Max blinked awake the next morning, a soft tapping on the door drawing him from his rest. It was apparently about the time to wake up. He didn't agree with this early-morning nonsense, but then again Luna was supposed to be lowering the moon to make way for the sun. Of course, that didn't mean he couldn't have a bit of fun first.

Slipping out of the pile of warm that was the bed, blankets, and mares Max trotted over to the door and quietly opened it.

'Definitely getting Crystal to show me how to use changeling magic later.'

The pony at the door jumped at the glowing blue eyes that peered out of the darkenss at him but managed to calm himself before starting a riot.

"Her highness's bath shall be ready in about an hour. Please see that she is awake in time."

"I will," Max mumbled, slipping the door shut again. Walking back to the bed he let his mind wander. Last time he pasted the mare to the bed and drove her to a mind-shattering orgasm. He could do that again, hell Crystal would help him if he explained the objective. Of course, it would be more fun if he could wait until tonight, securing Crystal's help when Luna wasn't looking. A bit of venom, and they'd have all the time they needed to properly secure her before teasing her to a glassy-eyed nirvana.

In that case he'd keep it simple.

Hopping back onto the bed he didn't even bother waking the sub-queen. She was worse than he was when it came to waking up early. It likely had to do with the fact that she didn't understand the necessity of Luna and Celestia being up at dawn and dusk. The rising and setting of the sun was literally tied to their efforts. If they didn't rise, the heavens didn't change.

His eyes wandered Luna's body, the dark blue alicorn currently playing big-spoon to Crystal while the two slept soundly. Wings were fun to play with but he didn't want to risk hurting her, the horn was only sensitive while she was channeling, her vagina? Too obvious...

Max's eyes rose as he stared at her cutie mark. It wasn't sensitive, or at least not enough to warrant special attention during intercourse but his mind latched onto the thought of what it represented.

Supposedly it represented everything a pony was, linked to their personality, their magic, some even went as far as to say it was linked to their very soul. So if he...yea, that may work.

Settling down on the bed with his tail beside the heads of the girls, Max began to kiss and lick at the mark. He took his time as well, making sure to trail kisses along the outline of the moon before using his tongue to trace the spots around it. He heard Luna stir, felt the mare shifting and her emotions picking up from the slow-burn of love and happiness it had been while she was asleep. Lust was picking up a bit and sparing a glance to her head he found out why.

The alicorn was staring at him with her mouth hanging open, as was Crystal. The sub-queen looked confused though, as if she was unable to understand why such simple actions were causing the alicorn so much pleasure. Luna twitched as he began kissing her again, giving a quick hump against Crystal before pulling the smaller mare tight against her barrel and squeezing her tightly. The changeling mare squealed in surprise and fear at the sudden strength of Luna's grip. Even as he began nipping and kissing around the mark with more force Luna's grip on the sub-queen increased and she gave another twitch, this time the smell of her arousal reaching his nose.

Max stopped, confused for a moment. He'd only been kissing the cutie mark, not any real sensitive part of the mare. So why was Luna acting like he was eating her out?

The mare continued to moan and squirm under his touch, humping against the changeling in her grip harder as she rode her apparently growing arousal even higher. Luna suddenly twisted, shifting herself on top on Crystal and humping mercilessly at the confused sub-queen while Max changed tactics, beginning to lick and suckle against the alicorn's nethers properly while rubbing the marks with his hooves.

"N-no, keep-hah. Keep using our mark. Please, do not stop," Luna begged, looking back at him pleadingly.

The stallion gave her a questioning glance before shrugging, returning to the mare's moons and beginning to kiss and lick them once more. As before, Luna began to hump the sub-queen with abandon, earning a confused mewl of happiness as the smaller shape shifter began to absorb a bit too much lust. It was food, but it was quickly causing the sub-queen to become intoxicated.

