“Of course! I wasn’t the grand champion of the arena for twenty years running for nothing you know!” Iron Fist boasted.

“Alright then, let me just get rid of these wings and we can get started.” Nick said getting confused looks from the others that turned to a mix of disgust and shock as they watched the wings get pulled into the holes in his chitin that soon closed up.

“How… what… I..” Trixie sputtered before fainting.

“Well, that certainly is an odd trick.” Iron Fist said and looked at Nick's back where the wings had been with an intrigued expression. “What sort of magic is that?” Iron will asked.

“It’s not magic, it’s a natural philosopher stone ability.” Nick answered getting a confused look from iron.

“I don’t understand, how is that not magic?” Iron Fist asked.

“It’s a long story, could we head inside to talk?” Nick asked.

“Of course, let me take Trixie to her room and we can talk. We’ll start training in the morning. For now let’s just get you settled in alright?” Iron asked.

“Alright then I’ll wait for you down stairs.” Nick said as they entered the house. Iron lead Nick into the living room and had him take a seat before carrying Trixie up stairs. The room was well kept with two large sofas, a comfortable looking chair next to a fireplace and various weapons and pictures of Iron and his family on the walls.

He spotted a picture of a younger looking Iron Fist that looked to be in his mid thirties with a younger minotaur that had blue fur and large horns. The younger bull looked to be about twelve and on Iron Fist’s shoulder was a younger looking Trixie that looked to be about six years old.

“That would be my son iron will.” Iron fist said walking down stairs and looking at the photo that Nick had been looking at.

“He looks like a nice kid.” Nick said.

“Aye, he is. Should be about to turn twenty seven in june.” Iron said as he picked up the picture and stared at it smiling at the fond memory.

“Where is he now? If you don’t mind me asking?” Nick asked changing his claws back into fingers but leaving chitin armor on them.

“Last I checked he was in equestria giving motivational speeches.” Iron sighed and put down the photo. “That’s as far as I want to go into that if you don’t mind.” Iron will said getting a nod from Nick.

“Alright so umm, I believe you wanted to know more about my abilities correct?” nick asked.

“Correct, now if that wasn’t magic, then what in the seven levels of tartarus was that?” Iron said taking a seat across from Nick.

“That was an ability granted to me by the philosopher stone. It allows me to change what I am at will kind of how caterpillars turn into butterflies but faster and more diverse. Anything i have the DNA for i can grow or make on my body. For example this chitin,” nick said gesturing to the heavy armor on his body, “is from an ironclad beetle I absorbed and gained its DNA.” Nick explained.

“I still don’t understand how it’s any different than magic.” Iron said.

“Think of it like how your body heals from cuts. As it heals the cells are dividing to cover up the exposed flesh, the Philosopher's stone let’s me take this to the next level and shape my cells however i want. It allows me to make this a natural process for me to simply grow and absorb new body parts like my wings from earlier.” Nick explained further.

“Alright so I still don’t understand, so I’ll just take your word for it and say it isn’t magic.” Iron said leaning back.

“That works I guess. So umm, what exactly are we going to do until tomorrow?” Nick asked.

“For now let’s get you familiarized with the house and what you will be doing here besides training.” Iron said and got up beckoning for Nick to follow. They started with the down stairs, after the living room was the dining room that had a decent sized eight person table and a wine cabinet. The walls like the living room were adorned with pictures of Iron Fist’s family and weapons of different kinds.

After the dining room was the kitchen. It was a decent sized and equipped kitchen with an island in the middle. To the right was a door leading to the back yard with the smithy connected to the side of the house. The back yard wasn’t much then a gated space with grass. They entered the smithy through the back to find a stock room with various supplies for forging arms and armor.

Next was the forge itself which was very well equipped. There were two kilns and anvils likely for a second blacksmith to help. Finally the front serviced as a shop. They rounded back to the front of the house and went back inside. They made their way up stairs, the top of the house had four rooms and a bathroom.

“Alright so that’s the house and smithy, I don’t suppose you have any experience with forging metal do you?” Iron asked hopefully.

“Sorry, but I don’t.” Nick said rubbing the back of his neck.

