It wasn't until the next morning that Celestia started wondering if something was amiss with the shape-shifting pair. Luna was the reason the changelings had to get up in the morning, though so her absence would likely cause them to sleep in. Sitting down for lunch and finding out that nopony had seen either Crystal or Maximus was too much. Ponies didn't change their sleeping habits that quickly without effort. Even if they were relaxing for the day or Max was soothing the mare's nerves in Luna's absence, she was certain the two would be awake.

Celestia rose from her seat and made for the door, telling the servingmare she'd return shortly. It wasn't that far from her destination after all. In fact their private dining hall was closer to Luna's room than her own. Walking down the cool hallways as the afternoon sun shined outside, she found herself mentally listing the needs she would be seeing to over the next few days. The quarry was producing stone, so the alicorns would start teleporting it into the cavern as filler. The farms were beginning to germinate, leaving Redstreak to begin searching for workers from the village that was forming around the keep. Sapphire was taking a trip to the mines under the guard of a squad of knights as well as with Crack, the changeling agreeing to the trip as it was a chance to do something besides what he was assigned in his old hive.

'I believe Shimmering Barrier assigned a pegasus and unicorn team to begin mapping the local area. I'd like to do that map thing I read about in Starswirl's book of Dream Valley, the...what was that sort of map called again?'

Reaching the door, she knocked quietly and waited for a response. When none was forthcoming, she knocked louder, the changeling's warning playing through her mind. She wasn't nearly desperate enough for companionship that she'd risk that...

"Maximus? Crystal? Are you present?"

After a long silence, Celestia weighed her options. She wasn't certain if the changelings would act against her without Luna being present, but they certainly didn't operate on the same level ponies did. On the other hoof, somepony was always present during the meals. Breakfast had been unbearably silent as she ate by herself and knowing there would be no nobles present for lunch either, she was unwilling to suffer two meals alone.

'Okay, maybe I am willing to risk it.'

Breathing out a sigh she opened the door, she stuck her muzzle into the dark room and took a quick look around. Having confirmed that no illicit activities were occurring, or had occurred in recent history judging by lack of musk blanketing the room, she stepped into the bedroom and approached the still-occupied bed. Both of the changelings were present; both were facing each other, their horns locked as their heads laid on the bed at awkward angles.

"Max? Crystal? Are you well?"

Her worry rising, she stepped closer, giving a nudge to the stallion before she pulled her hoof back. His shell was oddly cool to the touch. Not only that, she couldn't imagine being able to sit as they were for any length of time. The way their necks were contorted was painful even to look at.

Crystal slowly opened her eyes, waking up as Celestia tapped the mare's shoulder.

"Hm?"

"Are you aware of what happened here, Crystal?"

The shape shifter stared at her in confusion for a moment before she looked to the stallion sitting limply before her.

"Wha-what the hell?"

"Crystal?" Celestia called to the trembling changeling. "Crystal, look at me. What happened?"

"I don't know!" she responded, quickly falling into a blind panic. "It was supposed to be a simple exchange, I'd give him the information on how to fly and I'd be able to learn the, I'd learn how to act like he does. The easy, the casual interactions!"

"Crystal!" Celestia shouted, jumping onto the bed and using a hoof to force the mare to meet her gaze. "What. Happened? What did you attempt that led to this situation."

"I wanted to link. Changelings, we can link with one another, we can speak over the link even if we're not physically present. It's, it's something I missed from home. We were all connected. Here we're alone and I, I thought it would make learning from each other easier. Oh my god, I have no idea what's going on, my brain feels weird and everything's all weird looking and tasting and feeling. I don't understand! It was a simple exchange of information!"

Celestia blinked in shock as the mare began a tirade that would make the stallion proud. Then she blinked again. It wasn't just a tirade that would make the stallion proud, it sounded almost exactly like his own panic attack, or at least what Luna had described to her.

'Link? Did she...did Crystal link their minds?'

"I'm screwed! Luna's going to kill me! I have no idea what went wrong, but it all went pear-shaped! All of it, it all went to hell and I can't stop it and I keep thinking things I don't mean to and I have no control over my thoughts anymore!"

The changeling grabbed Celestia in a telekinetic grip, dragging the alicorn into her hooves. She then proceeded to shake the older mare as she screamed her fears.

