Easy was laying there, feeling a mix of confusion and contentedness. Sweet was asleep beside her, which scratched that inner itch to be near the mare, but still, she wasn't that close with her, Sally or especially her queen!

It had been simpler for Strong. She had a partner and the love, after a little trick by Sweet, had transferred to the male changeling. From what Easy understood the two hadn't been seen for two days.

"You can't sleep?" Sally peeked over Sweet Bite's form to her friend, seeing Easy Slip looking conflicted. "Wanna talk about it?"

Easy grumbled and, without thinking, pressed a little more against the mare she couldn't stop thinking about. "Yeah I kinda do." She almost jumped when Sally climbed around Sweet, moving up on Easy's other side. There was a little panic as the mare felt the world closing in.

"Whoa, hold on there, you need more room?"

The startled drone could only nod. The worst part was, she wasn't thinking of running, only cuddling tighter to Sweet.

"Okay, well I will sit over here. You can stay close to my mare just… ah dammit, this isn't the time for jokes. This really isn't fair on you." Sally ended up propped on the edge of the bed, her hooves hanging off and dangling.

Easy buzzed her wings a moment and the sound of chirping could be heard as she rubbed a little against Sweet. "We are just friends, even, well…"

"Friends with a bit more now." Sally nodded, looking off at the wall in front of her, her eyes studying the stone in the near pitch blackness. "You don't like me?"

"It isn't that, you are a good friend!"

"And Sharp Mind?"

"My queen is the best, I… knowing her before she was queen, it makes me like her a lot more. The pony I was friends with is still there, she is just a whole lot bigger now."

"Then Sweet?"

"This game sucks." Easy grumbled. "I like all of you, you are the best friends a drone could ever possibly have, I mean, drones don't normally make friends with, the most powerful non-leader pony in a hive or the queen. I liked you as friends I just..."

"You don't feel that way?"

There was silence after Sally's question, she had to turn her head to see Easy trembling quietly. It wasn't much motion, but it was enough to wake Sweet Bite up. The mare lifted her head and turned to Easy Slip. "What's wrong?" She nosed the little drone.

"Easy doesn't… not all drones seek a mate. She has had the desire for one suddenly shoved into her." Sally explained it to Sweet and had the small changeling snuggled in against her mate shoot her head up and look at her. "It's right, isn't it?"

"It…" Easy couldn't fight the logic. "Damn you clever changelings."

Sweet rolled to her back, legs in the air but bent. "Oh no, you don't get out of that group. The information you gave us has been instrumental in protecting and growing the hive."

Sally watched the pair a moment, she realized it was impossible to feel jealousy, she liked the master infiltrator too much as a friend for that. Not to mention Sally already had two very complicated mares who each seemed to believe they owned the former human in some way. Sally breathed deep and chewed on the thought.

"And you didn't think, when you saw Sally passed out, you just stepped in and where did you come up with that form?" Sweet continued singing the little mare's praises. Easy just blushed at it. "You were all 'roar, I am the destroyer of bad changeling queens!'" Sweet cycled her legs in the air to imitate the ferociousness and gravity of the situation. She was looking at Easy, however. "Easy, I really like you, and if you like me too that is okay by me."

Sally lifted her voice and added her two crystals. "Me too."

"And your queen is very okay with this, not to mention your friend." Sharp's voice was a shock to the confused drone. It was like everything in Easy's mind was being rocked and pushed back in the wrong places.

"Do you want to do more? With me?" Sweet Bite looked at the shell-shocked drone, giggling and booping her on the nose to try and get her out of her sudden brain-fart.

"Huh? What I…" Easy blushed hotly. "I might, I don't know."

Sally didn't move, she let the two have some space. It was impossible for Sharp to NOT be imposing, though. She had grown further, in her time as queen, now firmly almost half again as tall as any other changeling in the hive.

Sweet caught Easy off guard, kissing her on the lips. It was like a switch flipped from 'confused' to 'happy' and both the queen and the satyr smiled as Easy Slip closed her eyes, melting into the kiss she likely never would have been able to ask for.

The moment lasted a while and, as the kiss finally broke, a very satisfied-looking pair of drones were left gazing into each others eyes. "So?" Sweet was first to speak.

"'So' what?" Easy looked up, lost for a little in the other mare's face. It just felt so very right to her and, as if to make it seem more right, she knew Sweet wasn't using her power, not now.

"So, are you going to hang around for snuggles?" Sweet leaned in and nibbled Easy's neck, the smaller drone blushing but tilting her head to allow better access.

"It all feels so right I… I don't think I want to do 'things'." Sweet's nibbling meant that Easy kept pausing while she talked. "I just… I am not…" Easy closed her eyes and just relaxed, giving up trying to talk as that inner voice that told her she should fight the other mare's power just shut up.

Sally pointed to Sharp Mind, pointing to the outside. Her queen nodded and together they slipped from the room, letting the two drones relax together.