Pulling back once more and earning a confused moan from Luna he smacked his lips while tracing her flank with a hoof. He was all about enjoyment, so why not go the extra five yards?

Max gave the alicorn a shove, extracting a disappointed changeling from underneath Luna. Leaning in to whisper into Crystal's ear, Max couldn't keep a smile off of his face.

"Crystal, you want to make Luna feel really good?"

The sub queen immediately started nodding and shakily rose to her hooves. She circled Luna and began licking and kissing the dark mare's other side while Max returned to her left flank. Setting back to work, he could only laugh as Luna's legs gave out and the alicorn began mindlessly humping the bed as her eyes lost focus. It turned out there was an easier way to drive the alicorn to a mindless pile of lust than all those ideas he was going over. Certainly adding another mare to the ideas left him a bit confused as it wasn't something he was used to thinking about, but if it was as simple as this, well...

'Not only that, but it seems she trusts me enough to listen in some if not most things,' he thought as Luna proceeded to writhe between them, neither of the changelings letting up on their assault.

'It shouldn't be too hard to bring her aboard my plan to play with Luna tonight.'

As the alicorn panted in exhaustion between them, Max stepped over her and kissed Crystal, wrapping his forelegs around her and pulling her into the kiss.

"Now that Luna's been taken care of, it's our turn."

As Crystal's lust-drunk face turned to him, he swore the mare would have had to shape-shift to smile any wider.

"We are telling you that it is not normal. We have never had that kind of a reaction to contact with our cutie mark before," Luna said as the three of them walked to breakfast and the first meeting of the day with Celestia.

"So the question would be why," Max stated, his brows furrowed. "I mean, I've heard of the mark being tied to the pony but that was a bit strange. The closest thing I can think of off the top of my head would be the sensitivity of the horn."

"Which is preposterous. The cutie mark of a pony does not channel magic," Luna countered.

"It is a point of magic though, isn't it?" Crystal asked. "A focus?"

Luna frowned in thought but nodded.

Max worried his lip as they walked, deep in thought.

"I think the follow-up question would be how do cutie marks work. How do you get them?"

"I assume you are asking how they manifest and not how a pony earns it. I do not know. We can ask Tia, she may know something we do not," Luna offered, opening the door to the dining room.

Celestia was already present, several scrolls floating in her magic. A pony was refilling her tea which, in Max's opinion may have been the only thing keeping the mare awake. Luna apparently agreed with his assessment as she approached the larger alicorn instead of making her way to her seat.

"Tia? Did you not sleep well?"

"Hm? Oh, good...morning Luna," Celestia responded, stopping to look at a nearby window. "We've just, there's all of these things that are waiting for us, we just couldn't sleep knowing there was so much work to be done..."

"So instead you work yourself 'til you can barely see the papers before you. The work shall remain there for you tomorrow, and the day after, and the day after that. It will be a long time before we are done, Tia. There's no need to work ourselves to exhaustion just yet. There will be plenty of situations that arise where it will be required in the future."

"Did Max tell you that?" Celestia asked with a hint of irritation. "He may be educated but he knows nothing of creating a kingdom."

"And we do?" Luna retorted. "We are making this up as we go, Celestia. Both of us are aware of this. Even as somepony to throw ideas at, we do not know the breadth of his knowledge nor how much can be used now or in the future. Besides, it wasn't Max. It was Starswirl the Bearded who said that to us after we spent three days working on our teleport spell. Now come, we have our duty to perform."

The two alicorns walked out the door, making their way to a nearby balcony to trade the skies. This left Max sitting at the table alone with...

Crystal let out a loud snore, her jaw resting on her thankfully empty plate.

"So just me," Max muttered, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. Clearly the mare was more like him than he'd admit. If not for the fact that he couldn't just sleep anywhere, he'd likely be following the shape shifter's example. Mornings just weren't his thing. Maybe eventually he'd get used to-

"Ha! How many years of school? Of getting up for classes and work and I still can't get out of bed without a reason if it's before noon. I don't think it's an issue of being use to it."

