There was a group of four changelings just behind them. Sally, Sweet and Easy were crouched inside the entrance to their hive, watching the entrance. The four changelings, however, were watching Sweet with intent eyes, ears perked waiting on her every word. She had told them to be quiet and so none dared make a noise lest the object of their affections would get cross with them.

Two more coming

It wasn't spoken out loud, Easy's hooves had flicked through the gesture quickly, the drone's sharp eyes more than up to the task of spotting the scouts as they were sent in.

A moment later Sally could see them, the moonlight outside silhouetting the pair. Sally signaled to Sweet Bite that they were drones. "Excuse me, could you look this way?" Sweet's voice was calm, but her eyes were glowing green.

Sally grinned and reached up to rub Sweet's neck. The green glow of the changeling mare's eyes soon was reflected in two more. "You okay Easy?" Sally turned, her own eyes now glowing softly, to see that Easy had the same affliction.

"Yeah, I am as trapped by her as you now." The scout did not sound at all upset by the situation. "Hay, another three coming after them, get them secured."

"Why don't you two mares come and wait with my other new friends, be quiet now, don't want to ruin the surprise." Sweet Bite gestured for the two newly trapped drones to approach and they did, settling in and accepting little touches from Sweet on the way past. Each shivered with delight as the object of their affection brushed their manes. "Where are the next lot?"

They could all soon see the leader, with two drones, approaching. Sweet gave a tiny giggle that had all three looking in her direction.

Sally's hand reached out to steady her mate.

"Where are you little drones, we know you are here, what are you doing with all my scouts?" The words came from the leader and Sally was sorely tempted to jump up and charge, her hand rubbing the shortsword's hilt.

Sweet stood, her eyes starting to glow as she rose. "Why don't you three look-" Her voice caught and Sally looked up suddenly to see what had happened.

It wasn't a leader, it was one of the queens.

"Oh, a neat trick you have." The queen's deep voice and large frame matched the description of Queen Hunger. Sally watched as their eyes glowed, but it was very different to the normal effect Sweet would have. Pulsing as she stepped forward, closer to them, Queen Hunger licked her lips. "Delicious…"

Sweet trembled, she couldn't stop her power, her eyes were glowing with her own power, sending it questing outwards and this changeling just… just ate it! "Sally…"

"Enough! Drones, no matter their lovely tricks, are not why I am here. I want your food!" The word blasted over the three. Sally was stunned by the power in the mare's voice and beside her, Sweet was laying flat on her side, eyes closed. One hand reaching out, trembling, Sally could feel the drone still breathing. There was a sting in her other hand, she looked and saw Easy had bit her.

"Come on, this isn't working." Easy Slip was tugging at her arm and it was what Sally needed to come back to herself. Reaching out with her left arm, she wrapped it firmly around Sweet's midsection, grunting with strain as she lifted the mare.

"Running? Oh, you are that little freak my spies told me so much about. You won't be getting out of here alive." The taunting words were accompanied by a green glow from behind Sally. She didn't want to turn, her legs were under her and she had to get Sweet to safety.

The green light flared suddenly brighter, Sally felt a moment of heat in her right arm. The agony didn't come until five heartbeats later. Her legs pumped, somepony was screaming, but she had to keep moving. The pain was nothing like she had felt before. Bullet wounds hurt like hell, once you felt them, but this was a whole new thing. The green light flared again and this time she ducked as it started, a flare of green-red heat tore through where her neck had been a moment ago.

She thought it had missed her, but her vision narrowed as pain blossomed on the right side of her head. She hoped it was just blood in her eye, blocking her vision. It wasn't like it was the first time that had happened to her.

Sally worked her legs as hard as she could, avoiding the traps she knew were laid around the only safe path back into the hive. Rounding a corner she saw a whole squad of her changelings, the green spears they had started to fashion clutched tight.

"Sally? What the… I got her!" Strong trotted up, their horn lighting up and lifting Sweet from her arms. There weren't a lot of changelings she would trust with her mate right then, but the fine soldier that the brawler had become was one of them. "What happened? Get my queen!"

Falling to her knees and further, Sally slumped in a heap. Her arm hurt but didn't, it was like the nerves had been set on fire. "Queen Hunger." She panted for breath, she knew better than to look at her arm. "She can drink magic with her eyes."

Strong nodded at the information.

"Ah, here is where the rats got to…" The voice of that horrid queen had Sally looking over to her, horror in her eyes.

Strong's changelings were well trained, disciplined and more, ready. The first wave of thrown spears was not expected and Queen Hunger screamed, throwing a shield up against the second wave. Stuck in her side were two green hafts.

"This is my hive," the familiar voice both buoyed Sally's spirits and made her tremble more in fear, "you come here hurting my changelings, you will not leave." Sharp Mind, standing every bit as tall as the other queen, was walking through the ranks of her hivemates. Sally saw the eyes of her mate flick briefly to herself, then back on her enemy. "Forget letting you walk away from this, you will die here."

Sharp Mind dashed, her wings adding speed to her rush as she was headed right at the other queen. She flashed up a shield of green energy at the last moment, crashing against Hunger.

"Your pathetic hive is barely worth my time, if you didn't have so much food here I would have ignored you. You made your changelings a target." Hunger reached to tear one of the spears out to use as a weapon but as she gripped it her back-left leg trembled.

"Oh, go on, be the hero and yank my little drone's spear free, if you have the energy to. Sluggish mare, you heard what my ponies do to the likes of you?" Sharp posed, grinning and showing off her fangs, offering the perfect target.

Hunger screamed in rage and her teeth gripped the haft tight and pulled. She got the spear-tip almost free before she let go, screaming.

