"Slick?" Bright Flash stopped in his tracks. "Hey, Slick Dive!" He loosed his flames, letting them restore her to her natural form. "Hey, you managed to get out of Queen Bug-butt's claws to—" She stopped and stared.

"Not… not really." Slick Dive was marching the same direction as Bright. "I just… I want to let go, but I have been part of the hive for so long. But I want to help the Prince and Princess. They could have squished me… they should have squished me… but they didn't."

"Chrysalis would have." Bright buzzed her wings a little, getting a soft chirp from them. "Misty, this is an old friend, Slick Dive." She looked at Misty, gesturing to Slick. "Slick, this is Misty Dew, the mare who I just can't stop thinking about."

Slick looked at Misty. "If you don't mind me asking, uh… are you a pony?" He felt a distinct amount of disapproval color the mare's otherwise delicious-tasting aura. "Sorry… I had to ask." He looked aside.

"Honesty is the secret." Misty had been getting a little practice at spotting changeling emotions, and she could spot a pony with a broken heart. "You didn't tell her?" She pressed up beside Slick, opting to bracket him with Bright.

"What? How did you… am I that pathetic?" Slick wanted to slump down and hide. "She is amazing—the best flier I have ever seen—and when she..." He gave a little whine as the thoughts almost overwhelmed him. "Jade Wings… I couldn't just tell her… it was against the rules to tell the pony you are using for cover…"

"So she wasn't happy you kept lying to her?" Misty was a tall, beautiful mare, headstrong and proud, but she knew there was one distinct way that she could use all that. She reached under Slick's downcast chin with one hoof and tilted it back up. "How would you have felt if she had lied to you? If she had kept stringing you along, all the while slipping away to the Guard to inform on you?" It hurt her to see his face fall further. I will not boost his confidence if he is not really sorry, I don't care if he is Brighty's friend. "So what are you going to do?"

"I am working at being her friend again. We… I apologized." Slick walked along, feeling twice as bad now, as he marched to the "special meeting" he had been summoned to. "I couldn't feel it, couldn't even feel any love for me at all."

Misty glared at Bright, when the changeling started to open her mouth to say something. She softened the glare when Bright closed her mouth. "Give her a year—a year and a day." Misty used her hoof to gesture extravagantly. "And then, if she is not with another pony, ask her on a date. But Slick?" Misty waited for the changeling to look back from where she gestured, to her. "Don't ever lie to her again—ever. Do that and you will have two mares angry at you."

"Three." Bright stuck her tongue out at Misty. "Solidarity here. But my queens taught me one thing, and Misty makes sure I never forget it: you don't lie to the ones you love."

"I know, now." Slick hung his head again. "So a year and a day?" Misty nodded to him. "Okay. I… I joined the Guard, we are both in it now. At least it keeps me too busy to even think about the hive—or my queen."

The three walked in the open doors of what was quickly becoming known as the "Strategy Room" among the castle-folk. Already populated, the room held Shining Armor (disguised perfectly as himself), Princess Cadance, Careful Steps, Nimbus Cloud, and Gilt Wings.

Shining smiled. "Now that we are all here, we can start." With the three inside the room, he used his magic—now a perfect pink, like it "should" be—to close the doors. "Bright Flash, report on what you have found."

"Chrysalis' little observation group in Canterlot received, yesterday afternoon, a message telling them that nearly thirty new infiltrators will be dispatched to Canterlot and Ponyville. This is probably going to make my continued work impossible, which means I am going to get either caught by them, or just disappear, like Gilt." Bright Flash bowed her head toward Gilt.

"Your Majesties, I would ask that we don't send Bright back. At this point we don't think Chrysalis has any clue that you are changing, or that you are taking our loyalty." Gilt looked towards Slick Dive. "Which means you have a choice."

