring keeps me from doing anything anyway, so I don't know why you think I'm even capable of changing right now."

"I don't believe for one second that one ring is enough to handle the likes of you." Celestia rebutted.

"I can try to change. It uses love mostly, but it does takes magic to actually complete the transformation, and I can't use that right now. I'm afraid I'm quite a bit weaker than during our last encounter, Princess. One ring is more than enough to keep me from using just about any spells at the moment." Chrysalis explained with a sad chuckle.

Celestia and Luna shared a look, while Anon pursed his lips and looked over to Javelin, "She's acting nothing like before..." Anon muttered, confusion in his voice.

"Yeah..." Javelin agreed, "Maybe it isn't really her? You know, a normal changeling just trying to pretend to be her."

"Why would a normal changeling do that?" Twilight quizzically questioned, looking back at Anon and Javelin.

"I don't know, Princess. Just throwing out ideas at the moment." Javelin replied.

"How do we know she's not just lying again?" Luna asked, glancing back over at the queen.

Celestia hummed, "The ring blocks magic, and I do recall that even changeling transformations require a bit of magic... if she truly is as weak as she looks... then I can see how it would be enough." She muttered.

Chrysalis raised her hoof, "If you're all done spit-balling over there, I can explain myself. No rush or anything. Not like I'm going anywhere anytime soon." She said, pointedly ignoring the furious looks she received from the guards surrounding her.

Celestia eyed the changeling queen with a raised eyebrow before huffing quietly to herself, "Very well, Chrysalis. Why, pray tell, have you come back and surrendered to us? Knowing how arrogant and self absorbed you are, I find it hard to believe you're willing to come to us and 'degrade' yourself in such a way as this. At least, I'm sure that's how you view it." She shot back, a trace of venom in her tone.

Chrysalis gave Celestia a small glare, "While I'm sure you remember, my invasion last year failed-" She started.

"Spectacularly." Luna cut in.

Chrysalis leveled her glare at the lunar alicorn for several seconds before continuing, "Yes, spectacularly failed... what you don't know is the why I did what I did." She explained.

"Are you talking about the invasion or the impersonating Cadence part? Cause' both were pretty fucked up." Anon spoke up.

Chrysalis rolled her eyes, "Oh don't get me started on impersonating that tramp. Pretending to be her was the most draining, annoying, and frustrating things I've ever had to do. If that were still an option, I'd still choose this over that again. All the lovey-dovey, kissflank nonsense, yuckghh. By the time princess purple arrived, I couldn't keep the act up anymore." She spat, a shiver running down her spine.

"Kinda rude, but okay." Anon muttered.

"The worst part is that little miss goody four-shoes over here ruined all that suffering and planning I put in." Chrysalis continued looking to Twilight now.

"What? For calling you out on being nothing like the real Cadence?" Twilight scoffed.

"Yes. The invasion was never supposed to happen. It was a last ditch effort because you blew my cover." Chrysalis responded, a frown on her face.

"Last ditch effort for what?" Celestia questioned.

"To save my species." Chrysalis answered, flatly.

The princesses of Equestria, Anon, and Javelin all adopted looks of shock or surprise on their faces. For a few moments, the changeling queen's words hung in the air like a smog, before Luna stepped forward.

"What are you talking about?" She demanded.

Chrysalis let out a long sigh, "You do know why I was impersonating Princess Lovey-dovey in the first place, correct?"

Celestia and Luna shared a look, "To infiltrate our country and abduct all of us so you could take over Equestria and feed off of ponies until our species was wiped out." Luna stated, flatly.

Chrysalis's eyes widened, before she almost violently shook her head, "What? Where in Tartarus did you get that idea from? I mean, the abducting all of you part is right, but I didn't want any ponies to die." She defended, a slightly concerned look on her face.

"You can't seriously expect us to believe you." Celestia shot back, raising an eyebrow.

"My kind live off of love. How in the buck are we supposed to survive if the greatest source of love on the planet is extinct?" Chrysalis deadpanned.

Anon scratched his head while Twilight, Celestia, and Luna dipped their heads in thought while Javelin simply shrugged.

Chrysalis huffed, "Since you're all especially slow today, I'll spell it out for you. When your little brown-muzzle over there blew my cover, we had no choice but to enact a full scale invasion, or lose everything. Even so, our objective was to capture every pony alive. A sentiment I wish you'd all shared." She bitterly trailed off.

