Habeas, Persica, and Peach Blossom all spent Hearth's Warming together, and the company they each provided for each other was enough. The three celebrated in happiness, and when that special holiday ended, they spent the rest of the remaining winter in energetic mirth of an almost equal measure. In the process, they ate up the rest of the hard-grown food that remained from their previous harvest.

When the annual Winter Wrap Up eventually came by as a few months passed to herald the end of winter, spring had come to the land of Equestria in full force. The last of the snow to lay upon the ground melted away, revealing the green grass underneath. The southern birds migrated back from the lands they had originally gone to in order to escape the cold times, and their lovely, tweeting tunes once more sang loudly in the fresh air.

And just as every other area seemed to burst into greenery and life, so did the land on and surrounding the Peach Farmstead. The plow that had been used last year was taken down from where it hung for all of the winter, and brought over to the area where the vegetable garden they had constructed in the fall sat. The soil, no longer stiff and hard as it was in the wintertime, but soft and pliable, was absolutely perfect for seed-planting.

The plow was hooked up to Habeas and he spent the next few hours toiling away with dignity and purpose, marching with it across the bed of dirt. Now the spitting image of changeling health, it was a lot easier for him to use without a broken leg to hinder him. Habeas eventually finished, and as Persica went about tending to the peach trees and making sure each one was healthy and ready for the year ahead, Peach Blossom and himself planted as many seeds as they could into the fresh soil, labeling and watering the spots soon after.

Now done with the plow, it was eventually brought back to the barn to be put back away by all three of them. They tied a newer, stronger rope around its metal frame, and when it was successfully rigged back to the pulley system, the old piece of equipment was raised up. They continued hoisting it higher and higher until it dangled exactly where they wanted, stably.

"Nice!" Peach Blossom cheered after Habeas tied the suspending rope into several tight knots on a hook nailed next to the barn's front doors. "That'll be there for a while."

"Just remember, Blossom: Be careful around the hook, and don't play with the rope," Persica reminded her daughter after inspecting the knots herself. "We don't want to sever it and cause a few hundred pounds of metal to come crashing down to the ground, possibly even on somepony."

"Oh, Mom..." the filly chuckled, flicking her hoof without worry. "You know I wouldn't do that. Besides, I'm far too old to be entertained with the simple likes of rope."

"Well, you're still my daughter," the mare said, rubbing her hoof over Peach Blossom's head. "It'll be another year-or-two before you can call yourself a teenager, and even then I'll have to keep an especially wary eye on you."

"We'll see about that..." she replied deviously, slowly walking out of the barn with a smile on her mouth. It left Persica and Habeas alone, and they used that time together with wisdom comparable to grand old sages. The pony and the changeling walked to the barn's opened entrance and looked out to the property, to the garden they had made. To the peach trees already in bloom, soon to bear fruit. As their sightseeing entered its second minute, Habeas turned his head to Persica and he shuffled a few inches closer to her.

With immense care in his movement, he gently put his hoof around her shoulder. A few months might have passed since they confessed and consummated their love for one another, but there was a big reason for it. He definitely wished not to slip and make even the smallest of mistakes that had the capacity ruin everything that had been built up between them, and so every move of his was cautious and coordinated.

Though they hadn't openly admitted it, both knew that Peach Blossom had found out that they were positively smitten, and it didn't help that Persica had allowed him to sleep inside the house now (in the guest bedroom, for now of course). The filly would make the occasional remark that had something to do with why her mother was spending an awful amount of time with him, and Persica would always note the larger-than-usual, toothy grin her daughter would put on after the scarce times she would bring Habeas around a nearby corner to give him a quick peck, before returning to the filly's sight.

"It sure is beautiful, isn't it?" the mare took the liberty to inquire.

"Yes you- it is." Habeas knocked himself over the head with a light pat from his own hoof, smiling a little bit nervously as she gave him a glance from her good eye. "Sorry. Slip of the tongue."

"A welcomed slip," she corrected, leaning her head against his neck and resting it there. Habeas didn't move, for he was far too absorbed by the feeling to even think of doing anything else. That one night of ecstasy and bliss a few months back was the only time they had gone that far, but Habeas didn't care about the next chance he would have to experience such a tender moment again. What he did care about, wholly and truthfully, was Persica and making her happy.

He was hers, and that was all that mattered to him.

And for a time, perfectly content with how things had turned out and the life that was only just starting for them, the two stood there at the entrance of the barn together, admiring their handiwork as the sun had just started setting over the now-reddish horizon.

There was mostly a quiet atmosphere that had settled within the Bee household. Apini was currently in the kitchen taking care of some unwashed dishes in the sink; her duties tending to the recently revived and active beehives done for the day.

In the living room far behind her, Bumble was attempting to teach Honey how to speak a few words more than just 'mommy', 'Bumble', and 'cat', all with some success. The only real troubles right now seemed to be trying to get past his little sister's lack-of-teeth-induced lisping. It was quite the endearing, and Apini would sneak a few looks over her shoulder just to see it while she worked.

She was finishing up scrubbing the third-to-last glass cup, when the sound of the doorbell ringing went out. "I've got it!" Apini was the first to shout, mere seconds before Bumble could volunteer. Shrugging, the nymph went back to playing with Honey, and Apini, taking off her apron, trotted over to the door. She opened it, and a figure roughly her own size stood waiting on the other side with an expecting expression.