"I… I like the hive. All my friends…" Slick looked to Bright Flash and paused a moment. "Okay… some of my friends are still there." He had hung his head again, blue eyes staring at the floor, which is why he was shocked when he felt a heavy hoof rest on his shoulders. Jerking his head up, he saw an undisguised Shining Armor—clear signs that the stallion was not becoming a drone, but a queen, were evident. "What… I don't understand. Queen Chrysalis said you would be turning into a changeling, but I didn't think she meant—" A big, black, hole-filled hoof pressed to Slick's snout.

"No, she didn't plan very much at all, did she?" Shining grinned at the drone, showing off the definitely-not-drone-style fangs he sported. "Now there is a hive for you here. A hive you don't have to leave."

"But…" Careful tapped a sheet of paper on the big desk in the middle of the room. "If you did want to help, we actually have something you can do." He looked to Cadance, getting a firm nod from her. "Despite my suggestions."

Careful's words were unheeded by both Slick and Shining, the two staring at each other. At last Slick Dive blinked his big eyes. "What about the other drones, what are you going to do with them?"

Cadance heard the plea, and walked up beside her husband. "I know what he is going to say, and I promise you, I will support him." She spread one wing over Shining's back in a show of support.

Shining leaned over and kissed Cadance, only a little one on the cheek. "All of the drones of your hive, if I can, will end up here, in the Crystal Empire."

"What about Queen Chrysalis?" Slick almost trembled, asking the question.

"I won't let her stop me." Shining felt his heart harden. "If I have to fight her again, queen to queen, I wi—" Shining stopped his statement when Slick shook his head.

"No, I mean, will you take her in too?" Slick saw the shocked look on Shining's face. As Slick looked to Cadance, he saw hers as being more intrigued. "I mean… this might be more than I should say, but she is… she is our mother. She might not be smart… or be nice… but she is our mother."

Shining was stopped dead by the comment. "She hurt me, a lot." His voice shook as he said the words. "She did… she did bad things." It was easier to say, with the wing over his back, squeezing him against Cadance. Shining Armor gritted those new, pointed teeth, gritted them physically and mentally. "If I can find a way, if she agrees to my wife's terms, she can come as well."

Cadance didn't hesitate for a moment; she threw a leg over Shining's withers and pulled him in for a tight hug. "That took a lot to say." She whispered the words in his ear. "But now you have dumped me in it." She nibbled the ear a little.

Reacting to his wife's playfulness, Shining let out a deep breath. "I dumped us both in it, Cady. We have to try to find a way to give her a chance to redeem herself." He inhaled deeply, smelling not only the rose scent Cadance used, but his wife under it.

"Queen Chrysalis would never have done that." Slick stared at the two ponies, an alicorn and a half-queen. "She would have thrown me across the room rather than hear me ask her to forgive Princess Cadance." He closed his eyes, focused on his feelings and duty. "Until my queen is able to act like one again, I will call you both my queens." He stood up straight.

"Stop!" Careful stepped between two rulers and the little changeling drone. "Your Majesties, do not take him in, please." He looked to Slick to make sure he hadn't fallen over—drunk with love—yet. "Slick, do you think you can work with us, even still bound to Chrysalis' hive?"

Slick Dive looked from Shining and Cadance to Careful. "Uh… yes?" He blinked rapidly. "What do you want me to do that being bound to the hive would help with?"

"Bright Flash was able to avoid being detected by the others because they just weren't looking for that connection. These changelings will be looking for kin, and if they see a changeling that they don't feel the hive-connection with, they will know it is a ruse." Careful's eyes focused on Slick. "But in you, they will feel someling that feels like home. Like they should."

Looking from the two queens to Careful, Slick nodded. "I can do that." Recent training paid off, driving his small form straight and lifting a hoof sharply to his forehead. "Sir, what do you need me to do?"

"You don't have to go." Shining smiled at the drone. "That is the first rule of our hive. Everyling has a choice."