"She'll never forgive me! I'll have to go away, I'll be forced to turn into a Lovecraftian horror that eats people's souls to fill the void in my own, Luna will hunt me down for hurting him and I'll never know a nights rest! I don't want that! I didn't mean to do this!"

Celestia bore the tirade with all the patience she'd been gathering over the last few years.

"Crystal-"

"-have to change my name, oh my god what would I call myself? I'm not good at names! I was assigned Crystal Wish!"

"Crystal, please-"

"-to move to the south, it's too cold to the north for changelings, are there even ponies down there? I mean this is where most of-"

*Slap*

"Crystal Wish, return to thy senses!"

Celestia breathed a calming breath, waiting for the changeling's eyes to regain their focus.

"This was an accident. Luna will not blame you for an accident you could not foresee. Max is physically a changeling, but I would guess that his previously being another species caused the, link you called it? It may have caused the link to become unstable or react in an unpredictable way. You are currently speaking almost exactly as he does. Calm yourself."

Crystal stared at her in shock before nodding dumbly.

"I was about to engage in a meal. We will make certain he is comfortable, we will speak of this at length, and we shall ask Flick or Crack if they know anything of this sort of reaction."

Using a quick burst of magic to straighten out the male's body and placing a blanket tagged with a simple warming charm over him, she watched for a few moments before nodding and making her way to the door. The stallion would likely wake up in time as Crystal did, she just needed to make certain his posture didn't cause him any harm in the interim period.

Max blinked awake to find himself alone in a dark room. It looked to be fairly bright outside judging by the light shining through the shutters, which was odd because it didn't feel like he'd slept all that long. In fact he didn't remember going to bed at all. Just following Crystal into the room and-

He shook his head, the odd glow of the mare's eyes stuck in his mind. She did something to him, to them. She did something and he wasn't really sure what in the nine hells it was. Maybe after his missions for the day he'd be able to ask her what it was she'd hoped to accomplish.

He nearly made it to the bathroom before he stopped, running the line of thought through his head again. He didn't do missions, did he? What was it called when Mother directed you to-

"What the hell?"

A mare was appearing in his thoughts when he pondered the term, or at least the title. A changeling mare, large and imposing with a permanent sneer on her face. He actually found himself shivering at the intensity of her gaze. She saw all around her as an instrument of her power. None could touch her and those that dared to defy or even question her were treated to a personal demonstration of her displeasure. She would start by drawing a few leeches from a barrel, teleporting them into the changelings emotion-pouch where digestion couldn't occur. They weren't normal leeches though, they were special. Their venom was what she prized, enhancing all senses. Including pain. Once the changeling began to flinch from the bites they couldn't fend off, a sign the venom was taking effect, she'd begin. A wicked looking blade floated towards Sixteen as she writhed in panic on the stone slab, her shattered horn sputtering weakly as-

"Holy fuck!" Max shouted, shaking the images away. Those weren't ideas or a wandering imagination. That was something that had happened. It was a front-row seat to an execution and she'd watched the entire thing. If you didn't, you'd be on the table next. Mother was patient like that. It's why you listened. If you didn't-

"Shit, not mine. Not my thoughts, where's-"

Images of another female, this one a bipedal female in jeans and a T-shirt as she drank her morning coffee. The brown-haired, green eyed woman threw a quick, cheery insult about his clothing choice at him as he grabbed some pop tarts and ran out the door, almost late for school.

Max nodded, taking a calming breath.

That was a mother. Not that thing Crystal knew and feared. Mom rubbed his back as he puked his guts out while sick with the flu. Mom screamed like a woman possessed as he walked towards the front of the gym to grab his high school diploma. Mother and Mom were two different beings. Mom was kind, Mother was cruel. Mom calmed his fears, Mother inspired them. Mother had no place in his life. Mother was also likely to be dead from her own mad attempts to kill Discord.

'Maximus? You're up?!?'

"Crystal?" he called out, looking around the room. "Yea, I'm up. Where are you?"

'We'll be there in a second, stay calm,' was her reply, though he still couldn't give direction to her voice. It almost felt like it was coming from everywhere. His ears began to swivel, searching for the source of the voice even as a clattering of hooves echoed from outside the door. The changeling mare smashed open the door, likely nearly damaging the wooden barrier in her haste.