He was a male pegasus with yellow-tinted fur and wore a brown coat over his skinny frame, as well as a fedora of a matching color over his head, but there was a certain scent about him that told otherwise. The scent he had told Apini that this was actually a changeling in disguise, but it wasn't the smell that told her this. This was the same disguise he used the last time he came to visit.

It was her husband.

"Hello, Bombini," she greeted the drone from behind clenched teeth. "What brings you here, I wonder?"

"Hello, Apini," he spoke in a polite, soft, and sorrowful voice. "I know you must be vexed with me at how I've been unable to send any letters to you for the last month, but I swear by my wings to you, it was because the hive's been running me wild with all the tasks assigned from of our queen's latest plans."

Apini looked indifferent to this news. Bombini put a hoof into the doorway and spoke again. "May I... step in for only a few moments?"

"You're not coming in." Apini adamantly halted him before he could so much as think about attempting to enter by moving in his way.

"Why can't I?" he asked in a sullen voice.

"Why should you?" she rebutted in a most unwelcoming way.

"I only wish to visit with our children, for a few moments at the very least. How are they... faring here? I've gotten all their letters, and please, please believe me when I say I've tried everything in my power to reply to them," he asked in a fragile tone, looking past Apini and through the crack of the door to see the sight of two small figures playing in the background; oblivious to his presence. His head eventually lifted again to witness the face Apini staring at him in a glare.

"My children are doing perfectly fine," she spoke coldly. "But why have you come here? Did the queen send you on business, or is this simply an early checkup for this year?"

Bombini sighed and lowered his saddened head. "The queen wishes for me to deliver a message. It is... an assignment."

"How typical," mumbled Apini, leaning her body against the frame of the doorway as she prepared to hear what . "What is it? Does the queen want me to kill somepony? Poison a noblemare? Spy on the princesses' latest activities?"

"She wishes for you to slay a drone."

"A drone?" Apini's brow lifted in confusion and interest. "Who? Why?"

"He is a rogue drone who goes by the name of Habeas Brittle. He is a traitor who turned his back on the hive."

To this, Apini recognized the name right off and blinked in surprise. She had heard the name a few times now over the last few months starting just before Hearth's Warming came around, even seen the individual who bore it twice during that time. But the memory of her first encounter with him was what showed the most clearly in her mind. And she knew who knew him. "What did you say his name was?" she asked after getting past her shock.

"Habeas Brittle," he repeated. "Queen Chrysalis said he had been a terrible nuisance to keep under control to begin with, and tried to instigate a rebellion of freethinking within the hive's ranks. She attempted to get him to stop before doubt could be sown into their minds, and he up and abandoned the hive itself a few months ago under the cowardly fear of reprisal. If there's a chance he has survived this long, and other drones find out that he had been using his unsavory methods to do just that, all that doubt he has cast has the potential to evolve into something more insidious. This is a terrible idea to think upon, and so Chrysalis wishes for him to be destroyed if found to prevent that. He could be anywhere, but if he does happen to be lurking about in any sort of cityscape, the queen said he'd be in an area like this."

"In other words, I'm... to keep watch for him?"

"Yes. And eliminate him should you discover him," said Bombini. "The hive has sent loyal drones to scout for him elsewhere, but here in Canterlot is where the queen wishes for you to look."

"If that is what I must do... So be it," Apini said back, anger clear in her held back voice over the fact that the period of bloodless peace and tranquility she was experiencing was now over, and she had to once again dirty her hooves for a hive that despised her. As she finished her sentence, Apini could see an urgent look appear in Bombini's eyes, and she knew that his obedience to the hive, as strong as her own, was telling him he had spent enough time in the presence of family and not solely enforcing the will of the queen.

"I wish I had more time to visit, I truly do, but the queen is demanding the presence of nearly every last one of us drones as part of her larger-scale plans. Goodbye, Apini. Until next we meet," he spoke to his wife, his pain at leaving clearly evident. "I swear we will reunite as soon as I am able to slip away from my duty."

"Goodbye, Bombini. And... I hope you have safe travels back to the hive," she said back to her husband, almost begrudgingly, but with true care in her voice. Bombini looked like he was about to turn and leave, but stopped mid-turn and looked back to Apini.

"Before I go, I... got you some flowers," he spoke, bring forth a bouquet of daffodils, tulips, and peace lilies he had previously hidden perfectly underneath the folds his coat in a bright display. "I made sure to get your favorites, and only your favorites. Are they to your liking?"

Apini was caught like a fly in a web the moment she laid her different-colored eyes upon them. She accepted them into her hooves and quickly, and deeply inhaled their fragrant scent. "They are. I... thank you," she sighed in a more forgiving way than before, taking in another whiff of their heavenly smell. Bombini put on an easy smile at his wife's pleasure from his gift.

"In return for these, might you be able to tell the kids their father stopped by and said hello?" he asked.

She took her attention off of the flowers to look at Bombini and rolled her eyes, a small smile coming over her face. "Of course I will."

"Then... I can now leave somewhat happily." Bombini fixed the hat over his head, and after making a final look at Apini, he paced down the steps and started to walk off. Apini watched him leave, and only after he had traversed several dozen meters away was when she went back inside and closed the door.

"Who was that, Mom?" came a question from Bumble, turning away from his sister for a brief moment as Apini walked by with the flowers in her grasp.

"I'll tell you a little later, dear," she smiled, already knowing the expression he'd put on when she would tell him who it was. "Right now I have to prepare for something quite big tomorrow." And that was what she did. Finishing what little work there was to be had in the kitchen, she set to silently planning the course of actions she would play on how she would take care of this supposed 'renegade changeling' come sunrise next morning...