//------------------------------// // 69 - Hunger // Story: A Penny for your thought // by Damaged //------------------------------// Dray looked at his daughter, his jaw hanging open. "But I… you…" The young mare leaned over and hugged the changeling, snuggling him tight. "You are an inspiration to me. I thought you were amazing before, but now I find out how determined you were, are, to be with mother. You fought all of society to stay at her side, you even fought her!" Stick reached over and nudged Fast. "So how do we do this? She could barely feel Penny's energy, I doubt she could really focus on somepony." The princess pondered, reaching out her still-transformed talon to give Stick's ears a good scratching. "I think it would be best to approach some ponies who are already feeding another, offer them a free session if they let us sit in." "Ponies are really paying now?" Stick looked amazed. "Some do, enough. It can be nice to be told, by the pony you most admire, that you are a good pony." Fast looked down at her form, smiling. "I actually like this one, but it won't do to be seen as anything but the changeling princess." The flash of fire came all too late, Stick had already seen enough of that form for her own experiment, later. "When you are ready, lets get Dray a nice meal and see if we can coax Hay to be able to drink." Fast got up and stretched, showing off every inch of her queen body. Father and daughter both nodded and drew apart from their hug. Stick simply stood, intending to still accompany the two within the hive. "Had the most astounding thing happen earlier today." Fast began to explain as they left the main chamber. "Discord is apparently foalsitting a changeling filly." The news in itself wasn't amazing, Discord did what Discord always does. "But that wasn't the truly interesting bit. The foal wasn't one of Chrysalis'." This news did have the others surprised. "Another hive." Dray looked the least surprised. "You knew there were more?" Fast led them down some smaller halls. Dray nodded. "Before my time, but drones talk, and the talk of some of the older ones, of the queen before Chrysalis, were that her hive was driven north by stiff competition. She would, probably, claim it was to make it easier to invade the pony lands." "Curious, I think we might have to schedule another little chat, sometime." Princess Fast smiled wide, but showed no aggression to the recently revealed changeling. "Of course you will be compensated for your time, I am sure a nice meal would suffice?" "For a queen… princess, who actually cares for her hive, I would be glad to." Dray smiled up at this strange queen. It almost made him want to be part of the hive. But Pretty was his life. "Please wait here." Fast slipped into a room for a few minutes and eventually came back out. "This will be perfect, come on in." Inside was a pair of stallions, lounging on a couch, with a changeling completely unchanged, sitting before them. Dray and Hay had the biggest reaction, but Stick waved to the two happy looking males. They waved back a little nervously. "So these are the new friends who are going to be feeding today, if you don't mind." Fast gestured to Dray and Hay. Dray seemed to accept the situation quicker than his daughter. "Thank you for this I… have not had an easy time in Canterlot, without a hive." His throat itched, the pair were clearly quite in love and he could easily sense it just by seeing them. Practiced prejudices shed, Dray stepped over and offered a hoof, getting a clop from each of the 'colt cuddlers'. The drone who had been with them scanned the newcomers and urged Hay to come up. "You have a problem with the idea of two ponies loving each other?" It wasn't really a question, he knew she did. Hay gave a little nod. "It seems silly, doesn't it? When I say it like that. And it is silly, ponies have some of the oddest notions, they should be more friendly." It drove home the point, to the young mare, that it was a changeling preaching that ponies should show more friendship. She braced herself and marched over to the pair. "I am sorry for my reaction, I just…" Hay trailed off, her raised hoof faltering before it got two clops from the stallions. "It's okay, we know how you feel, it wasn't like we didn't grow up feeling it too, but there was something else." He looked to his partner and kissed him. Hay saw beyond the initial, society-instilled dislike for the act. She saw the love between them. Turning to the changelings in the room, she smiled. "Okay, so how does this work?" Princess Fast looked to the drone, who smiled. "It is not often I get to guide a new changeling to drink for the first time, not in this hive." He looked pointedly at a suddenly blushing Fast. "But it was my task back under the bad queen." He got up and stepped in beside Hay, closer than normally would be acceptable. Hay was too excited to really feel distracted by it. "Can you feel their love? Close your eyes." Hay did as instructed, closing her eyes and trying to feel. "Now focus on your throat, on your tongue. Open your mouth and reach out." She almost felt silly at doing this, she was standing there, beside the two stallion, eyes closed with her tongue stuck out. But she felt that twitch in her throat again. "I fweel shomting." "Reach for it, gently. Imagine your mouth reaching forward for it." Hay did, she leaned out, but not with her body. A taste, a very new taste, flowed over her senses and she gave a squeak and pulled back. "She got some." One of the stallions giggled. "She was so gentle!" The drone at Hay's side was resolute. "These two have so much love to give between them, go on, try again." Hay did, she remembered the sequence and the sense just before her was a bit stronger now. She leaned in and bathed her senses, eyes closed. She trembled in delight at the taste and feel of it as she gulped down. A fire grew inside her, fueled by the energy she drank. "Enough now, you did very well for a first try, but you are going to need to learn moderation." The drone lifted a hoof and rubbed her shoulders. Hay opened her eyes and was looking at the stallions. It was impossible for her to deny how right their love was. She had tasted it. "And then I drank and it was amazing!" Hay and Stick had caught up with Penny, the lunar mare all sticky and hot from her morning spent training. "They were so cute together…" Penny raised an eyebrow at the deep crimson blush on Hay's cheek. "'They'?" Stick moved in but stopped before snuggling against her marefriend. "Ugh, you smell, come on, to the bath!" The changeling managed to steal a kiss anyway. Hay trotted along with the pair. "I didn't realize colt cu- that stallions that liked stallions, had it so hard." "Society can suck for those who don't fit the right shapes for it. Where I am from, even two mares being