"Wait, if you were down the hall- Crystal what did you do to me?"

"I'm sorry, it wasn't supposed to be like this! I messed up!" the mare cried, pulling him into a hug.

He wasn't sure what threw him off more, her sudden affection and willingness to engage in physical gestures or the echoing shout he was hearing, like he was hearing her words twice. Celestia entered the room at a much more sedate pace even as Crystal continued to panic, shaking her head at the changeling mare's mannerisms.

"I'd just gotten her to stop wailing about exile when you woke up, too."

Patting the inconsolable changeling on the back while she gibbered in stereo and crushed him into her barrel, Max looked to Celestia.

"So the short version of what happened?"

"Short version of- oh! She attempted to form a sort of mental connection with you, a connection that is apparently common for the changeling species." the alicorn explained. "Something happened though, likely to do with your alien psychology, and it ended up leaving the both of you out cold. At least, that's what I have managed to decipher. How do you feel?"

"A bit of a headache, but that's more from hearing her crying in stereo. It explains why I could hear her when she wasn't in the room. That's so weird. I also keep seeing things like...you know how if you try, you can remember people or places you've seen in the past? I know what her mom looks like now. I think I know a lot more, too. I just haven't...I don't know if I feel right looking through all of that. This wasn't exactly something I've spent time thinking about. Kind of worrying, actually. I keep having to think about which memories are mine right now. In hindsight it's obvious but every now and again I'll fondly...no. Nevermind, I can't use that word with most of her memories. That's kind of depressing, too. Interesting, sometimes exciting, but I can't use the word happy with most of them."

Celestia nodded.

"That is not so strange. The transfer went both ways. She has been acting oddly all day, as her mannerisms are much closer to yours at the moment. She also speaks much more quickly. A little too quickly sometimes. I had to explain her sudden energy to Redstreak and Shimmering Barrier after she insulted both myself and them. I imagine it is what you would sound like if you did not filter your words at all."

Max winced, able to easily imagine the smaller mare's tirade if it was anything like what he'd learned to keep a lid on. A quick bout of fear for what Mother would do to the changeling was quickly crushed, though Crystal pulled closer as the vicious queen crossed his mind. Actually, she was probably the source of that fear.

"She'd destroy me if I thought even half of that in her presence," Crystal sobbed.

"Well she's not here, is she?" Max consoled. "She's not here, and we have a bunch of friends who want us to be strong. They want us strong so we can lean on each other, remember?"

He held Crystal as she finally started calming down, stroking her back as she settled comfortably against him. A quick flash of his mom crossed his mind, and he could feel Crystal smile cautiously.

'Can I think of her as mom too?'

The stallion chuckled.

"I'm sure she'd be fine with that. Being part of Luna's family, you'd be considered a daughter-in-law anyway. She'd even call you her daughter, right after she got over the whole 'other species are real and my son is one now' thing."

After calming Crystal and putting her in bed, Max and Celestia spent the next few hours discussing the town outside the keep. Not all of the things the changeling spoke of were pleasant. Deciding to call it for the day, Celestia hoped that adjourning the information dump would end it until later. Possibly even until Luna could take care of it.

"-would sometimes throw their toilet water out the window. It led to some towns making sewer systems to help flush the filth away with the rain so that they didn't have to deal with a buildup of sewage in the roads."

Max was not interested in putting off the discussion. Celestia's normally pristine white coat was taking a green hue during their discussion of sanitation and disease control. Not that he blamed her. It was a rather unpleasant if necessary topic. He personally wasn't sure what the ponies outside the wall did with their shit-buckets, but some of the garderobes in the keep fell straight into small pits dug below them. It removed the waste from the keep, but it was far from gone. Just distanced from those living in the structure.

'Which wont be any fun after a year or two. Going to have to figure out long-term solutions for these kinds of things. Sewers cost money for both materials, man-hours, and maintenance.'

'Blech. The hive didn't have half of the problems these ponies do,' he heard Crystal complain.

"Just because changelings don't worry about these things doesn't mean they're not important," Max lectured, drawing a look of confusion from Celestia. "I'm sure the ponies you guys caught and kept for emotion had to be cared for, which meant they probably produced waste as well. Just because you never saw it doesn't mean it wasn't there."

