"How long have you been awake?" Sweet's voice pulled Sally from her work on the weapon. She turned to look at the mare and felt that swell in her heart that had confused her so much of late.

"Can never sleep well before a fight." The human set down the weapon and got up, moving over to meet Sweet Bite halfway.

It was an odd embrace, with changelings being a little lower to the ground than any partner Sally had ever been with before, but she found a way to crouch and pull the mare in against her. "You only have to ask…" Her eyes started to glow green but Sally closed hers.

"No, it is better to go with it now. Too late to sleep too early to start the day." When she opened her eyes again Sally saw the glow was gone.

"What ever is a pair of mares to do?" Sweet referred to Sally as a mare and, despite herself, Sally couldn't really feel bad about it. "Although I do have an idea."

Sally was not hard to get excited, not before or after a fight. There was something about pitting herself against another that just stirred her up. "Okay." She took a deep breath and looked to the mare she knew she loved. "We do need to talk about some things." Sweet looked confused. Talk clearly hadn't been what she had been planning.

"And what, my brave warrior, did you have on that delicious mind of yours?" The changeling distracted her a touch, nibbling at Sally's ear, worrying the piercing it had received.

"Us, Sharp too. You aren't the first girl… mare, I have been with, but I didn't think I really leaned this way." Sally drew up as much honesty as she could, fighting her urge to give in to Sweet's teasings.

"Mares?" Sweet got a nod from the human. "I have never really given it much thought, myself. Some changelings, mostly the leaders, have a definite lean toward a gender." The flash of fire that wrapped Sweet Bite didn't hurt either of them, but Sally found herself cuddling a stallion-Sweet. "Does it help if I am more like this?"

The time spent in the hive had helped Sally pick up on the little things that were different from stallion to mare, and she could tell Sweet was about as 'stallion' as could be.

"Nope, still adorable." Sally closed her teeth down on one of Sweet's shoulders, getting a giggle from her.

"Then you don't care so much about appearance?" Sweet flicked between a few forms now, her reserves of energy such that it didn't cost her any real effort.

"It is more than appearance. Not everyone can do that. I am never going to be more than a woman… mare." Sally couldn't help but find something cute in all the forms, deciding it wasn't the shape, it was the mare. "No, it is more even than what you choose to be." Sweet flicked back to her normal shape. Sally reached out, starting with the holed back legs, she rubbed them, tracing them up and to the mare's flanks. Her digits worked, finding Sweet's body to be fun to just explore. "All of you… I think I am not quite the normal definition of girly."

Sweet turned her head to watch the exploration. "Girly?"

"Yes, girly." Sally saw the humor in the mare's features and gave her flank a swat. "But men… stallions, always made me feel good, at least as long as they were in my bed." Her hands found Sweet's wings, rubbing the mare's shell around the base of them and giving the delicate lengths a slight rub. "Now, I have a different feeling."

"You feel like a stallion." Sweet flicked her wings, getting a buzz from the one Sally wasn't massaging.

"I do. Damn it but that is exactly it, with you." Sally's digits worked to the other wing, examining the ridges and feel of the insectile appendage.

"You make me feel like a mare." Sweet spoke, she had closed her eyes. "It is silly, but I was always just a drone, when you protect me, when you act all strong and dominant, I love it. It makes me feel like more than what I am."

"Even when you are in me," Sally rubbed up to the mare's shoulders, working digits in, "even then, I feel like you are 'my mare'." Her hands worked down and up those legs, feeling one hoof rise and exploring the base of it for a moment.

"It works for us, so what is wrong?" Sweet stretched one back leg out, arching her tail as she did.

"Nothing. That is what I am amazed at. I have been with… well it was two stallions." Sally rubbed up to the mare's neck, leaning in to hug and nuzzle into the green mane. "Even while having sex, it was complicated. There were feelings in the way. I wanted to do something, then they wanted it, but it never just worked like this."

"Like us? All three of us?" Sweet leaned into Sally's hug, the mare letting out a deep breath she didn't know she had held.

"Just that. None of those lasted more than a handful of days. Hell, no relationship I have had has lasted past a few months. Stallions… men, just didn't get me. I guess to be fair women didn't either." Sally kept one arm possessively around Sweet's neck, the other wandering up to explore and attend to the changeling's ears.

"You seem to fit in with mares pretty well." Sharp had woken to their talking, neither of the two already awake had noticed when she had started listening.

"I guess I do. But even then, I love each of you for different reasons." Sally looked over and smiled, watching as her other mare stretched as well, much more fully, showing off her strong limbs, wings and even her fangs.

Sweet Bite deployed her namesake, catching one of Sally's ears. "I am your mare, the pony you get to be the strong stallion to. What is Sharp Mind?" Sweet's words set Sally into a blush.

The human watched as Sharp finished her stretches and came over to press into her other side. It wasn't 'stallion' she felt with Sharp, it was more level than that. "I don't know, I just feel… we are so alike."