The changeling settled into his seat, watching the shifting colors outside as night turned to day. It was funny, no matter how many times he witnessed that shift he was always awed by it. Or maybe it was the fact that he personally knew the mares who did it. Either way it would be a long time before he grew bored of that rapid change.

"-back to bed. You look horrible and you are going to wear yourself out."

"It's not that bad," Celestia muttered. "I've been worse off before."

Luna shook her head.

"Being worse does not mean it's okay for you to overwork yourself. We said it before and we shall say it again. There will be time aplenty to work ourselves to exhaustion in the future."

"Luna, we are not returning to bed when we have so much-"

"Max, will you take Tia to her room? We will not have her wandering the halls in this condition, not when we shall be speaking to the peasants today to rally them to their tasks. The planning for the farms is done so Redstreak shall be overseeing the work, but we must make certain her workers understand their task. We do not foresee any issues though. Most of the ponies already have simple gardens beside their homes."

"I'll escort her, but I suggest having a light breakfast first. Might as well since she's already here and I doubt she ate much last night."

"Very well, breakfast first. And Tia? He can always help you sleep."

Celestia blushed scarlet at that and Luna giggled.

"Tranquilizing venom, Tia, though if you ask nicely..."

Max rolled his eyes. Luna seemed almost obsessed with getting the older alicorn into her flock sometimes. Whether it was the familiarity of a known mare or the idea that Celestia needed the comfort as well he wasn't certain. It could have been something else entirely. The only way he'd learn though. Actually, there was a better question to ask.

"Is there any particular reason you keep wandering into our bedroom?"

Celestia blushed, stuttering our a denial before Luna rolled her eyes and spoke.

"Tia, if you want to stay with us, you need only ask before we go to bed," Luna scolded. "I'm certain we can hold off for a night or two. Or we can have you join us on specific nights. You need only request the night, Tia. We shall not whither away if we are forced to go without."

"With how you act sometimes, I wonder," Max sniped, earning a chuckle from Luna.

"Oh hush you," the darker alicorn said with a smile. Turning back to her plate she stopped in confusion. "Where is the teapot?"

"My apologies your highness," the serving...ling? Max's eyes widened as he recognized the mare currently hovering with a teapot in her hooves.

"It was empty and I needed to run back for another pot."

"Flick? Since when did you become a servingmare?" he asked.

"It was just last night actually, sir," the smaller changeling answered. "I was asking if there was anything that needed doing and with Princess Celestia staying up later than usual, Princess Luna no longer staying up all night and no servingponies that were used to the night schedule, they asked me to fill in. I'll be heading to bed shortly since the usual staff are arriving but it's been fun. I don't think I've ever felt this good before, not just because I'm not hungry but because...I feel like I'm being paid in emotion for my work instead of just enough food to keep me alive. It's strange not having to drop all of the emotion I receive into a cache for other drones to pick up."

"Speaking of which, do you have a place to store extra? I'm kind of running on full and so is Crack, even if he won't admit it. We will need a storage chamber soon. If you add to our current amount, it shall be within a day or two."

"I think we can get something set up," Max said sleepily. "Right now we're using jars, storing the honey in glass jars for later but if we get any large amount of the stuff that may not work. Do changelings have a way to store emotion en masse?"

Flick frowned at his response.

"You...you don't have a place? You don't know how to store it?"

"Do you?" he retorted, raising an eyebrow.

"No, but you're...like a queen so I thought you'd know this. I thought you...what are you?" she finally asked in confusion.

"He is a stallion that was brought to this world by Discord," Luna answered. "He was not born a changeling. All that he knows of your species, he has learned either through experimentation or accident."

