The room was silent except for the clatter of utensils on plates. A serving pony would also enter the room every now and again, but aside from a few confused glances. Not a word was said.

"Hnk-"

Max smothered another chuckle, Luna sitting across from him desperately doing the same. The alicorn was doing a better job actually, but only because she was silencing herself with a spell. In terms of food consumption, Max was doing better.

Crystal pouted as Luna bust into another fit of silent giggles, a bandage on her nose being the cause of the other two flock members amusement. Well, the bandage and the fact that Celestia had seen it and resolutely avoided looking at Crystal since they'd arrived.

Breaking into a wide, toothy smile as he tried to fight back his laughter, Max raised an eyebrow at the white alicorn.

"I can taste your curiosity."

"I already said I don't want to know."

Max began giggling like a schoolgirl, both at the insult Crystal had thrown at him over the link and Celestia's continued avoidance of the topic.

"It's not going away, Tia. She almost broke her nose after all. Crack said it was just shy of a total break."

The curiosity returned, but the solar alicorn quickly smothered it, turning her thoughts to other things. It did her no good though. Underneath that steadfast expression she wore her mind still needed to know.

Luna finally broke down, falling from her chair in a gale of laughter that only she could hear, causing Crystal to shrink in on herself in embarrassment. Finally Celestia sighed, looking at Max with a straight face.

"Fine, out with it. I am beginning to think my avoiding the topic is what is driving Luna to such insanity. I may as well get this over with. What happened to Crystal."

"You're right. I think that's twice as funny as what happened. Crystal was in such a daze after she finished she fell off the bed and landed on her face," Max explained, causing the younger alicorn, who had just returned to her seat, to break into a renewed round of silent laughter.

"We actually had to stop and make sure her nose wasn't broken or anything. She was so out of it though, she, she didn't even notice!"

Celestia gave a confused look at Crystal, likely trying to comprehend how a pony could suffer such an injury and not react. At the increased attention the shape shifter shrunk farther into her seat, eventually disappearing in a flash of fire. Leaning over, Max and Luna both spotted a small filly attempting to hide under the chair.

It was not to be. Luna gave a silent squeal of delight, yanking the miniature queen out of her hiding place and smothering Crystal in a hug. She babbled silently, likely not remembering her silence spell even as the mare in Luna's grip hid her face in her hooves.

"I was unaware changelings could alter themselves like that,"Celestia finally said.

Max just nodded dumbly as Luna smothered her beta in affection.

"I wasn't either, but it's because I haven't really looked at the limits of shape shifting yet. That could be useful to know. I think I'm going to go practice a bit of shape shifting and flying today. If anyone needs me I'll be in the yard."

"Didn't you manage that earlier?"

"I was pulling from Crystal, actually. I will be doing so for a while as well. But if I get the muscle memory for lack of a better word, I should be able to do this stuff without using Crystal's knowledge. If I end up falling off a cliff, that's a really bad time to try and ask Crystal where her flight memories are."

"It's like asking a librarian where a certain book is," he explained, seeing the look of confusion on Celestia's face. "After I have been using it for a while I may learn how to find information from others much more quickly but for now I don't know how to search or sort her memories. She knows how to look through mine, but she doesn't have any idea what to look for right now. She's kind of looking through my memories at random I think."

Max turned to Luna, sensing her curiosity and seeing her ask a question. Of course, the silence spell was still active so not a sound came from her mouth. She blushed purple as she realized her mistake, drawing a burst of giggles from her sister before she removed the effect.

"You are not concerned with her gaining access to memories?"

"I'm terrified by the prospect, actually. Someone else going through my head? Yea, that's creepy. However, it's helped her a lot over the past few days and I've learned a bit in return. It's passive enough that I don't see us melting into a single mind, so I'm willing to use whatever advantage I can grab. Besides, do you know what this means for us as a group? I don't know the range, but if I go with Luna and Crystal goes with Celestia, both groups can stay in contact with each other. It also means that if we do this infiltration thing I can send the information I get back to you without walking back out of the town."