together is seen as unhealthy." Penny turned down toward their rooms but Stick blocked the hall. "Nope, we are going to the public bath. There is a nice one just a block from here." The drone began to lead. The three made their way from the school, turning and heading first to the public bathhouse and spa a few blocks down. "How did your father do?" Penny finally got their conversation rolling again. Hay brightened. "I think he was in awe of Princess Fast, she is pretty amazing. She was so quick to be able to shapeshift. I have seen some spells to do those, but I couldn't even see her cast…" "Silly, it was changeling magic, we don't use spells so much, it is…" Stick looked to Penny, clearly fishing for a word. "Innate?" Penny offered the word and Stick brightened. "Even a foal, barely shed the form they had in their egg, could change their shape. It requires just thought and a good meal." Stick noticed Hay blush. "She had her first nibble, it was so awesome. You should have seen how tentative she was at first but when she got a taste for love…" Hay blushed but reached over and pushed the changeling, the pair giggling. "It did taste good." She seemed to be fishing for something. "After the bath, I need some food before I should do any magic." Penny had a feeling that she was going to be eating even more soon, what with how Hay was looking at her. "Oh darn you two, look, grab me something solid to eat before we go in and I will give you something back." Stick leaned in to Hay and whispered something in the mare's ear. Hay giggled loudly, nodded, and bolted off. "It's your own fault." The changeling was alone with her mate, relatively, the street was not completely empty. "You keep attracting cute changelings to your side." Penny blushed hotly. "She isn't! I mean I don't…" The kiss on her nose halted Penny's defense. She had been played. "I know you don't. She is a cute mare though, and will need somepony who understands her." They entered the bath. "Three please, for the bath. Our third will be back soon. Unicorn, white fur, about this big…" The pony behind the ticket window nodded and pointed them in. "Stick, are you saying…" Penny was still blushing. Was it really something they should even be talking about? "I am saying don't close options. We both like her, if she shows interest, I wouldn't be against a little fun. Besides, that is a huge 'if'!" The baths were mixed gender, but there were three. One was a cool bath, one warm, one hot. "What do you think, hot and steamy? I bet all sorts of things could be hidden by the steam." Stick was now pressed against Penny, thoughts as to getting dirty lost now that they were actually at the bath. "Warm." Penny gulped down. She couldn't deny that Hay was a beautiful mare, but they were friends, friends don't think… that way, about each other. It didn't help that the former human, in that previous form, hadn't had a terrible lot of social interaction at the 'more than friends' level. The pair advanced in, finding the bath was deserted. "Guess it isn't really the right time for most ponies to want to freshen up." Stick clopped to the deep water and jumped in, wings buzzing in delight. Penny, a little more cautious, stepped down the little ramp into the water, her eyes half closing as warmth and near weightlessness surrounded her. "Oh drat this was a good idea…" A brush, animated in green magic, quickly advanced on Penny and set to work. Stick was swimming around in the water, making more splashes than real progress. "Oh, here you are!" Hay poked her head and, eventually, body in. "I got the ones you said." She stripped off the little saddlebags she had been wearing, lifting free two of the most amazing-looking chocolate-coated honey oat bars ever designed. Penny, mouth watering at the thought of food, had one approach and shove right in her mouth. It wasn't until she noticed the color of the magic that she realized it was Hay feeding her. She blushed and tried to say something, only to get another bite of the bar for her trouble. Surely the mare couldn't realize what it meant, between Stick and her, to do this. But Hay was relentless. "How's it taste?" Stick had worked out an actual swimming stroke at last, paddling around with her hooves splashing. Penny glared at the mare. The contents of the whispering obviously had been a setup by her marefriend. She was just about to give the changeling a piece of her mind when the second bar was being fed to her. Stick's grin was so wide Penny thought her special somepony's cheeks would implode. "Mfmfrrmff." Hay and Stick both giggled at this. Penny had to chew the sticky and filling food, gulping it down and, finally, she got through the second. Of course she realized she couldn't say anything now, bringing up how personal the act felt would only embarrass her friend. "They were delicious." The point conceded, Penny tried to relax only to remember why she had been fed the bars. She focused her magic and slowly started to channel. Stick was instantly at her side, pressing close and nosing at her neck. Hay, meanwhile, looked stunned. "That is... wow! Can I…" The hesitancy in her words brought a smile to Penny's lips. "Go on, drink up." It was easy to tell when Hay began to drink. She trembled a moment in the more shallow water, closing her eyes completely. Penny felt the second embrace on her feelings, suddenly unsure about this. A second body was pressing in against her, a softer pair of lips nibbling at the other side of her throat. It startled her so much that she stopped channeling. Hay came to, still feeling a touch intoxicated by the overabundance of 'food', she nonetheless realized what she had been doing in her inebriated and less inhibited state. "Oh, oh! Penny I am sorry I wouldn't-" A black hoof pressed to Hay's lips, it had some holes in it. Stick smiled to her. "Do you regret the feelings?" Hay blinked, her eyes wide. She suddenly wanted to look anywhere but at the pair of mares. Penny reached up and put a hoof on the half-changeling's withers. "I don't even know how I feel. If you want to just leave now, I won't hold it against you. But my promise stands, I will keep you fed." Hay looked so very confused. But she didn't want to run away, that wouldn't resolve anything. "Could you try again I… I…" A warm wave of flavor washed over Hay, she could feel that delightful energy radiating from the mare at her side. It was true she had had close friends before, but nothing like this. She couldn't hold back her urge anymore, she reached out and started to feed just as the drone had showed her. Penny hugged the second mare in against herself, one leg over each of Stick and Hay's shoulders. She really wasn't sure where things were going, or if it would be where she wanted to go, but not letting it play out, not trying, would be the worst thing she could do.