"I'd actually like to get you, Crack, and Crystal together and see if we can pool some changeling knowledge, maybe even write some of it down. It if makes you more comfortable, we can use English, since I don't think anyone on the planet speaks it, much less is capable of reading it," Max added, looking over to Crystal. "I still don't know how to use changeling magic or shape-shift and I'd like to fix that as soon as possible. We can also figure out what we're going to need in terms of storage space for food."

"That sounds like an excellent idea," Luna said, taking a sip of her tea. "Redstreak will be taking up most of our day again, this time discussing any issues that have arisen since she started on her project. We do not see a need for your aid arising in the meantime, so there should be no problem with you taking the time to learn more about changelings. It may also enable us to better accommodate your species. We assume the open grounds of the keep are a bit strange to you, are they not Crystal?"

The sub-queen nodded quietly, her focus drifting from her alpha to the smaller changeling.

Max grinned as Luna stared at the smaller mare. Crystal still wasn't aware of it, but she tended to bleed her true emotions through her expressions in a way she just didn't seem to understand. And right now she was staring a hole into Flick's head.

"Crystal, stop it," Luna reprimanded, bumping the sub-queen's shoulder with a wing. "Max, will you be able to deal with this? I trust you to act in everypony's best interest here."

"I will. You still want me to take care of..." Max drifted off meaningfully, bobbing his head to the white alicorn mare...who without much stake in the current conversation was currently sleeping on her pancakes.

Her buttered pancakes.

Luna's mouth twisted into a rueful smile and she shook her head.

"How does she expect to aid the peasants if she cannot find the energy to stay awake? Nay, we shall take Tia to her room. You shall begin what we imagine shall be a long, painful process of learning what you can while maintaining civility between the changelings."

Swallowing the last bit of her breakfast, Luna levitated Celestia over to her and placed the sleeping alicorn on her back.

"Behave yourself, Crystal. While she remains in our keep Flick is one of our subjects as much as any pony. I care not what rivalries or ideas you entertained about her when you were in the Mother's hive, for now you shall listen to Max and follow his lead in this endeavor. He knows what it is we need from the two of you and with your help he will be able to better educate us on the needs of your species. The more we know, the better we shall be able to accommodate you and any other changelings that may approach us seeking asylum."

Max followed Luna's example, throwing the last of his breakfast into his mouth before looking to Flick.

"First thing we're going to need is a spare room to be the changeling room, preferably one underground. That's where the Hive was located, right? Some familiarity is nice, trust me on this one. If we're going to be dealing with newcomers I think a place for them to relax would be a good idea."

"There were some ponies digging out two cellars earlier," Flick said, trying to ignore the sub-queen's attempts to stare a hole in her head. "Do you think they'd let us..."

Max nodded in understanding.

"I do. We'd likely need to wait until they were done, but I don't see why they wouldn't let us use one or at least add a small addition to a cellar. Even if there's not enough room to keep changelings down there, we can store the emotion down there where it will be out of the way. Unless you ladies think it would be preferable to keep emotion as we would keep valuables."

"I'd like to do so with love at least, other positive emotions just aren't as...sought after as love," Crystal said in reply.

"It would also be wise to keep enough emotion to sustain ourselves for a time in the event that things go south here," Flick said quietly. "I really don't want to go hungry again if I can avoid it."

Max nodded.

"I don't really see it being too much of an issue but better safe than sorry. I still don't know how much emotion would last how long but I think at least a week's worth of food would be the target, per changeling. Three days was the suggestion by some of the government groups back home in the event of possible disasters, but our food source isn't exactly easy to scavenge and we don't have FEMA coming along to help us out."

At the blank stares, Max chuckled before standing up. Starting towards the door and motioning for the other two to follow, he explained.

"FEMA was a disaster relief agency that the government ran. I've never actually experienced a disaster so I don't know the details, but I think it was FEMA and the Red Cross, another group, that sent disaster relief supplies. If there was flooding or a tornado tore through a city, those two would help coordinate both the supplies and the volunteers that were sent to help the people who were hurt. "

Slowing to make certain the mares were following, Max made his way to the courtyard...or what he hoped was the courtyard.