Sweet laughed at this, making both the other two females blush. "You even color the same. Is Sharp the 'you' you never learned to love?"

The words were insightful, beyond what Sally normally thought the mare would pick up on. "Maybe…"

"Well, I plan to find out." Sharp turned and pulled Sally's jaw so she could stare into Sharp Mind's big eyes. Something seemed so amazing about her, about just being near her. There was a sensation, deep inside her. They hadn't played too much with drinking from her, but Sally wasn't against it, not with these two mares. "It is, purely and simply, love."

The slurp made Sally tingle warmly, her mind turning back to the things she was sure Sweet had planned when first they rose. Sally took a deep breath. "It is. I can't… I can't believe I can still feel that." She kept gazing into those eyes, there was no spell that bound her to gaze so long, no spell but the one their hearts had cast.

Sally didn't struggle, not for a single heartbeat, when she felt Sweet's muzzle dipping somewhere that made her breath catch. She didn't look away from Sharp Mind, her heart starting to race just thinking about what they could get up to together, before they would need to leave their cave.

Sally examined her feet, the green goop on the base of them felt just like boots when she walked, but the rest of them still got scratched up from moving through the forest.

A big feline leaped through the bush and landed right beside Sally. She bared her teeth in a grin and reached out a hand. "Easy Slip."

The cat grinned wide and with a flash of green flames was the changeling mare the human had recruited. "Ahead, you have a patrol. Four changelings, two look young, one experienced and another so old he must have seen the birth of the world."

It was just what they wanted to hear. It meant they were not only getting close to the other hive, but that they were within a half a day's march. Scouts wouldn't be too far away that they couldn't scurry back if something was coming. "Okay, just the three of us." The human took a deep breath. "Any more than that and we won't be a surprise."

"We take them the easy way. Sweet Bite, you're up." Sally didn't need to turn, the mare was already moving up. She knew precisely what the 'easy way' meant.

"How lost do you want them?" Her question got a grin from Sally. "Okay, you want them down."

Sally's nod was enough for the mare, but rather than let her go alone, Sally moved in to go with her. Easy led the way, however. Keeping low, the three ghosted through the forest. Sally walked in Easy's hoofprints, Sweet following her commander's larger footprints with her own hooves.

Easy crouched lower still and gestured with a hoof. She made an arc and jabbed off sharply in one direction. Sally had worked with her, to teach her hand signals that would work with hooves. As one the three infiltrated closer, working themselves into the path of the patrol. Crouching down low, Sally focused her eyes on the changelings.

Sweet stood up first and there were four sets of eyes suddenly on her. "Who is that?" One of the younger-looking changelings challenged.

Sally knew what was coming, she kept her eyes forward and off Sweet. There was no hope for the poor patrol and as one they sagged, legs wobbling as their snouts sported smiles. "Secured." Sweet stepped closer to the four, smiling herself. "Can I drink a little?"

Sally saw no problem with it. "Go ahead, refill. How do they look?"

Sweet stepped to the most competent one, her eyes focused deep into theirs as the other changeling lost any will to do something that might upset their new love. "Other three are barely packing anything, this one has some strength. Need anything from them?"

Walking up, Sally got a little hint of Sweet's power. It tangled in her thoughts but found no purchase. She realized that from her mare at least, Sally had nothing to fear. "Can't bespell somepony already under your spell." She mused out loud. "Okay, ask him nicely if he would point out the direction to their hive."

Sweet grinned, having not noticed Sally's reaction, or the soft green glow in the human's eyes. She repeated the question and the stallion lifted a trembling hoof to point.

"Perfect." Sally leaned in and gave Sweet's shoulder a squeeze.

The mare turned her gaze, banished of it's hypnotic power, to Sally. "My holes… Sally, are you okay?"

Sally nodded. She knew there was a slight green tint to everything, but it was fading by the moment. "Your magic doesn't work so great on me." She kissed the surprised mare's nose and turned. "Bring them."

Easy had watched the whole encounter, turning her own eyes away at the first hint of Sweet's gaze being used. She really didn't want to fall into that trap. Trotting along at the human's side, Easy asked. "You really could resist it?"

"Sort of." Sally saw no reason in not telling the truth of it, as she saw it. "It made me love her, sure, I do already."

The adept shapeshifter looked up in a bit of confusion and almost tripped on some exposed roots. "I don't get that."

Sally blinked at the quiet words. "Get what?"

"Love. I am just a drone. I tried to sneak in with your friends because I was bored, not because…" Easy blushed. The human, however gave a chuckle.

"Don't sweat it, Easy. You are the best at what you do, you proved that. Just don't get between me and my mares." Sally felt a fire behind her words she really hadn't meant to be there. It was that masculine side of her. Her mares...

Author's Notes:

I bring you love!

It's bringing love, don't let it get away!

Break it's legs!