Beside Sally, Strong was making sure a changeling with a little healing was close. "Barbed tips, Sharp knew full well what that would do."

Sally grinned at hearing the drones words, she was having trouble focusing on the fight.

"She is hurt?" A deep but soft voice asked and Sally fought to remember who it was. A soft mane pressed against her left side, her arm reaching up and feeling soft, feathery wings.

"Clear?" She was drinking before she realized it, the stallion holding steady as a rock for her while she drank. Her focus regained, Sally stopped her feeding.

"Can't take a little pain?" Sharp Mind sounded derisive, her voice aimed more toward her own ranks than toward the queen the words meant to taunt. "Hay, Strong, do you have a saddle? This mare almost looks ready to be broken."

The words tore at what remained of Hunger's thoughts. Her back leg hung limp from her flank down, agony radiating from the wound along with more than a little ichor.

"Come on damn you, keep your words and just die!" Hunger had secured the spear in her mouth, her own essence staining the point. She began to try and charge at Sharp.

"My queen!" A voice called from the changeling ranks behind Sharp and a spear was lobbed up. The queen of their hive grabbed it from the air and trotted forward to meet the enraged interloper.

"Slow on that one." "More force in your drive." "Almost got a touch then."

The words ate at Hunger, how was this damn fool able to dodge all her attacks?

"I will tell you what, hungry drone," Sharp seemed to settle back a little bit, putting nearly two full lengths between them, "you put the spear down before you hurt yourself even more, and I will kill you fast."

There was no thinking left for Hunger. On the edge of blacking out to pain, she screamed in fury and charged. She got two long paces before the loss of one leg made her stumble. Sharp moved so quickly she didn't see it. The queen she thought so weak flicked her wings and jumped. A hoof knocked the tip of Hunger's spear down and as the enraged queen started to look up at what her foe was doing, Sharp brought her head around in a snapping strike, the spear driven behind the queen's head. Everything went numb for Hunger.

"If my mate lives, I will kill you quickly." Sharp's voice made even the drones nearby take a step back, surprised at the viciousness in their queen. Sharp pressed a hoof down against Hunger's neck, putting pressure on the wound her spear had made, making sure the other wouldn't bleed out too fast.

Sally was surprised at this, was Sharp talking about Sweet. Looking to her left, the satyr saw that Sweet was roused, looking around a little confused but otherwise okay. Easy was pressed tight to Sweet.

Then the former human looked to her right. The changeling surgeon was tugging and cutting, but there just wasn't much to work with. Sally's arm was mostly gone, she had about three inches of upper-arm left and below that was a burnt black wound. Her elbow and forearm were gone.

Darkness swarmed over her, she didn't even hear as Hunger's spine was snapped by Sharp Mind.

"They are withdrawing?" Sharp looked every bit the angry queen now, the only thing that made her smile, even a little, was when Sweet would come in and tell her her breeder, her mate, was still alive.

Easy nodded. "My queen, with the loss of Queen Hunger, the other hive withdraws. Hunger's drones and leaders are confused, they have lost their queen…"

Sharp drew in a deep breath. "Hunt them. Easy Shift. Hunt them all and if they don't beg you to be captured, kill them."

The drone didn't like the order, she was underhooved, of course, but she was never big on killing regular drones. "I will, my queen." She had grown bold of late, she had told Sharp that she would take over for Sally until the satyr recovered. It had felt very strange to do, almost like going against her queen.

Hunting down this hive, however, would be something she would do. Not just for her queen, but also for her friend.

A hoof reached out to the partly-distracted Easy. "You are growing." Sharp said nothing more, leaving the observation and caress at that.

The agony was gone, Sally woke more to the sense that she needed to eat. She was hungry beyond measure and as she reached out to quench the thirst she felt a pod. The occupant was a pony, she could tell, and she sensed more than one. It was simple as breathing, as she took from them what was apparently freely given. It actually made the meal all the better.

"Awake?" Sweet's voice in her ear got Sally to open her eye. The feeling of the other, wrecked like her arm, had her remembering the fight. She started to tilt her head so she would see it but Sweet moved, pressing her head against Sally's jaw. "You don't need to see it yet."

"You are safe?" Her voice croaked, she felt a little sore all over but the freely given food really helped with that. Sweet nodded and kissed the tip of Sally's nose. "The hive?"

"Is mad." Sweet settled herself, laying half across Sally, hiding her shoulder from sight. "Sharp has our drones out hunting down the remnants of Hunger's hive. They are given one choice of quarter and then dispatched." Sweet gulped back her emotions. "Easy is leading things."

"Please, off me. Somepony needs to go up and yell at Sharp." Sally waited, the mare finally lifting free. Closing her remaining eye, Sally looked down at her shoulder and opened it. Somepony had done a good job cleaning it up, but she still had lost the limb. "I don't suppose there is magic that would grow it back?" She wasn't sure if she were making a joke or really wishing it to be true.

Of course there wasn't, this was real, not a kids fairy tail.

"Help me up Sweet, and… glow for me."

Sweet looked up to Sally, stepping closer to the cot the breeder was laying on. With a glow in her eyes, Sweet reached out with her magic and helped her mate to gain her hooves. "Please, if anyone can get her to see reason it is you."

Sally nodded to the changeling that she would never be able to get out of her heart. "I will do what I can, even a crippled soldier is still a soldier."

"You don't need to be, not now. You are my mate, and Sharp's mate, that is enough."

Author's Notes:

Sally had it coming. She was throwing herself into the thick of every fight she could. If you always look for trouble, it will find you.