"How is it that you still have trouble finding your way around the keep?" Crystal sniped from behind him as they finally found the new cellars.

"Because I haven't really just wandered around to get to know the place?" Max shot back. "It was several days before I actually managed to see the village outside, since Luna and I kept getting sidetracked. Why would it surprise you to find out I still don't have the place memorized? Besides, I've always been horrible at remembering places. It takes me at least a few visits before I remembered the layout of my friends house and this place is five times that size at least."

The three changelings finally slowed, standing before the doorframe of the cellar that was closest to the barracks. The other one was being built near the kitchens, allowing for easy access and storage of foods in a cooler area. Luna had already asked another noble, a Lady Glistering Glyph to look over the runes that would be needed for adding additional cooling to the cellars. The lowered temperature would make changelings uncomfortable so that cellar was out of the running as a changeling home.

Max looked over the construction, never having seen such an effort before up close. Sure he remembered seeing a house or two under construction but this? Ponies were doing everything by hoof, the only exception a few simple levitation spells being used by unicorns to hold things in position or a pegasus or three holding a beam in place while an earth pony used a gauntlet of formed stone to punch the bolts of metal in. Several earth ponies were digging with cut-gem claws on their hooves. That one had thrown him for a loop before a unicorn had mentioned the simplest gems were often found only a few paces underground. In fact it often meant that made gem-crafted tools were cheaper than metal tools!

'What kind of- it's like a diamond sword in Minecraft being easier to make than a stone one. That is bullshit.'

Approaching the pony overseeing the project, Max tapped his shoulder.

"What do ya, oh! Oh me mother's... ya nearly made me heart jump from me barrel. Yer one o' tha bugs? What'cha doin' 'round me project?" the purple pegasus pony petitioned.

"We're making our own plans. I'm looking for a place that we can either use for changeling sleeping quarters and a place to store the honey."

Max held up a hoof, forestalling the foreman's argument.

"I'm not saying we're going to use it, but it's something i'm thinking about. Changeling's are subterranean so many may feel more comfortable sleeping underground. The honey on the other hoof can be stored like anything else for now, unless we learn of a specific way to store it."

"Maximus is currently using glass jars. I know the Hive used jars made with hardened adhesive, but I'm not certain how that process works, or how to process it properly," Crystal added, craning her neck to look into the pit that was being finished. "Until we can find a better solution, glass jars will be our go-to method."

"You can taste...smell that stuff through the jar, right?" Max asked the sub-queen. "What do you think the distance is that you were detecting the emotion from?"

"I do not know. I was not of a mind to remember such things," Crystal said.

"I could detect it from a good distance, but I wasn't really aware of what it was. Only that it was good, that I wanted it," Flick added. "Of course, I was in a cage at the time so I couldn't really make any moves towards it."

"I guess that's something else to find out...I'm going to need some paper...magic too, see if they can help me with that," Max mumbled under his breath as he tried to plan storing the emotions on a larger scale.

If any number of changelings did happen to show up at the keep it was likely that the storage facilities would need to be expanded well beyond a section of a store-room. In fact, it was possible that the entire keep would need to be expanded. Luna and Celestia had already mentioned that after seeing the slowly growing number of ponies that were congregating outside. Add in another race, one that would likely be focused in this one location? Not to mention Luna's desire to get the thestrals allied with them as well. It was going to become very busy over the next few years.

"How are changelings at tunneling, Flick?"

"Not bad," the mare answered. "I remember there were a few back in the Hive that had special hooves for it. It made transformations a bit more difficult as they had to smooth their hooves but their shells were stronger to defend against any loose dirt or stone."

Crystal huffed in irritation.

"I remember working with a few of those during an experiment. Mother was trying to use them to dig around or under fortifications so the army could strike faster, but we ended up losing almost ten drones when the tunnel collapsed."