“Well then I suppose you should learn then, since that’ll be how you pay for room and board.” Iron said.

“Are you going to teach me?” Nick asked.

“No I was thinking the chief at the bakery would teach you.” Iron said sarcastically.

“...so where will I be sleeping?” Nick asked changing the subject.

“Over here in the guest room.” Iron chuckled. They went back downstairs and made their way to the living room.

“Alright umm, I know this sounds a bit sudden, but do you have any spare clothing? I’m a bit tiered in walking around in my birthday suit.” Nick asked looking down to his body that was only covered in a thick layer of chitin leaving nothing to the imagination. Thankfully he had made a plate that covered up willy for obvious reasons, but it didn’t compare to a new set of cloths.

“Ah yes, I was wondering about that. From the looks of it I was beginning to think it was like the armor that changelings make out of shed chitin. So uhh, you're just walking around in the nude right now?” Iron asked.

“Yeah, you wouldn’t happen to have anything to spare do you?” Nick asked hoping to finally shrink down the chitian. He would leave himself lightly armored, but his current level of armor wasn’t something he was hoping to make a normal thing.

“Unfortunately nothing I have would fit you. You needn’t worry, we can just head down to the local tailor and have you measured for a new set of clothing.

Silk Sheets sighed as she finished her latest work. One of the nobles had requested a dress for the upcoming ball and had been extremely picky about it’s design and it being made of changeling silk. Though she had very productive silk glands, the amount that the dress required drained her considerably. What made matters worse was that she was going to miss out on the love she normally received from her customers that were thankful with her work because of the fact that this noble was one that was born into it rather than earning it like the rest.

Unlike much of the rest of the world, Minotaurian nobility could only keep their nobility for three generations before it was earned again or taken away. The nobles that earned their place were often nice and well, noble. They gave her much love for her work and thanked her properly. But the nobles that grew up as such, mostly the third generation ones like her current client simply expected her to do so as if she was their slave and nothing more.

Her business had been doing fairly well recently. She was able to pay all her taxes and she had even managed to save up enough that she might actually be able to move to Elysium. She wished that Equestria would accept her kind, but they often hated them out of simple fear and ignorance. The ponies were amazing creatures that exuded five times as love as most other species, but due to their fear and hatred of her kind they could only harvest love through deceit.

Thankfully most of the other nations did not share this prejudice against her kind and widely accepted them. The local hive had been doing exceptionally well to. Thanks to the love that changelings could openly gather without retaliation they could sustain a viable population throughout the world. It wasn’t all happy times though. The queens that oversaw the central hive often disagreed on anything from love distribution and rationing, to whether or not they should take over another country.

The last time that one of the queens had done so ended in disaster and only served to cement Equestria and its allies fear and hatred of Changelings. She wished she could move to Elysium sooner so she could be closer to one of the love distribution centers. Buying love got more and more expensive the further away you were from it. The problem could be solved if she could find a mate, but she was very shy, and the male population in Kevil was drastically smaller than normal. Any male that she might be interested in would either be taken, or not interested in her. She finished putting the dress on a mannequin when she heard the bell to her shop ring.

“Coming!” She shout happily.

“Welcome to Silk Sheet’s boutique, how may… I.. Help… You…” she said slowly as she her eyes were drawn to the muscular chitin of the male before her. He was very tall and had black hair with deep blue eyes.

He left nothing to the imagination as he was covered in nothing but heavy chitin. She could tell this wasn’t changeling made armor as she could see where it connected to his flesh signaling that this was all living chitin. The way his chitin shined in the sunlight showed he was very healthy too. And the size of the plate covering his sheath drew her in as it was the only thing that left anything for her to imagine.

“Well you could help me by stop staring at my crotch.” Her customer said slightly offended.

“Come on boy, take it as a complement! You shouldn’t get mad at a lady for checking out the goods!” Iron Fist said slapping him on the back and laughing heartily.

“Oh I am so sorry!” She said with her cheeks turning a bright green.

“Oh it’s alright silk, no harm done. Nick, this is my good friend Silk Sheets, Silk Sheets this is my new apprentice Nick.” Iron reassured the young tailor and introduced them to one another.

