The sounds of shouting and heavy hooffalls upon stone interrupted Chrysalis in mid-sentence. She looked past the gathering of her wiser drones as the chitinous door at the end of the chamber burst open, admitting a knot of guards clutching an ill-kempt unicorn.

“My queen!” The prisoner shouted, nearly leaping despite the sticky green substance that was hobbling his legs.

Chrysalis stood. “What in Tartarus is the meaning of this?”

One of the guards stepped away from the unicorn and bowed. “Your majesty, we found him crossing the great swamp around our borders. We would not bring a prisoner directly to you, but…”

The prisoner shoved several of the guards in one swift motion, breaking free and staggering toward her as quickly as his bonds would allow. The drones at Chrysalis’ table tensed.

“My queen,” the unicorn said, his lips pulling back into a beatific smile. “I could not let them drain me, for my love is yours alone!”

Chrysalis narrowed her eyes and looked at the guards. “He would not ‘let’ you drain him? Why should I keep guards that won’t subdue a trespasser who says ‘no?’”

The nearest guard swallowed. “Please, your majesty, his strength…”

“Is yours!” The prisoner roared, throwing himself down at her hooves, which he began to kiss. Chrysalis recoiled. “Please, my queen, I ask only that you take my love yourself. Grant me this one request!”

Chrysalis sniffed. “Your scent is… fulsome, but this must be treachery. Nopony in their right mind would ask to be drained.”

He gazed through her with wide, bloodshot eyes. “Please… the common rabble did not see the beauty of your conquest over Canterlot, but to me your inspiration was like none other. You are my muse and my avenging angel; beautiful and terrible in equal measure.” He shook, and curled his parched lips into a rictus. “Please. I love you. Finish for me what you started on that day of judgment!”

She frowned, and looked from guard to guard. Many wouldn’t meet her eyes, but those who did either shrugged or bowed in deference.

Eventually she looked back down at him.

“Very well. I see no harm in draining you myself before you go to rot down in the dungeon…”

[hr]

“Your highness, he still calls for you.”

Chrysalis turned away from the large, serious-looking drone. Waves of hunger broke against her.

“And you’re certain that he… cannot be moved?”

“I’m sorry, your highness. Your choice of prisoners to feed on is, of course, your prerogative. But if I may speak frankly, this one wasn’t well in either body or mind when he arrived in my dungeons, and he’s only deteriorated since you made him your exclusive food source.”

“You cannot know the sweetness of his love,” she breathed. “He doesn’t see me with revulsion, but with reverence. He…” She found herself blushing like a fool. “I… held him, the last time I fed from him. He asked me to, and I… the love was so much sweeter, more than ever before.”

The drone cleared his throat. “Your highness, with respect… he might have been at Canterlot when we invaded, but I don’t think the pony who he was survived our invasion.”

“So what?” Chrysalis spat. “The love I feel from him is genuine.”

“Highness, you’ve said that nopony in full command of their own faculties wishes to be taken by us.”

She snarled. “And you think that he is not? How could I be feeling what I feel from him, were that the case?”

The drone bowed. “I beg forgiveness; I have spoken out of turn.”

Chrysalis inclined her head. Her features softened. “I... wish to see him.”

“Of course, your majesty.”

[hr]

They stopped at the end of a dank, despondent line of barred doors. The guard opened a lock, and Chrysalis stepped in.

Her heart leapt as she spotted him lying on the floor, but she frowned as she watched his ragged breathing for a moment, and studied his emaciated frame.

She turned her gaze toward the cell walls, and froze. Portrait after portrait of herself stared back at her, looking regal, or fearsome, and sometimes both. Hardly a hoof-span of the walls were bare.

“What does he draw with?”

The drone coughed. “Anything at hoof, your majesty.”

“They’re beautiful,” she whispered, looking away.

“Majesty?”

She shook her head. “Break his legs, badly. Take his tongue as well. Then dump him in the nearest pony village.”

The drone bowed. “As you wish.”