"Yes, because you were pushing them to dig too fast. The tunneler had several injuries on his flanks from the drones behind him pushing him to dig faster even after he warned them that it wasn't safe," Crack growled as he joined the group. "Those deaths weren't his fault, yet he was terminated for inadequacy. 3A7G-238 didn't deserve that."

"Crack. Thanks for showing up, I wasn't really sure where to find you," Max said, ignoring the heated glares the sub-queen and the new addition were exchanging.

"We're looking into possible storage areas for the food or even sleeping quarters. I imagine you guys would sleep better in a familiar place."

"I'm perfectly content with a sleeping mat, thank you," the smaller stallion replied tartly. "It's better than the floor drones were left with."

Max nodded. It would likely be the same with how they were now much better fed - neither wanted to return to the old way now.

"What was your job in the Hive?"

Crack looked ready to explode in anger but Max raised his hooves in a placating gesture.

"It's not because I'm going to set you on the same tasks, I just need to know what information we have. From what I've learned talking to Flick and Crystal, changelings didn't learn much outside of their assigned tasks. Flick was infiltration, Crystal was military."

"I was a medical drone," he said after a moment of silence. "Mostly it was diagnosing the...efficiency of salvaging injured drones."

"I think I understand," Max said. "Rest assured that both ponies and humans put a lot more effort into keeping even workers alive. I'll do my best to make sure you aren't put in that kind of situation again. In the meantime, it's good to know we have someone who knows changeling first-aid. Do you know how to fix a nictitating membrane?"

"You managed to...nevermind," Crack muttered, shaking his head. "With enough emotion it can be repaired. Queens and sub-queens were given priority for healing and that seemed to be a common injury. Given the proper supplies and some love I should be able to fix it. I've only repaired about a hundred of those..."

"Awesome. It's not painful, but it feels weird at the moment. Is there a time in which it needs to be fixed?" Max asked, scrunching the eye. It wasn't painful but talking about it was reminding him of the irritation.

"No, love-soaks tend to remove most injuries. You don't even need to soak the entire body, just the injury. They're very expensive in energy-use though, so Mother tended to only be willing to go so far to repair injuries," Crack explained. Looking to the larger stallion cautiously, he tapped against his left foreleg with his right hoof.

"If Flick or I end up with injuries..."

"We'll use the energy to heal you," Max assured him. "We've got plenty for the numbers, though if it's something simple or if someone else has a life-threatening injury we may have to delay the process until our supplies can cover it. Right now we're starting to approach a point where we're collecting more than we're burning, so it's a good time to start thinking about storage methods. Do you know any?"

"Only the jars we used in the hive. I didn't have permission to enter the storage areas, so I don't know how Mother had it all stored. Glass jars should work for now though. Oh, did you want that jar back?"

Max chuckled, shaking his head.

"Nope, I'm good. You go ahead and keep it. Try not to swallow too many jars like that though. I know the glass is tough, but the cork may not be so durable."

Taking one last look at the cellar that was shaping up quickly, Max turned back to the keep.

"Lets go find a room and some writing supplies. We're going to try and compile our racial knowledge. I wont force you to keep a job if you don't like it but we'll need this information to be stored somewhere in case something bad happens to one of us."

Crystal frowned but otherwise said nothing, following along behind him while Flick and Crack took up the rear. A little bit of wandering and a few questions to a passing servingmare and the group eventually found themselves in a small receiving room, complete with writing utensils and scrolls.

Crystal closed the door as soon as the other two were inside, locking it for good measure. At Max's questioning look, she shrugged her shoulders before taking a spot at the low table beside him.

"I don't like the idea of some of this being discussed openly. I know they're supposed to be our ally now and my alpha is leading them but...old habits die hard. Security was important in the Hive, it kept us from being anticipated."

"It also kept the infiltrators safe," Flick chimed in. "If ponies didn't know something like changelings existed, we didn't need to worry about being hunted, just discovered."