"I want to go." Slick had never felt so sure of something before in his life. "If I can help you, if I can help my old hive-mates, if I can help my mother—" He took a deep breath. "Let me help."

Trixie stared at the boulder, her eyes glaring at it. "This is some kind of trick to make Trixie look bad." She looked aside, watched the other recruits struggle to lift their boulders. "The Great and Powerful Trixie sees through your ruse. That boulder can't be—" She cut off as a white-yellow glow wrapped around the boulder and lifted it.

"Recruit, these rocks are what we want you all to be able to lift." Gleaming was slumming it with the recruit training, but after Commander Gilt found out she had an eye for catching changelings in disguise, she found herself assisting the recruit training more and more.

Regretting the loss of her hat and cape already, Trixie found the attitude insufferable. "Trixie can lift it, she just… does not use the normal methods. Put it back down and she will show you." She waited for Gleaming to put the boulder down. "Oh, help! I am caught under the boulder!" Heads spun to face the rock that Trixie had thrown her voice to.

A collective wave of combined magic lifted the stone up and aside. Exclamations of shock and annoyance ran through the crowd when there was nopony under it.

"Trixie has lifted the boulder. Do you require another demonstration?" Trixie tossed her mane, her face pulled in a self-satisfied smile. "Or is that enough?"

Gleaming was in a state of mild shock. On one hoof, the mare had lifted the boulder, just as was required of her. On the other hoof, she cheated like spotted feline. "I want to see you lift it every day, at least once."

Trixie's eyes narrowed as she stared at the other unicorn. "Trixie accepts this challenge. What will she win if she manages this?"

"Trixie will find herself not out on her plot." Gleaming grinned at the mare, deciding that cheating was just as valid as not. "Since you have completed your exercise, you can come for a little trot." Every single recruit groaned at the words, only causing Gleaming to grin wider and wider. "Come on, recruit, I bet we can make it around the courtyard a few times before the others are done with their magic."

Able to smell a ruse when it was coming, Trixie could nonetheless see no way out of it; besides, this was her getting out of doing hard work. "Trixie will have you know she has trotted all over Equestria, several times."

"Great!" Gleaming started off at a trot, Trixie at her side. "But I don't trot. Come on, recruit, stretch those muscles and get your cannons up in the air!" She blew a snort and dove forward into a canter, then into a gallop.

Eyes widening, Trixie stepped up and widened her pace too. "Trixie is… just as good… as uncouth… guards!" The words were spoken between long strides. "Trixie will… need to… talk to… recruiter about… this!"

The only answer Trixie was getting from Gleaming was the deep, loud breaths of exertion.

Author's Notes:

For her Exuberant Royalness, Mistress of the Pony Lands, Ruler of the Changeling Kingdoms, Her Dark Radiance, Queen Chrysalis: "Are you aware that your rightful love Shining Armor would be unable to produce the love you deserve by transforming him into a changeling?"ou, as always!

~~~~~+++++~~~~~

Chrysalis lifted her head from the bed, eyes still damp with tears well spent. "What? What do... SHUT UP! I KNOW WHAT I AM DOING!"

~~~~~+++++~~~~~

So I do this "Ask x" thing, x can be any pony within the story. You can ask them anything and I they will definitely hopefully reply. Keep the questions appropriate to the age-rating of the stories and of course, I they will answer the best question(s) in the author notes of the next chapter. The more votes a comment has the more likely I will get it to the right pony to answer, try and keep it to one answer per post! I They will pick one question per chapter.

Support me on atreon

Join me on Discord. Please use your FimFic name as an alias. Warning, said chat may contain NSFW material and should be considered adult in nature.

Awesome ponies who are already helping to keep me in keyboards and rum:
Canary in the Coal Mine
Daremo
Mary Rowland
Boulder
A.P.O.N.I.
Mephia
Nils
Ian

And special thanks to the following, for careful eyes and friendly words:
Daremo
Vutava
Boulder
Jeffh4