"Queens are capable of relaying information farther than drones, but I do not know your classification," Crystal piped in. "The distance is quite large though. It should be simple enough to set ourselves up outside the patrol line of the Duke's keep and receive your messages. As for maximum range, after a distance the information becomes less clear. At maximum distance one can only make out that someone is calling you."

"Ah, Morse code."

Crystal's eyes widened as she searched for the relevant information.

"Oh, I understand! Let me try, this is going to feel strange but it will give you an idea of what to expect."

'A'

'A'

'A'

Max nodded, trying to replicate the sensation and think a bit to the proto queen.

"Argh! Tone it down!" the younger changeling yelled, clutching her head. "Look, I'll explain link communication later tonight. Just...just go practice."

"Flank's a bit too thin. Stallions have more bulk back there."

Flash.

"Lost your wings. Also, you're a bit tall for a pony."

Flash.

"Your color fades from front to back slightly."

Max was aching in a new way as he did his best to shape shift into a simple pony he remembered from the show, Thundercloud or something. Black hair, white mane. It was a one he'd seen a few times, but trying to focus on every detail of the transformation at once was starting to give him a headache. At least it was a pony he wouldn't run into, as the stallion wouldn't be born for another thousand years at least, maybe two.

Flash

"Not bad," Twister said, walking around him and taking in the form. She suddenly stopped, looking under his barrel.

"Uh, you kind of forgot to make yourself male."

Max blinked, looking between his forelegs and down the underside of his body. He hadn't made himself the wrong gender, he had the genitals of the wrong species now. He could just barely make out the genital plates underneath the fur.

'Wonderful, so I can fuck that up too. I always did try to not look at the junk of other guys. Maybe I can find a medical document. That way it doesn't get awkward.'

'Max! Help, I was looking through these weird things in your memories and one's stuck in my head! It keeps playing over and over and what the hell is a centerfold?'

"God damnit, Crystal," he groaned, burying his face in his hooves.

'It's called an earworm. A song playing over and over in your head. I don't know how to make it stop, try listening to other songs. As for a centerfold, it's...here.'

He sent several images of magazines, all with the centerfold exposed. Guns, cars, swimsuit models, there were tons of centerfolds he'd seen. It didn't all have to be sexy. The variation would probably also help her to determine that it was the large picture, not just a swimsuit model.

'Oh, so it's...wait so the angel, oooooh. Thanks Max.'

He nodded, jumping slightly when he found Twist waving a hoof in front of his face.

"Are you okay? You zoned out for a moment."

'Crystal was-damnit'

"Crystal was asking me something. Turns out changelings can do a form of mental communication. It's weird but it's really useful. I can pull how to shape shift from her or how to fly, but I want to be able to do it on the go. Pulling from her takes way to long to rely on."

Twister frowned.

"Isn't that weird? Having somepony else in your head, I mean."

"Twister, your species is a mythological one where I'm from. Magic doesn't exist where I'm from, not in any form we've discovered. Gryphons, changelings, unicorns, hydras, manticores, they're all fake. They're all storybook characters that have never existed on Earth. I'm beyond the point where I'm going to get put off by something weird coming up. I won't say I can't be surprised, but I'm a bit jaded at this point. Besides, as I mentioned to the princesses, Crystal seems to be better at sorting memories than I am. She pulled up a recipe for a dinner I wanted to try in about a minute while I could not for the life of me remember the recipe."

"I suppose I can see that being useful. It just sounds, it sounds kind of scary."

"I went from a world where the biggest thing I had to worry about on a day to day basis was a dog attacking me in the street or getting mugged on the bad side of town to a place where there are walls to protect us from the wild animals that can and will maul and eat me. Dragons, Ursa's- hell, I don't know half of the dangers that are out there. I can almost guarantee that there are more things out there that can kill me than there were in my country. I wouldn't be surprised if some monsters from games I dismissed as an irritation would be lethal in reality."