Max nodded, looking to the feather and quill in irritation before unrolling a scroll. He picked up the quill with his hoof carefully and dabbed the quill in the ink, wary of how much was on the tip before trying to write his name. After reaching the x he slipped, cutting a hole in the scroll.

"Dammit, I knew this would be difficult."

"Let me," Flick said before reaching over and taking the quill in her mouth. She wrote out a quick line in a fourth type of script, presumably changeling. Smiling around the quill, she nodded for him to begin.

Max nodded in understanding, tapping his hoof to his muzzle in thought.

"Okay, so at the top write Changelings. Then, were going to go over basics. Gathers energy by absorbing emotions, gaining more energy the more focused the emotions are. Shape shifters, including the abilities to alter physical appearance and voice. Do you also alter your weight?"

Crystal looked a bit worried that the abilities of their race was going to end up recorded, but put the worries away for now. After all, Flick was writing in Changeling script so the possibility of a pony walking in and knowing what it was would be low.

"Yes. Otherwise a foal would make the floors creak too much, or a griffon would be able to stand on snow. The less different we are from the target species, the less likely we are to arouse suspicion."

"Infiltrators learn to do a bit more though," Flick said after putting down the quill for a moment. "My disguise is one hundred percent realistic. I even have fur and if I have the energy, the proper body heat. Ponies are a bit warmer than changelings."

"Some of the oldest infiltrators actually used some of their awarded love to alter themselves, adding fur or mass to better cement their disguises," Crack added. "For instance, a changeling who uses an earth-pony disguise most of the time may want to make themselves heavier to mimic the mass of that tribe."

"Earth ponies are the easiest to mimic as long as you don't get in a test of strength with them. Pegasi are a bit tougher, as many of them are very proud of their speed. A pegasus that isn't showing off every now and again draws attention. Finally unicorns were the toughest to copy. The unicorn tribe is very proud of their magic. A changeling's green, flickering aura wouldn't stand out too much, but several unicorns with the same aura would. All of the newest ponies walking into a town, with no relations besides what their covers allowed for? That would be obvious."

"Okay, that makes sense," Max said. Tapping the table, Max sighed. Might as well get it out there.

"You two have heard my story, right?"

Flick and Crack both nodded, the male speaking.

"The ponies were very willing to speak to me. They've been passing the information around for the last few days, in fact. One mentioned that you were stuck with the blue alicorn's voice for a time. I assume you're going to be asking how to use shape shifting?"

"That and changeling magic in general," Max said with a weak smile. "I actual managed to learn how to store emotion while following a unicorn's advice on how to use magic. It got me thinking that the difference in species would mean that our magics may be too different for cross-species training."

"It's not," Flick said. "Most of the spells are the same, in fact many of the ones I've learned were originally unicorn spells. Our magic works a bit differently, but once activated it behaves the same as unicorn magic."

"It's because the magic is directly tied to our lives, right?" Max asked, looking between Flick and Crystal.

"Yes," Crystal said, looking at the paper with a mix of curiosity and apprehension. "Changelings have a much faster rate of both healing and magic replenishment if they're well-fed, but unlike unicorns it's much easier for a changeling to accidentally burn too much energy. It's why most of the Hive's defenders were both well supplied and cautioned against using magic in battle."

"No idea how long they'd have to fight, right? Wouldn't do to have the guards falling over from exhaustion early in a protracted battle," Max said, thinking about what it would mean in a full society. Magic would have been heavily discouraged, especially when food was so hard to come by, when nobody was actually full. Thus the only ones who fully delve into magic would have been unicorns. Changelings would take what spells they could, but most would be abandoned as changelings didn't have the energy available to throw away like that.

"I assume using magic for things that didn't require it was heavily discouraged."