“Still, I shouldn’t have been leering like that.” She shuffled nervously.

“Well just don’t let it happen again and we’ll be fine.” Her new customer said.

“Right, erm… well how may I help you?” she said trying to make sure her eyes didn’t wander.

“Well as you can see I’m a little short on clothing, so I was hoping to get a new set so I’m not left exposed.” Nick said gesturing to his naked form.

“Of course, I could take some measurements and make you an new set of cloths by tomorrow.” She said.

“Great, just let me make a few changes and well be set, umm do you have a towel I could borrow by any chance?” Nick asked getting a confused look from Silk.

“Just trust him on this.” Iron said to Silk whom simply nodded and went upstairs to get the towel for Nick.

“Well that was interesting.” Nick said after she had left.

“I think she likes you.” Iron chuckled.

“I thought you were trying to hook me up with Trixie?” Nick said looking at the old bull.

“What haven't you ever heard of a herd before?” Iron will asked.

“A what now?” Nick asked completely lost getting a bewildered look from Iron Fist.

“Honestly boy have you been living under a rock your whole life?” Iron Fist asked.

“I’m not exactly around here.” Nick shrugged.

“Even so herds are a worldwide thing! You couldn’t possibly have gone your whole life without knowing about them!” Iron will said.

“Alright here’s that towel you wanted.” Silk said and tossed the towel to Nick.

“We’ll talk more about this later.” Iron will said and made his way for the door.

“Hey where are you going?” Nick asked him before he could leave.

“I have some errands to run, and I think you two might need some alone time.” Iron winked making them both blush.

“So umm, if you'd just follow me I can take your measurements if you would like?” She said regaining her composure after Iron had left.

“Yeah, sure.” Nick said shaking his head and followed her to the back room where she had him stand on a podium to take his measurements. Before he did so he did something that made Silk's jaw drop and her blush returned full force. Once he wrapped the towel around his waist he reshaped his chitin so that it was a much lighter armor. He kept his shoulder pads but made them small enough that they only lifted a little.

The armor on his arms shrank so that it only covered the outsides of his arms and but still covered most of his forearms in a thin but extremely tough shell. He kept a few plates on the back of his neck and shrank town the massive shell that protected his torso so that it simply left plates connected to either side of his back and along the small of his back were smaller and smaller plates until they disappeared under the towel. His feet remained the same but the chitin on his calves shrunk until they mostly just covered the bulk of it with a thin layer of chitin.

His tail lost it’s wicked barb and became a rounded club off chitin with the plates of chitin that covered the bulk of his tail shrank until they became overlapping plates that mostly just covered the top and sides instead of all around. The chitin that served as a heavy armor on his chest and sides shrank until there were two breast plates that covered his pecks and smaller ones covering up his abs. The final part had her starring again as the smaller plates pronounced his muscles very well.

“Alright, all set. Ready?” Nick asked looking over to the mare that had a dreamy look on her face and a massive blush. “Hey! Are you alright?” Nick asked waving a hand in front of her.

“Huh? What? Oh! Umm.. yes let's get started. I just need to feel-I mean measure you!” she said hoping he didn’t catch that.

“What was that?” Nick asked much to her relief.

“I said I just need to take your measurements.” She chuckled nervously.

“Alright then…” Nick said unsure. She went over to the nearby table and got some measuring tape. As she started she took her time, memorizing his muscle structure. One of the down sides was he didn’t exactly smell as good as he looked, so she had to stop taking measurements.

“Umm.. I’m really sorry about this, but when's the last time you had a shower?” she asked taking a few steps back fearing he might be angry. She was relieved however when he looked at her sheepishly.

“Eheh… it’s uhh… been awhile.” He said sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck.

“Would you like to use my shower? It would make this a lot easier.” She said gesturing upstairs.

“Sure, thanks by the way, and sorry about the smell. I had been traveling through the forest to the east for the past couple of weeks and didn’t really have an opportunity.” He said following her upstairs towards the restroom.

“Wait you were traveling through the Everfree?! That’s extremely dangerous!” she said turning towards him.