Twister nodded, a look of worry crossing her face.

"Do you really think we'll have to worry about dragons?"

"I don't know, Twister," he sighed. "There's a lot out there that I don't have any information on. I know for a fact that there are griffons out there, but have you ever seen or even heard of them. Changelings, the bat ponies, zebras-"

"Zebras?"

"White ponies with black stripes running from the spines down to their bellies."

"A pony with spines?" She boggled.

"No no, this is your spine," Max said, moving closer to the mare and tapping her back. "The segmented bone chain here is a spine. It protects a long chord that connects your brain to the rest of your body. That's why someone who suffers spinal damage can become paralyzed or worse. If that cord gets damaged, the results can be catastrophic. With zebras though, the stripes run from here to here."

Twister nodded as he pointed the locations, looking back to him in curiosity.

"You've mentioned things like this before. I know some ponies talk about the importance of specific strikes in battle. Some of the knights also said you gave a lesson on parts of the body in the throne room. Could you possibly do the same for us?"

"I'd like to, sure. There's just a lot to think about. We're still missing a forge, we've got the quarry under construction last I heard, I'll do my best to get you guys the information before the next battle or what have you but I can't guarantee when it will be. Actually, I'd like to make sure the princesses are there for it as well. I- oh wow, I wonder if- give me a second, Twister. I need to ask Crystal something."

Grinning, he did his best to send to the mare without blasting her with his thoughts.

'Crystal? Hey Crystal, I was wondering if you could help me with something. Is it possible to...

"What is so important that you insist we go to the yard at this moment?" Luna asked the changeling as Crystal trotted merrily ahead of her. The mare was proud of something, likely something she'd worked out with Max if her previous five minutes of silence were to be taken into consideration. She's flashed with changeling magic several times, but Luna had never noticed what it was she was changing with the spell. The shape shifter had merely taunted that she'd have to follow and see.

The yard opened up just ahead of them and Crystal took flight to the large gathering of knights currently occupying the far side of the field. Max was definitely teaching something, but he question was what?

Celestia squeaked as a pony in the middle of the group came into sight, a very simple brown stallion with a black mane. The reason for her sister's distress was the stallion's organs were visible, as if half of his body was glass. A beating heart, pulsing and twisting organs, even the cords of muscle visible in his neck and chest would flex and relax with every movement he made.

"-that strike in particular would cut the tendon of the rear leg. I don't have much experience with your muscles and tendons and how they work, but in my old species cutting this tendon back here would result in an almost complete loss of mobility. Being bipedal, the loss of one leg is catastrophic. You could likely continue with the loss of one until you could be seen to by a medical professional but you would be severely hampered, possibly even permanently crippled. Next strike?"

A stallion with a training sword stepped forward, delivering a slow-motion strike to the stallion's temple with the flat of the blade.

"It's kind of obvious what this blow does to most of you. The reasoning is what's behind the skull. The brain is very susceptible to impacts and damage. That's why your skull is so thick. It's also why we wear helmets. Now when a blow strikes the skull, the impact isn't what causes the spots in your eyes or ringing in your ear. It's the momentum being carried through to your brain. The spots and ringing are your brain trying to process direct damage to itself, which is kind of hard because it doesn't have the same nerves as the rest of you. It's not supposed to be hit. Ever."

"Speaking of the brain, can everyone see the eye? Most eyes are like this. While my eye may look different in my normal form, the basic anatomy is the same. It's also usually a very soft and squishy tissue. If ever you find yourself against something you can't seem to hurt, the eyes are usually a good bet. Even if you can't kill it, blinding it could give you that crucial second to get away or give your allies the opportunity to escape or attack."

"Next attack I can think of is the spinal tap," Max said. Crystal flew over to him, and quickly touched each end of the spine in demonstration of his focus.

