“Wake up, pretty bug!” Z felt a poke at her side, and reluctantly opened her eyes to find Whatserface poking her and grinning like a fool.
The room Mr. N had offered her was small but cozy, and very well furnished. From what she had seen over the last few days, it was the standard quarters for the drones who worked at the factory. While she found some aspects of the business distasteful, she had to admit that every changeling seemed well treated and happy. Mr. N and his Lieutenants seemed to treat the drones of the hive with respect and dignity, and few if any of them shared Z’s squeamishness about playing on pony lust to secure bits and emotional nourishment. In fact, most relished the idea of openly and honestly exploiting ponies secret desires. In the end it was a much more sensible and sustainable system than the bitch-queens old method of foal-napping ponies and replacing them with harvest drones until somepony noticed the ruse and called out the torches and pitchforks.
“I’m awake, already,” Z wiped the sleep for her eyes with a hoof and yawned.
“You lazy little buggy,” the other changeling giggled with excitement, “How can you sleep in with news this big!”
“What news?” Z asked sleepily, only to have a news paper shoved in her face.
One glance at the headline and she was wide awake.
“Changeling Princess?” Z stammered, reading without quite believing her eyes.
“I know, right?” Whatserface did a little dance, “We’re not refugees anymore, we’re full citizens of Equestria, we have our own princess and everything! Come on! Mr. N said he wants to see you right after breakfast! There’s so much to do! I just can’t believe it! I bet those stuck up town ponies are dropping bricks out of their plots right about now!”
The thought mad Z smile a little. If there had been any negatives to her experience in Fillydelphia, it was the rank, undisguised discrimination from the ponies of the city. She had seen it, to some extent, in Canterlot, but even then there had been attempts at subtlety, and a general sense that even the worst offenders were at least aware that they were wrong, and that most ponies would disapprove of such behavior. In Fillydelphia it was simply taken for granted that changelings were second class citizens at best, and not one pony eye was batted at even the most aggressive mistreatment of “a race of parasites and whores”. To have Celestia herself grant Princess status to a changeling queen… that elevated their discrimination from simple bad behavior to near blasphemy.
The Factory was literally buzzing with activity, as changelings flitted about, gossiping, celebrating and making preparations for the inevitable celebration. Z moved through the happy crowd easily enough and made her way to the buffet table that in business hours would serve hors d'oeuvres to pony customers, but in the off hours served as a makeshift cafeteria for Factory staff. She helped herself to a few slices of toast and a sphere of emotional nectar and quietly contemplated the news she had just received.
After finishing her meal, Z made her way to Mr. N’s office, as she approached she could hear the voice of an angry pony mare reverberating into the hallway.
“Don’t you get uppity with me you two bit pimp!” the Mare’s voice was thick with contempt, “You’d do best to remember that Fillydelphia is a long way from canterlot. You and your little hive-whores would do best to remember your place! You work for me. One word and I can have every one of you filthy roaches locked up and have a demolition crew tearing this place apart by tomorrow!”
A brown, somewhat coltish earth-pony left the office in a huff, ramming head-long into Z-978.
“Watch where you’re going you little slut!” the mare snapped.
“Excuse me miss,” z replied politely as she stepped aside.
Z watched the unpleasant mare depart with her mouth agape in shock. She had never tasted that level of vile hatred, and hoped to never taste it again.
“Well, that didn’t go so well,” Mr. N stepped out of his office and smiled at Z, “I see you met our ‘benefactor’, Velvet Hammer. There’s nothing more dangerous than a corrupt pony who feels the change in the air. I wouldn’t worry too much though. She may hate changelings, but she loves bits. We keep her paid off and she keeps her pet wolves from our door. All this talk of Changeling Princesses has her riled up. She feels like she has to make a show of power while she still has it.”
“I… see,” Z nodded slowly, “Whatserface said you wanted to see me after breakfast?”
“Yes,” Mr. N said kindly, “I want to show you something.”
Mr. N led her through the backstage hallways and down a flight of stairs into the basement. As she looked around Z gasped at the site around her. Dozens of Nectar pods, all filled to capacity filled half the space, while the other half was occupied by a variety of brewing and distilling paraphernalia. A bottle floated off a large rack held firmly in Mr. N’s magical grip.
“This is the real secret of our success,” Mr. N grinned widely, “We call it ‘Tainted Love’, schnapps distilled from emotional nectar. Of course we can only sell it through Velvet Hammer’s distributors, but that’s about to change. I want to send you, along with Whatserface, back to Canterlot. We want to offer your hive access to our brewing and distilling process, in return we want to be legally considered an extension of the Canterlot Hive, under the protection of Princess Fast Change.”
“Of course!” Z nodded enthusiastically, “It’s awful how our kind our treated in this city, I’ll do whatever I can to help!”
“Excellent, I’ll have everything prepared tonight and you can leave in the morning,” the changeling pimp nodded, “But for now I have to get back to work. Tonight’s show is going to be something really special!”