“I’ll say, damn near got eaten several times. But I’m safe now.” He chuckled. They arrived at the bathroom and he was pleased to see that despite the technological level this world seemed to be on, they surprisingly had modern plumbing techniques down.

“Alright, so I’ll just go ahead and let you clean up. I’ll wait for you downstairs.” she said nervously and made her way out shutting the door behind her. Once she was out she started making her way to the stairs when she heard him start the shower. She stood their for a minute and contemplated on what she was going to do. “Maybe just a peek.” she said to herself.

She snuck over to the door and looked through the keyhole hoping to get a good few of her… healthy looking customer… when she looked through she was surprised to find that his package was external. This made judging it’s full size difficult as unlike internal packages, external ones had wildly different size changes when hard and flaccid. But the part that really got her excited was his muscles.

He wasn’t overly bulky like a minotaur, but he was certainly better built than any pony or Zebra stallion she had seen before. He even matched the buffer Griffin hawks in the city Guard. The chitin plates accentuated his muscles extremely well. She could hear a faint dripping noise when he started to lather himself with the soup.

She looked down and began to panic at the stain on her pants and wet spot on the floor. She tried she looked up to see Nick sniffing the air and then himself. This wasn’t good, Changelings produced powerful pheromones in their natural lubricant. If he caught a good enough whiff of the pheromones in her fluids then he would not be able to get rid of his erection even with a cold shower. He would have to either wait for seven hours for it to go away, or cause her to give off the right pheromones to cancel out the effect.

She made her way to her room and changed her pants and panties after wiping herself off and calming herself down. Once she was satisfied that she was no longer horny she grabbed a hand towel and quickly but quietly made her way back to the bathroom hoping it wasn’t to late. She cleaned of the spot where she had dripped her fluids in and and checked to see if she made it in time before the pheromones took effect.

To her horror, and slight excitement, he was fully and appeared to be painfully erect. She cursed under her breath as she looked at the pained expression on his face as he turned to turn the hot water knob completely off and turned the cold water on full blast.

Nick looked at the shower after Silk Sheets left overjoyed. He hadn’t had a shower in two weeks! He wasted no time in stepping into the shower and closing the glass door behind him. He turned the water on careful to aim the shower head away from him as he adjusted the water temperature. Once done he adjusted the water and let the water wash over him relaxing his tense muscles for the first time in what felt like an eternity.

He grabbed the soap and began to lather his entire body paying close attention on where skin met Chitin. He rinsed himself off and moved on to his hair that had become somewhat matted. After he was done he was satisfied that his rough and matted hair was now silky smooth, the irony of who’s bathroom he was in wasn’t lost on him. He finished off with some conditioner and when he was about to rinse it out of his hair, he locked down as for some reason he felt himself growing hard.

“Ah, the return of the Why-Boner. With a vengeance.” He said the second part darkly. He ignored it for now hoping this odd Why-Boner would just go away by the time he dried off, however as he rinsed out his hair it began to get painfully hard begging for attention. He wasn’t about to rub one out in this mare’s bathroom, that would be just disrespectful, and would take too long.

He turned to the shower knobs and shut off the hot water and turned the cold on full blast. He waited for five minutes but his erection showed no signs of stopping. In fact it seemed to be getting worse as the veins became pronounced and each throb sent a jolt of pain through his body. He began to panic as he heard a knock at the door.

“Umm.. don’t come in! I’m almost done.” He called.

“Nick, it won’t go away like that.” He heard Silk say from behind the door. What? Did she know about his problem?? Was she spying on him!?

“What do you mean? You're not spying on me are you?” He asked somewhat angrily.

“I’m sorry, i just couldn’t help myself.. I’m terribly sorry.” She said with regret.

“What the fuck Silk!? And what do you mean this won’t go away like this?!” He asked angrily.

“When I was watching you I started dripping onto the floor. The pheromones in my fluids caused this to happen. It’s will only go away after seven hours…. Or if you mate with me…” She said hesitantly. He went pale as she said that last part.

“Then I’ll just wait it out.” Nick said much to her disappointment.