The stallion blinked as he felt a wave of confusion followed by amusement wash over him.

"It is so strange, hearing you talk to a pony who is nowhere near us," Celestia chuckled.

"You think this is weird, you should try walking down a sidewalk in Chicago. Can't tell if half the people are talking to you, talking on their phones, or just insane," Max replied, grinning and hearing a few feminine giggles in his head. He instantly brightened up. "Oh wow, that means I have someone who will get my jokes!"

"Sun and stars save us, two changelings making jokes only they understand," the alicorn said, rolling her eyes. "While I am certain it will bring you and Crystal no end of amusement, please attempt to remember that not everypony is capable of being inducted into your link and thus not everypony will be capable of understanding your jokes."

"I know, but it's still something new. Weird and confusing, but new."

Max shuddered at the memory of the changeling queen.

"I don't think you understand just how scary Crystal's mother was, Tia. She didn't just do executions. She held torture sessions and everyone had to attend, especially those related to or working with the damned. She also carried out the executions personally. I really do hope that changeling's dead, because I don't know if I can shove down Crystal's terror enough to stand against her."

"Until today you were unaware you could feel another's fear, Maximus. Perhaps in time you will learn to shield yourself as well as bolster her own courage," the alicorn soothed. "Do not allow fear of the unknown to hinder you. Is that not what you said only a few days ago to Lady Sapphire?"

Max laughed.

"I think there's a big difference between allowing your fear to hold you back and having another's fear blind-side you. I-jeeze, the idea is just..."

"Is there anything useful you have gained from the connection?"

"Well, I could might be able to shape shift or fly if I didn't think about it too hard. That's the main reason she did it, to avoid having to teach me, but I think I can also...I wonder if..."

Max stopped in the halls, closing his eyes and focusing. Focusing on another set of eyes. It would make sense that the information would go both ways if Crystal could hear him talking. Or was he thinking too hard about it?

He blinked a few times as the kitchen came into focus, an absolute mess of ingredients and half-finished foods scattered over the counters and crushed into the floor. No, he wasn't blinking. Crystal was.

'Max! No, don't- get out! It's supposed to be a surprise!'

He flinched as he felt himself shoved away, the sensation so alien he couldn't even think of the words to describe it. Shaking his head, he looked to the curious mare beside him with a wry grin.

"We need to get to the kitchen before Crystal burns the castle down."

"Maximus, this structure is made of stone," the alicorn deadpanned.

He grinned even wider as he took off towards the smell of burning carrots.

"You didn't see what I did. We need to move. Now."

"Oh quit your bellyaching," Max joked. "You were trying to make seven different dishes at once based on half-remembered recipes and most of those recipes either aren't for herbivores or are made with different ingredients and utensils that we don't have here."

"I wanted to try to make them. I've never had them before, but I knew how they tasted, or at least how they were supposed to taste. I wanted to know for myself," the changeling mare pouted, looking at the light dinner that was being served. Only two of the things on the table were from her foray into cooking, and even those items were what Max would charitably call a mistake.

'Truthful would be calling the incident a food-pocolypse.'

'I heard that!'

The stallion stuck out his tongue, earning a growl from the smaller changeling as she transmitted various images of him being subjected to bodily harm, from strikes to the head to an interesting image of him being hit by a rather large and jagged-looking rock. Seeing that she was able to 'send' full images so easily, he cocked his head in thought before focusing on an image of his own. Crystal's eyes widened and she sputtered, choking on her water even as the mare mentally screamed yes over and over again.

"Good to know this link thing didn't change you too much," he chuckled.

Celestia coughed politely into a fetlock.

"As amusing as it is to watch what is apparently an entire conversation take place inside your heads, it is less than engaging for myself. If you wouldn't mind sharing your thoughts in a way we normal creatures are stuck using?"

"Oh, I'm sure we could work something out for you, Tia!" Crystal giggled. "Maybe a headset to tune in to our brain-waves. Maybe a spell that lets you link for a little bit?"

"Oh, but aren't we the jester today. And I thought one of them was bad," Celestia sighed theatrically, rubbing her temple as if she was upset. It fooled no-one of course, not when they could feel her amusement.