"I like having my drones care for each other, I can't help but feel protective for every changeling in my hive." Sharp walked so that Sally was pressed against her. The closeness was no longer making Sally's thoughts cloud, but she still wanted her mate more than ever when she was near.

"Your hive, my queen. And we are all your changelings." Sally was about to say more but got a pinch on her ear, Sharp's fangs just scratching it. "Okay, a bit thick. Now, to business, I assume the new hive plans are going ahead?"

Sharp nodded, leading the way to the pod chamber. "Of course. My leaders were excited to hear there would be a split in the hive, there is already jostling for position to be chosen to be the next queen." Sharp's fangs were slipping out when she talked, more and more. Sally liked to imagine the mare biting into words and drinking them of meaning.

Sally blinked and realized Sharp had stopped a few paces back, a grin on her snout. "What were you so wrapped up in thinking about?" Her queen's words made it abundantly clear that Sally had gotten distracted.

The breeder smiled back at her mate, looking from hooves to the tips of her ears right back to the tail swishing curiously behind her. "Not what, who." Sally waited for her queen to step up again, still looking at the impressive mare. "And of course it was you, you are changing so much."

Sharp posed a little, turning her body slightly away and looking over her shoulder at Sally. "Good change or bad change?"

The satyr's look was enough for the queen of the hive to answer the question herself and pranced along now at Sally's side.

"Of course good, you look good, you sound good." Sally leaned in and rubbed her short snout up as high into Sharp's mane as she could. "You smell good and feel good. Very good."

"And, with the hive smaller again I believe we can really test you out." Sharp looked at Sally in a way that made the hybrid changeling tremble a moment with its intensity. "Fully."

Sally nodded with a dumb grin. The needs of her queen didn't overwhelm her as bad anymore, but it certainly was good to be wanted. "What are we doing here?" They had entered the huge low hall of pods. Rabbits were being led in and out, almost as constant a stream as the changelings they were feeding.

"The mares who reduced my workload and my stock in one day. My queen." Long Draught lowered his head deeply, turning then to Sally. "Our hive's finest, Sally. Both of you are always welcome in my little corner of the hive." The stallion gestured with a hoof to the vast cave.

"Such a show off, I am glad you stayed." Sharp stepped forward and gave the stallion's mane a light brush with her hoof. The queen's fangs were always there for troublemakers and problems, but rare was a gentle touch to one of her changelings. "You keep this part of my hive running so smoothly I rarely get to see you, why don't you come and pay me more visits?"

Sally stepped along to Sharp Mind's side, looking around at all the changelings, mostly in clumps, feeding from those in the pods. Sally had only recently made her first attempts at feeding directly from a creature, it had gone well but she had trouble knowing when to stop. Her old uncle, the man who had trained her in tactics, used to say the same thing.

"How is Gentle faring?" Sharp was still chatting with the keeper of the pods and Sally realized she had missed some conversation. Her queen was asking Long about Gentle, the leader of the farms.

"My mate fares well indeed. She had a curious story for me, recently. A pegasus and one of her drones had discovered love between them. Dear Gentle is too soft on the food." It was clear by how he spoke Long knew everything about the matter, including Sharp's reaction.

"Their offspring will be pure, there is no reason to enact censor on them." Sharp's reply was pushing the conversation over Sally's head, she wanted to ask a question but remembered the week of 'warning' Sharp had given her to that effect, when talking with leaders. "And now I see my mate has the most confused and conflicted look on her face. What is it Sally, Long is one of my most trusted changelings."

Sally almost exploded. "Pure? What is censor? What are you talking about?" She suddenly blushed, realizing she had been less coherent than a foal.

Sharp was about to reply when Long grinned. "If I may?" Sharp closed her mouth and nodded to him. "Very well. Pure, the queens do not, ever, take a breeder from among their own drones. Breeders are taken from the captured drones and leaders of skirmishes with other hives."

This made sense to Sally, suddenly, helping to fill in some of the rest.

"As for censor, when two changelings mate it is perfectly acceptable so long as they are not from the same hive-line. Gentle and I, for example, are not permitted larva of our own." Long didn't look sad at this at all, instead reaching out a hoof to his queen as she had taken a sudden bad influence. "If any such siblings do create life between them, it is forgiven. Of course. A single changeling with a recessive trait, in a whole hive, is no threat. If they flout the rule again action is taken."

It was both humane and horrible to think about, for Sally. Then she realized something. "You and Sweet?" The question was to Sharp Mind and the mare's bad mood didn't ease one bit.

"Must never make issue. A queen breeding with her sibling is a very bad idea. At the very least it will lead to a few compromised eggs, at the worst the better part of a generation could be weakened, the whole hive suffering for it." Sharp nosed her big head into Sally, the satyr wrapping arms around her and hugging.

"Then I will have to do all the breeding work, oh woe is me!" Sally kissed Sharp, on the cheek first but then directly.

"Have your fill of any pods nearby, there are no delicious ponies down today, you really should call ahead, my queen." Long bowed again and slipped away, leaving the queen and her breeder to their new purpose.

Author's Notes:

Reveals, revolts and revelry!