"The spine contains a good portion of the nervous system. It transmits your thoughts to your muscles. That is to say, when you think of moving your arm, the brain fires off a message that travels down the spine to the proper limb and causes the muscles you thought of to move. If it's damaged, that process can be hindered or outright stopped. Each of these segmants is a separate bone joined by cartilage, the same stuff that gives your nose a bit of mobility. Cartilage is also present in your joints. If I manage to get a hold of a rabbit or chicken later I'll show you guys the difference in a real creature."

"Being such an important part of the body, a heavy blow to the spine is capable of putting an enemy out of the fight," he said, giving Luna and Celestia a quick smile before turning back to the knights.

"Anyone else have attacks they want to discuss?"

"I don't know if you can add wings, but I was always told to strike at a pegasus' wings," an earth pony volunteered.

"That sounds like it has more to do with cutting off their advantage, literally if you can manage it," Crystal said, receiving several grimaces from the gathered pegasi. "One of the things I was taught was how to deal with dragons as they sometimes wandered close to the hive. The tactics were varied but all called for an attempt to drive it away with other methods before we turned to killing it. If we can chase it away easily and not give away our location, the issue ends there. If not, the battle should proceed as follows. Eyes and wings are the first targets. While very strong, dragon wings can be vulnerable to high-speed ruptures. In other words, we'd have drones dive through their wings at high speed to punch through them much like an arrow. I don't know if a pegasus could pull off such a maneuver without injury, but the holes in the wings would limit its mobility. After that you either attempt o wear it down, or attempt to strike at the larger scales on the dragons belly. They are as strong as the rest of them, but it is much easier to wear down a single large scale than it is to attempt to wear down a scale the size of your hoof that's layered among hundreds of others on a moving target. One queen even preferred to fire a powerful magic spell either down a dragons throat or up it's rear, bypassing the scales entirely.

"Combat is what my life was dedicated to in the hive. I was taught how to take towns and keeps, how to defend the hive, how to fight and how to lead and coordinate drones in combat. I have been told some of the things I do are not feasible for ponies, but if there is any creature you have question about I may know how to kill it. If I don't know for certain how to do so, I'll be able to put together a strategy to learn how to kill it. I won't be able to tell you anything else about the creatures, as Mother was adamant about not cluttering our minds with needless information. We knew our jobs, and that was all we knew."

Luna nodded, turning to Celestia with an appreciative smile.

"We may need to take her to task on some of the local monsters. Her methods of using drones as disposable troops would be an issue but she may know how some creatures would react to hostile or defensive actions."

"I am more concerned with how Maximus managed to turn himself into a living model of the pony body," Celestia muttered back, her face looking a bit green. "To see such a thing is, it is extremely bothersome."

"Oh, you think too much about such things," the younger alicorn dismissed. "Maximus! Are you capable of returning to your previous form but retaining your transparency?"

The changeling looked to Crystal for a moment, the two of them flinching or shrugging as they discussed the request before the brown half-pony disappeared in a flash of green fire. He returned to his full body, while Crystal was the one to convert herself into a living model.

"This feels strange," the young shape shifter muttered, looking back at her side and watching her body as it operated.

Luna stepped closer, looking over the mare's body and comparing it to what she remember reading and what the stallion had explained during her last night court. Some of the bits she could identify, but others...the changelings did indeed have two stomachs, making it a total of three branches from the throat. The esophagus if she recalled the term correctly.

'Lungs, heart, the anus seems to just end not too deep inside and...oh wow.'

'I guess that explains the overabundance of reproductive equipment,' Max thought as he looked over the sectioned mare's reproductive organs. Yes, organs. As in multiple. Her vaginal tract seemed to split off into several different chambers, Some of them looking to be empty sacs while others deeper inside had what he could only guess were her ovaries. With a quick command to the mare, she canceled the transformation. She may not have had any idea what the issue was, but there was an awful lot of blushing and coughing coming from the crowd.

'Humans aren't the only species with perverted tendencies,' he chuckled to himself, finding Celestia and Luna in the crowd. Luna looked at the young shape shifter intently, burning with curiosity mixed with a hint of lust and telling him exactly where her focus had been as well. The older mare seemed not to notice, too busy attempting to fight off her nausea at the sights that had assaulter her so recently.