“It will only get worse as time goes by, and you also risk the chance of it popping..” Silk said hoping he would change his mind.

“It’s alright, I’ve been through worse, and I can regrow it if it did.” He said waving her off. She thought of one last thing that might get him to cave.

“It also causes me really bad pain as well the longer I go unattended.” She partly lied. In truth it did leave her with a bad itch that took a couple of hours to go away, but it was nothing compared to when she was in heat. She listened as he thought it over.

“Sorry, but I’m not risking getting you pregnant.” He said confusing her. Get her pregnant? That was impossible. Even if she was in heat she would need to become a queen for that, and the only way she could do that is if he eat royal jelly while she was in heat.

“Umm… you can’t… only a Queen Changeling can get pregnant, and I’m just a silk drone.” She said.

“I…. what? Look I don’t care what kind of... Changeling? I don’t care what kind of changeling you are. It ain’t happening.” Nick said.

“Please?” She gave one last ditch effort to persuade him.

“No!” Nick said and opened the door. He had reverted back to his heavy armor state and looked rather pissed scaring her into backing off.

“I’m sorry! please let me make this up to you!” Silk said backing away from him.

“Look, I appreciate the offer, and don’t appreciate the persistence, but I think it might be a good idea if I leave, I can get clothes elsewhere.” Nick said irritated and stormed downstairs.

“I’ll make your clothes for free!” She said stepping in front of the door. Nick stopped when she said this. Iron Fist had said he could pay him back later with hard work and harder training, but if he could get a few sets of clothing for free then he wouldn’t start out as a burden.

“Alright, but none of that trying to get me in bed crap.” Nick said reluctantly.

“Thank you, and I promise it won’t happen again.” Silk said relieved. Silk rushed up stairs to get another towel for him. She returned downstairs and handed him the towel and watched as he turned back into his lightly armored self again. She wondered how he did this, sure changelings could grow and shed chitin, but the process took months to complete, but he was doing it in seconds!

He certainly was no changeling that’s for sure, but whatever he was he was intriguing to her. Once he was done she lead him back to the podium room and resumed taking his measurements. He smelled really nice now, and she couldn’t help but linger longer than needed as she measured him.

Much to nick's irritation he caught her staring at the large tent he was pitching in the towel. He thought about absorbing it back into him for now and leaving his crotch blank like a mannequin, but he really hated not being able to feel his manhood. He had tried that long ago when he visited his brother who practically invented nut checking, but despite being immune to said pain he just felt wrong through the whole experience.

So he let it stay not just for his own comfort, but also as a punishment for the mare. He couldn’t believe she had spied on him and did this to him. They had known each other for less than an hour. He hopped this wasn’t a norm in this town or world for that matter. Once she was done with his upper body they ran into a problem as in order to measure his legs he needed to remove the towel. He did so reluctantly and faced away from her, making sure that she wasn’t going to peak further.

It didn’t work completely though as she measured his upper thigh she caught a glimpse of it dangling below some healthy sized tesitcles. She lost the last of her resolve as she saw the biggest, and admittedly the first penis in her life. She finished the last of her measurements and put away her equipment before turning to see that he had put the towel back on.

“Alright, are we done he-MMPH!!” Nick was interrupted when she pounced on him and locked her lips with his. He tried to push her off him, but she had wrapped her arms and legs around him holding on tightly preventing him doing so without hurting her. He was able to keep her away from his face but the moan she released has he pushed on her mammaries aggravated him.

“Please! I need you so badly!” She pleaded.

“Alright lady, you need to stop this right now! I’m not doing this and that’s final.” Nick yelled pushing her off of him. She pouted as he put his heavy chitin back on covering up her prize. She pounced at him again but he was too quick and moved out of the way.

“You can’t run forever. Come one just a little roll in the hay.” She said blocking the doorway.

“For the last time, the answer is no!” Nick said pushing past her.

“Please!? I promise you’ll enjoy it.” she said getting in front off him once again.

“I’m baack!” Iron Fist said coming through the door.

“Good, we’re leaving.” Nick said storming past him and back to the smithy.

“Was it something I said?”