Crystal's mood sombered slightly and she looked from Max to Celestia.

"Do you think Al-Luna will be alright?"

"I do," the alicorn answered with a soft smile. "Luna can take care of herself. She also has some very interesting ponies she likes to be with, so she shan't let this mission take any longer than it requires."

"I know it feels like a long time, but it really isn't," Max added. "Luna will be back with us before you know it."

The alicorn of the sun nodded, smiling at his confident statement.

"I am aware I am sometimes uncomfortable with the two of you, but you do make her happy. Something I seemed to be unqualified for."

"Leave the abuse to the enemies, Sunny," Max said with a grin as he added another helping of salad to the solar alicorn's plate. "There will be plenty of it in the future, I'm certain."

Max closed the door to the flock's bedroom later that night, having bid the white mare a good night after fielding a few more questions about sanitation and diseases. Of course, magic could change how things worked in microbiology, but why confuse yourself even more? Until he managed to recreate or show a pony how to build a microscope, microbiology wasn't going to be a thing for a while. Still, Celestia had been interested in the explanation of scurvy, as that was apparently something many species dealt with in the few remaining port towns. The idea that the horrible and sometimes fatal Ocean's Kiss could be cured by eating citrus fruits every few days boggled her mind. He knew there were more ways to cure the vitamin deficiency of course, but having seen a good number of lemons and limes in the food stores it was an easy call.

"I thought the day would never be finished," Crystal griped, lounging on the bed while covered in the still-enchanted and thus still-warm blanket.

"Well it is," he soothed as he shut the door behind him "so now the question is-"

"Sex!" Crystal shouted before bursting into giggles. "And the answer is yes!"

Max rolled his eyes as he jumped onto the bed as well.

"So you're still okay with sharing-"

The smaller changeling interrupted him by jumping out from the covers and pulling him into a deep kiss, or at least what he thought was a kiss. Seconds later a large helping of love was being pushed into his mouth, causing him to reflexively swallow.

"Does that answer your question?"

"I uh, suppose it does. So, how do you-"

Crystal once more moved before he could by using her body and her magic to guide him onto his back.

"I want to know. I want to know what happens when we do this, and how long we can go."

Max chuckled nervously as the queen began running her tongue over his plates, causing him to shiver in pleasure while they began to shift. The smaller changeling giggled as his body reacted, watching in fascination as the plates pulled back and freed his waking rod.

"It's still so weird, knowing all of this stuff about it," she murmured as she ran a hoof along the bottom ring, causing the shaft to twitch at the contact.

"Well, I can't say I know that much since you don't either, but it's more than I did before."

"So how much more do you know?" Max asked. It still wasn't clear to him what the limits to the link were, if any existed at all.

"Oh, quite a bit," the mare giggled, running her tongue along the underside of his bottom ring and causing him to jerk. "Like how much you liked it when Luna did that," before running her hoof lightly along the skin exposed by the shifting plates "or how you react to being touched there."

"So if you know about that, you know about the time I stuck Luna to the bed?" the changeling male asked leadingly.

Crystal kissed the exposed underside of his rod, nodding.

"If it wasn't for the fact I know she ended up loving that I'd be mad. I still don't really understand this change. I think I can turn off the...filter I've been seeing things through, but I just don't want to. It's strange, but it also feels amazing. Like I can finally do things without fear of the consequences. I still try to keep my thoughts locked down most of the time, but sometimes if I get excited-"

"So how would you feel about this?" he asked, pushing a mental image to the changeling. Luna was once more bound to the bed, gel holding her hooves to the headboard as well as sealing her magic and covering her eyes. Max positioned himself in the image in the same position he had occupied last time, thrusting into the alicorn's sex while this time Crystal was added to the image. The changelings were kissing deeply while Crystal held herself over Luna's muzzle, which was occupied with the smaller mare's nethers.

Crystal's eyes glazed as she entertained the thought, a wave of excitement and curiosity pushing its way into his head from the mare. An image followed, this one containing Crystal in Luna's position, minus the restraints.

"I'm sure we can work that out when she gets back," he assured her. "Would you help me with mine though? We'd have to take it slow and tease her a lot before we get to the good stuff. You saw, er, know how she reacted when I teased her up to that point, right?"