"That... first off, you're lucky nopony actually did die that day, and secondly, even if you were trying to take anypony alive, that doesn't justify or excuse abducting our kind, sealing them in pods and draining them until they wither away and die of malnutrition!" Celestia exclaimed.

"They weren't going to die!" Chrysalis snarled, suddenly.

"Your actions said otherwise!" Celestia spat, barring her teeth as she glared at the changeling queen.

"The pods keep the ponies inside in a deep state of sleep. They're filled with all the nutrition a pony needs to live for decades. They keep the pony inside in a state of pure bliss and happiness. They'd never know what happened to them as they'd be too busy living in utter ecstasy." Chrysalis explained.

"Oh you can't seriously expect us to believe that drivel!" Luna scoffed.

Chrysalis growled, "What makes more sense for a race of emotivores that feed on love specifically? Keeping a population in constant and utter turmoil, ensuring that love is the last thing they feel, or keeping them in a constant state of happiness and bliss so that the love just pours off of them?" She challenged, her wings buzzing defiantly.

The argument gave all the gathered ponies and human pause. Celestia's fury dissipated quickly, and a look of pensiveness formed on her muzzle. Beside her, Luna chewed her tongue as her eyes fell to the floor below. Twilight even struggled to come up with a decent rebuttal, but found herself coming up empty. Both Anon and Javelin shared looks of deep thought, but much like the rest of the group, found themselves coming up short.

"You can't answer that, can you?" Chrysalis asked, rhetorically, "Because you know that I'm right."

After a few moments of painful silence, Celestia shook her head, a defiant look appearing on her muzzle once more, "Whether you're right or wrong is academic. Ponies deserve to live their lives freely without being a simple food source for your kind. Really, the fact that you're trying to paint us as the villains for defending ourselves and our homes when you were the ones who attacked in the first place, is pathetic."

Chrysalis sighed, her withers sagging heavily, "Well if it weren't for that little incident eight hundred years ago, we wouldn't have to resort to the means we do now."

Celestia's glare narrowed, "You know why that happened, and you know what part you played in it."

Anon looked back and forth between the two mares, "Wait, what happened?" He asked.

Either due to the anger barely being restrained by her millennia of rulership, or to the sheer tenseness of the air, Celestia and everypony else ignored Anon's question.

"Yes, well, young mares make mistakes, do they not?" Chrysalis replied, an uncharacteristically apologetic tone in her voice.

"Mistakes... you almost caused a war! This time you did cause a war!" Celestia exclaimed.

"I have to feed my children!" Chrysalis screamed, her voice reverberating in the massive room.

Silence reigned over the gathered ponies for several seconds as the group watched Chrysalis with mixed expressions on their faces.

"They're dying..." Chrysalis continued, holding back tears.

Celestia's lips parted ever so slightly, but before she could say anything, Chrysalis pressed on.

"They're dying, and I can't find anywhere else on the planet that can provide enough love to keep them alive... not from the minotaurs, not from the griffons, not from the buffalo, and especially not from the dragons..." Chrysalis sniffled, tears dripping down her cheeks and into the cot she sat on.

The previously painful silence of the room instantly became deafening as the Changeling Queen suddenly looked even smaller, and weaker.

"As of this moment, half my hive has starved to death... the rest, are worse off than me... we're doing everything we can to keep the grubs alive, but... just yesterday I lost an entire clutch... do you know what that's like?" She asked, looking up to Celestia through her tear-stained eyes, "Not just to lose a foal, but to be emotionally bonded to them like I am? To feel every emotion: all the fear, all the pain... and then the nothingness."

Celestia subconsciously glanced down to her sister's pregnant belly, finding that the lunar princess was already doing the same to her. They shared a look of deep concern before looking back to the changeling queen.

"I felt every single changeling your ponies killed on that day... every single one stung like a blade through my chest... that made me spiteful, and angry... and for that I'm sorry, but can you honestly look at me right now and say you wouldn't do whatever was necessary to protect your loved ones? Especially the foals still growing inside you right now?" Chrysalis questioned.

Celestia felt a lump in her throat, and found that she simply had no words to say.

Whew, I guess that answers the questions from last story about whether or not ponies were killing changelings, huh?

Like I said, this story will have a much different Chrysalis than I'm sure most people expected. I wanted to really convey her as a mother to her hive, not just some tyrannical queen that didn't give a rat's ass about them. Hence, she's going to be a lot more remorseful and meek compared to what most people depict her as. Don't worry, I'm not making her lose her confidence and poise or anything, but she won't be an arrogant evil bitch like some stories portray her as. You'll all see what I mean in the next chapters.