//------------------------------//
// The rules 
// Story: Shining Chitin 
// by Damaged 
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Shining strode around openly, without a disguise. The castle guards had accepted him the first time he had barked an order at them. The castle servants had shrugged, half of them were changelings now anyway and they got on quite well with the shape-changers.

But today he had a mission. "Okay, Shiny, now just make some pegasus wings and we can get started." Cadance gestured to the insectile wings on her husband's back. "While I am sure they are perfectly fine, I can't teach you to fly with those."

Changing came easy for him and Shining thought of the first thing that came to mind when 'flying' was the target. His form shrank in stature, his black horn faded and with a burn of green fire a sky-blue mare was standing there, looking shocked and surprised.

"You even got her cutie mark right. Well, I guess this is fine, at the very least Rainbow Dash certainly has all the bits needed to fly well." Cadance was grinning from ear to ear at her blushing husband.

"Of course I do, I am the greatest flier in all Equestria!" Shining said it without thinking, the magic of his changeling side even pulling in the pegasus' mannerisms. Two blue hooves flew up to Shining's mouth in shock. "I… I sound like me… like… her!" It took real effort not to talk using first person about the target of his disguise, it seemed.

Cadance's eyes flashed wide, her sharp mind quickly working out just the same. A scroll appeared, one Shining recognized as her latest for taking notes. "Well, 'the greatest flier', let's see you take off and glide down there." She pointed off the edge of the balcony they were on and Shining's normal slight vertigo didn't kick in. The quill resumed scratching again.

Confidence swelled in Shining, he felt amazing, like he could do anything. Without thinking he spread his wings and jumped off the balcony. Inhaling all the scents coming to him on the breeze, he found his eyes scanning everywhere, noting everything around him. Including the alicorn winging along beside him. "This is awesome!"

Without even thinking about it, Shining had done a tight vertical loop and was still beside Cadance. "Showboating?" Cadance grinned though and gestured to the edge of town with a hoof. "How about you show me what that body can-" She didn't get to finish, there was a flash of multiple colors and Shining was gone.

It was the best feeling in the world and Shining suddenly wanted to fly back to Ponyville and challenge Rainbow Dash to a race. He did another loop when he reached the edge of town, ending up hovering and waiting for his wife to catch up. It didn't take long, but although Cadance was an experienced flier and pegasus before she got her horn, Shining's present body was the peak of speed, so far as ponies went.

"Alright, you can fly, at least in this form. Let's go over rules." Cadance noted the sigh from the pegasus. "Rules are there so we don't hurt anypony, or get hurt ourselves. I only suggested this flight because there was nopony else in the air."

"Aw man, rules are…" Shining froze, his brain quickly finding all the rules. His mouth began at the start. "Signal with forehooves when banking more sharply than quarter of a clock. Kick back hooves when-"

"Really? That too?" Cadance wanted to throw something into the air in exasperation but had nothing to hoof. An apple suddenly appeared and she threw it off into the forest. "Okay, let's go back." She was alone again and, seconds later, a thunderous crash was heard and an expanding circle of color was radiating out from where her husband, in the borrowed shape of Rainbow Dash, performed one of the most amazing feats of flying ever. "Show off…"

Shining was hovering, just above the balcony they started from. For some reason it didn't feel right to settle down to the ground when he had wings like this. Eventually his wife appeared and landed just below him. "So, how'd I do?" He had both forehooves crossed, looking supremely confident.

"Land and turn back." Cadance was almost fuming, although a slow flight across her city had helped calm her down.

Shining did just as commanded by his empress and wife… the same pony in most husband's minds. Fire rolled over him and he felt his size and shape alter as he became both half-changeling and half-unicorn all over again. Being a stallion again was a minor thing, he honestly hadn't felt 'wrong' in that form. Apparently there was more than a little mental adjustment when taking on a specific pony's shape.

"Now, those flight rules again please." Cadance summoned her scroll and a quill, already writing things down.

"Uh, sign with your forehooves when turning sharp. Signal with your back when you need to stop suddenly…" Shining had a hard time remembering them and worse, they were fading as he recited them. "Then, uh…"

"Right, so the knowledge you gain is temporary to the form you choose. Good to know and very handy if we have another problem with the plumbing; no need to call Canterlot for special services anymore." Cadance beamed in delight. "Maybe we could start our own side business, hiring out changelings to do work?"

"So I still need to learn the rules, don't I?" Shining's ears tucked back, rules rules rules. He had been forced to memorize the Guard's Rulebook, this, it seemed, was going to be another one of those things. "Oh, maybe I can get Twili to come and help teach me, I bet she had to learn them."

Cadance's face lit up at this idea. "Your sister is, without a doubt, the most amazing student of the world in existence, if anypony can teach you this it is her."

"My Queens!" A voice called from just inside the room the balcony was attached to.

Shining couldn't begrudge them calling him their queen, after all, it seemed more an honorific. He had been worried at first that he might not be able to maintain his duties, so to speak. "Wait, who are you?" The stallion squinted and walked in to examine his drone.

"Oh, uh… Well…" The drone scuffed a hoof, looking suddenly tiny.

"Careful!" Cadance bellowed the word once and there was the buzz of wings as a changeling quickly appeared and then froze. "You have some explaining."

"They started showing up…" Careful trotted over to the other drone, stepping between them and his apparently angry queens. "I wanted to integrate them quickly they… they already seem bonded to our hive."

"Bonded? What do you mean?" Shining deliberately stepped around Careful and stood over the other changeling. He leaned down and plucked them up in his hooves and hugged them close. There was a surprised and delighted chirp from the drone. Being cuddled by a queen was just about the best thing a drone could get.

"When you sleep with a drone close to you, when you give them so much love it… it breaks ties and reforges them. It bonds them to you two, it makes them part of your hive." Careful relaxed at seeing his Queen being tender to the new drone. "When she arrived she… she is already part of us. I am not sure how, or why."

Cadance looked to Shining, seeing the stallion come to the same assumption. "There are going to be more coming, a lot more." She took a deep breath and let it out. "If, for example, we did this… bonding, to a queen…"

"Then all that queen's drones would be pulled along, their bond as queen would shatter and they would be remade as a drone." Careful looked confused, he was bright for a changeling, but not quite as fast as his Queens.