" Any questions? Any additional questions, comments concerns, bitches, moans, complaints, gripes, requests, desires, or fantasies?"

A round of chuckles wound their way through the guards and he had to bite back a chuckle, several mare's asking for a demonstration from him as well. He shook his head at the request and the gathered ponies shared a round of laughter before dispersing back to their training.

"Interesting. I was unaware you two were capable of such transformations," Luna said as she approached the two.

"We weren't either, but I asked Crystal about it and she worked it out. It's kind of advanced stuff though, at the end of what Crystal was capable of," he explained before turning to his assistant. "If you don't mind, Crystal, I'd like to take a look at you with that transformation up in private. I saw something that kind of bothered me."

"Was there something wrong?" Luna piped up, her emotions blooming in concern.

Max shook his head.

"Not something that would cause damage, but I think I saw either the reason or the after effects of her sterility. Maybe if we can get Crack's opinion on it, we can find a way to reverse that."

"You mean you think you can help me lay?" Crystal asked, staring at him. "You, you think you can fix it? Make me a true queen?"

"Maybe, I don't know, Crystal," Max said as the mare rushed up to him. "It was just some things I noticed. For future reference though, genitals are private things. We talked about that, remember?"

"But you asked me to do what you did."

"Max also removed them from his model. His form was asexual as far as I could tell, though the shape of the body seemed more fit to be a stallion," Luna said, carefully pulling the queen away from Max. "We shall discuss this with Crack later. For now we have several ponies waiting to speak with us. Though I do appreciate the demonstration, Maximus. I do not believe I have ever seen such a thing before."

Trotting a bit to catch up to Luna as the alicorns made their way back to the keep, Max leaned in and whispered into her ear.

"What would you think of being able to see just how deep I go into Crystal, maybe even seeing my seed rushing out during a climax?"

The alicorn stumbled slightly, flapping her wings a few times as she attempted to calm herself. It was too late though. Max could already taste the lust bomb he'd just set off in her head. He'd have to ask Flick if there was a way to hold a transformation after an orgasm. There had to be something they could do to lock their forms. It would probably make infiltrations safer as well. That way they wouldn't accidentally drop them at the wrong time.

After dinner and hunting down the other changelings, Max found himself standing outside their shared room. Flick was a bit tired, still preferring her night time schedule. Still, the idea of seeing what Max and Crystal had worked out for herself had her burning with curiosity.

"It shouldn't be too difficult to spot the difference in her body if she does that. I've looked over enough queens that had trouble with egg laying. Assuming the issue isn't magical, I may be able to force a shift in her body to allow her to finish maturing," Crack explained as they arrived.

The larger stallion stopped as his hoof was reaching for the door.

"Mature- wait, Crystal's not a mature changeling ? Does that mean she's still considered a changeling teenager or something? That would make more sense though. If there's some kind of block on her, it would keep her from being capable of breeding even if she could have sex."

"There's a final molt a queen goes through before they start laying. Mother had a way to stop that final molt if it wasn't convenient. If it's magical, we may be able to remove it with some cancelation spells. If it's biological, I should be able to find the difference between her body and a healthy proto-queen that's about to enter her final molt. She's old enough, older than she needs to be at least. She's also shown a vast change in attitude which I would attribute to her linking with you. How has the link been treating you?"

"It's an interesting experience. It's odd to know there's always someone I can contact if I need something, but I'm not used to the idea of sharing memories like this. She never came across as having a powerful personality, so it's like having- Crystal? What's wrong?"