The changeling mare nodded before rising and sitting on his barrel with her exposed vagina facing him. She took him into her mouth even as he gave her a tentative lick, feeling her lips clench and her body buzz with a pleasured purr that echoed into his stallionhood.

'I want to feel that, too. It's going to be hard though. I don't know if I have the patience to wait that long for an orgasm.'

"Huh, didn't actually think about that..." Max admitted, earning a swat of her tail. He rolled his eyes, busying himself with a few nips to the sensitive flesh surrounding her opening before slipping his tongue inside of her.

'Didn't think about that, being able to talk while my mouth is occupied. Could be useful.'

'You need to figure out the difference between thinking and using the link. There isn't any for you right now, so you tend to flood the link with useless information,' Crystal explained, buzzing happily at his ministrations.

'Though you really didn't have to worry about that before this, did you?'

'I wonder...'

Without missing a beat the mare flipped herself around, leaving her face to face with the male. She met his eyes, her own orbs beginning to glow again.

"Cryssi, what are you-mph"

'I want to know if we can actively share,' she said, giving him another mouthful of love. 'I need you to be properly supplied for this, though.'

He saw her horn glowing and felt her take hold of his penis even as he was becoming aware of other weird sensations roiling through his body. He felt her line him up with her sex before pushing it inside of her tunnel and suddenly everything melted away in pleasure.

'Oh Wow,' they mumbled, shivering at the layered pleasure. Every time he throbbed inside of her, the sensations he left were causing her to shiver. Every time she shivered, her body pulsed and gripped at him, attempting to pull him deeper into her depths. Normally the time between sensations would leave the pair with enough time to recover their senses, but Crystal's connection had left them feeling both their own pleasure as well as the sensations the other was feeling. It was confusing of course, as they didn't have the same organs and the sensations didn't correlate properly to their own bodies, but the doubling of the contact left them both shuddering and jerking spastically, Crystal trying to thrust deeper into her as Max tried pulling him deeper into her body.

There wasn't any worry about peaking first or about accidentally harming the other. Everything was shared, and neither had anything but the continuing build-up of pleasure in mind. Crystal felt her body clenching as her balls roiled with seed and her pussy quivered, begging for a release she could almost taste. Max felt a strange burning in his gut even as his dick twitched deep inside his body, the tip pressing against some hidden barrier with each clench. They weren't even able to work out a single thrust between the two of them, the feedback loop the mare had opened them to being too strong for either to fight. Too strong to allow either of them the time needed to form any coherent movement besides twitching and shuddering.

They seized again, moaning into their mouths as an orgasm ripped through their minds, the male spewing a powerful burst of love-soaked seed into the female that caused them both to clench as their body felt the energy-rich love coating their tunnel. The pleasure extracted another burst of seed, which in turn caused another orgasm to rock their bodies.

'Too much on one side, need to, to balance it. Keep going.'

The mare pushed out another dose of love that was quickly pulled into the male's stomach and distributed to the depleted parts of his body. Another orgasm drew another burst of love from the male side, so they corrected with a quick push from the female side and a swallow from the male side.

Imbalance, corrected, too much, wait for the next peak, balanced now, another peak, corrected.'

They held it as long as they could, their bodies burning with exertion as the male gave off his...how many was it now? There wasn't anything left to give though. Even with the emotions empowering their actions, their bodies couldn't keep up the magical transfusions any longer. With no flow of love continuing through their bodies, the connection started to fall apart, Crystal sagging off of Max's barrel as they lost their direct link.

The two sat on the bed for a long while, gasping for breath as their muscles burned from exertion and their clouded minds finally started to clear. Max swore his dick was raw and his balls had been launched with the last load he gave off, his body was in such pain.

'But damn if that wasn't the best sex I've ever had in my life.'

'Right. But next time we're keeping some spare love. I, I think we burned some during that,' Crystal's voice echoed in his head. 'Oh my gosh I can't believe I actually did that.

'Use number two of the link,' he thought with a wheezing chuckle. 'Talking when you're out of breath.'

'It's a good use,' she sent, weakly nuzzling into his shoulder even as he felt her fading from consciousness.

'Yea, sleep. That sounds nice about now.'

Author's Notes:

Luna's sitting in the woods somewhere on her journey, looking around in irritation because she knows she missed something fun.