"It was," Crack answered. "It was taught at a young age that magic should be a last resort. Most changelings only really learned one or two spells. Levitation was fairly simple, though frivolous use was discouraged. A simple fireball, which was more pure changeling magic than an actual spell."

"Disguise was only really mastered by infiltrators like myself," Flick said, taking over. "My disguise would be hooves down the best of the three of us. Some of the queens and sub-queens didn't even bother with disguises. They said it was beneath them, but they didn't actually know how to use the magic, or at least to any believable level.

"While it's more of an ability changelings are born with, disguise magic is reliant on how much you know about the species you're attempting to mimic. The more you know, the more believable the disguise. If you've never even seen a griffon, for instance, your disguise will likely be very sloppy. It may pass to creatures who have also never seen one, but anyone who has had any interactions with griffons would likely be able to spot the changeling, even if they didn't know it wasn't a griffon. In that case it would just be a suspicion that there was something different or wrong with the changeling."

"Is there any chance I can get one of you to volunteer to teach me shape shifting and magic?" Max asked.

"Shape shifting is fairly simple. If you want the basics, anyone here can teach them to you. If you're looking to learn better shape shifting, I'll teach you. Same with magic," Flick answered. "It's the least I can do. I don't think I've ever been able to...eat and sleep so much. It feels strange."

"And what of me?" Crystal growled at Max in anger. "I know how to transform and use magic as well!"

"You were still in training if I remember correctly," Crack responded coolly. "You had only been fit for service for a few months. In fact, you were on probation."

Crystal turned to the male, furious.

"Lies!"

"In fact, I'd heard two of the queens talking about you," he continued. "Something about making hatchling mistakes in your first actual attack? losing several warriors in what should have been a simple mission?"

"There was a squad of pegasus knights passing through the area!" Crystal shouted at Crack. "Did they mention that? That the information and the warriors I was forced to work with were both subpar? If I hadn't been watching every aspect of the battle so closely the losses would have been worse!"

"Enough!" Max shouted, slamming a hoof on the table. "We're on the same fricken' side! Crack, stop taking shots at Crystal. Crystal, I may ask you for help just by virtue of the fact that our biologies may differ from Flick's since she's a smaller changeling. I don't know what my abilities are in comparison to her own."

Turning a bit and using a hoof to pull the sub-queen into a hug, he leaned onto her shoulder.

"Don't assume I'm dismissing you if I ask for help. I have several things to take into consideration, including the fact that you may be with Luna sometimes. Besides, I want to know how to use shape shifting to the best of my abilities. I would think an infiltrator would be best for that kind of information."

Flick and Crack both shook their heads at the display.

"I swear, you act so much like a pony sometimes that it's scary," Crack muttered.

Flick nodded but said nothing, taking the quill back in her mouth and motioning for the group to continue.

"Right, right, back to it. Storing emotions...we know that the Hive used jars made of the adhesive, but for now we're using glass since it's more plentiful. I mean, I don't know how to make the jars so glass is what we have."

"If you don't mind, I need to get some sleep," Flick mumbled after writing down that last bit. She set down the quill and yawned, using a hoof to push the paper and quill towards Crack.

"I don't know if I'm going to be permanent night-shift or not, it will depend on Proper Place. She asked me to talk to her after that shift with the sun princess and after I'd gotten some sleep. Crack, if you can't find anything else, you could offer yourself as a healer. I'm sure Lance and Shimmering Barrier would be happy to have a pony who knows there way around injuries, even if it was for a different species."

The smaller mare walked out the door, leaving the group to their discussion. Max listened intently as the group wandered from topic as they created their list while talking about their own experiences with the Hive, good and bad. A number of things were written down, but many were not. After all, knowing how to best subvert ponies didn't do the locals much good when the only major changeling base of operations had been left in shambles by Discord. Perhaps at a later time he'd talk spy-stuff with Flick. For now, he focused on biology and energy needs. Things that would be important in the coming weeks. After all, it was high time he learned a few things about his new body.