Max stopped in his tracks, looking at the beta of the flock as she stood before a mirror. Her form was different though. The holes were back, though only because of the transformation she was wearing. Her horn seemed longer and more jagged, her legs longer and thus, her body taller. The relatively short and scraggly mane style she bore, compared to the alicorns at least, was now a full flowing mane. She spread her wings, displaying a tattered wingspan that still managed to catch the wind when she flapped them. She gave a flick of her teal tail and Max boggled, wondering how the mare's mane and tail could have holes. It was almost unreal, looking at Crystal right now, as if-

'Oh fuck,' he thought. "We'll need to speak later, guys, I think this is going to be...I don't know. Give us a bit, I'll come find you again later."

The smaller changelings beat a hasty retreat, not certain what was occurring but smart enough to see the larger shape shifter's distress. Max could feel it too now if he concentrated. It still wasn't a form of communication he was used to though, so he'd not noticed her mood suddenly fall.

"Crystal? Come on, Chrissy, talk to me."

"Is this what I'm supposed to look like?" she whispered.

'Fack'

"No," he answered, a hint of hesitation in his voice causing her to glare at him. Taking a breath, he gestured to the bed. "Will you let me explain those images?"

At this range he could feel her raging thoughts as they simmered beneath the surface. For a moment he wondered if she would lash out at him, but she slowly nodded, dropping the form for her smaller body.

"I, I've trusted you a lot and you haven't hurt me. Do you promise that won't happen? That I won't lose myself like that?"

Instead of answering he sent another image, a picture of Nightmare Moon as she attacked Celestia, another of her crowing her iconic line. It wouldn't mean much without an explanation, but it would hopefully let Crystal know there was more to this. It seemed to work too, the changeling shrinking a bit but moving onto the bed.

"It's a story. You remember these?" he asked, sending images of several cartoon characters. She nodded and he sent another batch of images, these featuring ponies in all forms, the changelings, Discord, all of them viewed from a screen.

"Back home there was a story. It was about a little girl finding out she was the key to an ancient artifact of power along with five other young girls. They banded together and defeated Nightmare Moon, cleansing her of her hate and jealousy, or so the story goes. Later on at the wedding of the brother of that hero, a changeling queen attacked, taking the place of the bride and using the brother's love for the pink princess to defeat Celestia. The queen lost though. I want you to look at this story though and tell me something. When does this occur?"

He watched as Crystal sorted through the images, finding what he was alluding to. The train she could only identify because of Max's memories. Same with the streetlights, and the castle was well beyond anything the ponies were capable of. In fact she didn't even know what mountain the city was situated on. There were several nearby, after all. She frowned, recalling the image of Nightmare moon so he sent her the tale of the Mare in the Moon.

"A thousand years?" she whispered.

"More. The sisters were well situated as far as I could tell. Score that occured. They had a nice castle that was bigger than this one, they had defeated several other enemies that are likely going to show in the future, and I think ponies were either in or heading into a cultural revolution. Tapestries, stained glass windows, statues, armor for the sake of decoration, decorative weapons and dishes, and the library! More books than you could read in a year. We don't even have two bookshelves of scrolls at the moment between all the literature in the castle, Crystal."

"So even if it's far in the future, that will still-"

"I don't know if it will," he cut her off. "Discord talked to me before he brought me here, said he wanted to change things. If we help Luna, if we can watch her and make sure that doesn't happen, why would any of these other bits occur? Besides, now you know better. Even if that was you, would you do the same things?"

"No," Crystal answered, a bit of strength returning to her voice. "She- I? The mare had several opportunities to win but squandered them. They-"

Her voice cut out again as Max sent a few ideas, her expression turning thoughtful as she began searching for the information herself. Max shivered this time, the sensation of the changeling mare's presence flowing through a memory he was actively working with causing his spine to tingle. She followed it deeper and he followed her presence, finding the full list buried in his memories.

"Lets play a game, Crystal. I think up a villain and we try to see how many of these rules they break, as well as which one sends them to their deaths or defeats."

The smaller shape shifter nodded as she pressed closer to his side, pulling the blanket over both of them. Even as he began to list villains for their game, he could hear something from her. A single word she repeated over and over as if tasting it.

'Chrysalis.'

Author's Notes:

"You want to know what happened, don't you Celestia?"