Roddi was gone for a while, so he decided to take a nap. When he awoke, he walked back into the main hall to see Roddi arranging some books on a crude shelf.

“Ah,” she exclaimed upon seeing him, “You’re up! I saw Chrysalis coming back from here, I assume she fed everyone. Also, Thrax just left. She helped me get this stuff down here. I decided not to bring that..uh, particular book, as luck would have it. Its short, so I just gave it a read and I can teach it without having to risk Mother finding out.”

“Yeah, that’s fine,” he said, walking over to where she was arranging books. “What did you manage to bring back?”

“Well, besides what we already had, I found a number of volumes on pony history, species info, cultural traditions of the various species, geography, lots of stuff. Weapons, armor, battles, diseases, medicine, all kinds of stuff.” Roddi’s tail wagged as she talked.

He smirked and bit at her backside playfully.

Roddi jumped forward and looked back at him. “Oh, what some of this eh?”

He shrugged. “Your reactions are amusing. I can take you whenever I want.”

Roddi smiled. “Yes, yes you can. Is now going to be one of those times?”

“Meh.” He shrugged. “Not particularly feeling it right now. Lets go get the girls and bring them ‘round to see our collection, what say?”

“Aww,” Roddi said disappointedly. She shuffled off to the shared rooms to rouse everybody, telling them to meet in the central chamber.

Mara And Kishi were the first to arrive. Fext, Lamia, and Acheri with Chakora on her back came next. Gingerly setting Chakora to the floor, Acheri sat next to her. They all turned their attention as he began to speak.

“Okay, we’ve got some rules in place, now for the really fun part: learning.” They didn’t seem to get the joke so he continued, “Lets start real simple. Well, actually, first let’s explain what we have to work with. I’ve been living amongst the other species of this world for my entire life. Roddi has not, however, she knows all the information in these books. I expect you will doing a lot of listening to one of us talk, and a lot of reading. When you have questions, ask.

“We will be doing instruction and periodic exercise. Nothing will prepare you for everything you will encounter up there. And by ‘up there’, understand that we are living in a cave far underground right now. None of the other species of the world know where we are, and likely you’ll never see this place again after leaving. The above world is, mostly, open beyond your imagination. There is no ceiling. The ceiling is is the sky and the light comes not from torches but the sun and moon.” He noticed that some of them wanted to ask questions but he held up a hoof. “There are diagrams and drawings in the books. I’m going to just give some basics.

“The other races of this world, particularly those of the equine variety we look most similar to, distrust us the most. They are also the most populous and the easiest to deceive. We will be working with them. You all will need to become proficient at changing. Has anyone seen it yet or tried?”

Everyone (save Roddi, who was sitting near the back), shook their heads. “Okay, I’ll tell you what I was told. Focus in on your subject. Concentrate. It is your natural talent so it will come forth.” He looked among them. “Um, Fext. Why don’t you give it a try?”

All eyes turned to Fext, who stammered, “I, uh...I don’t know what a pony looks like.”

He chuckled. “Oh, right, I forgot. Roddi, come up here and change into a...I don’t know...how about a pegasus?”

Roddi walked to him obediently and in a brilliant flash changed her form to a stunning blue pegasus. Her wings took a feathery form but retained the same color as her wings. A soft pink mane fell around her shoulder.

“Yes, like that,” he said. “Fext, try to imagine yourself as what you see here. Close your eyes. See the picture in your mind. Imagine it growing from you to cover your body.”

Fext did as instructed and closed her eyes. “Okay...I see it. So the blue...just comes out?”

“Imagine it growing to cover your own skin,” he said, walking around Fext where she stood with her eyes closed. “See the feathers sprout and grow. feel the mane touch your shoulders.”

Fext concentrated hard. She breathed deeply, straining to keep the picture in her mind. She tried to keep focus, but a fierce giggling from around her caused her to open her eyes. Her sisters were all laughing. Even her father smiled.

“Not bad for a first try,” he said.

Fext looked at herself. A straggly pink mane and pink fur surrounded her. A few feathers sprouted in odd directions from otherwise bare wings. “Ack!” Fext turned in circles. “How do I get this off? Ew, its so...ew!” She shook herself from head to heel and the fur disappeared into thin air.

Acheri laughed, walking up to Fext. “Aww, I thought the color really suited you,” she said.

Fext hissed and jumped on Acheri. “You take that back!”

Acheri rolled about on the floor with Fext. “Never!”

Their father stepped forward. “Come on girls, pay attention.” As they grudgingly got up, he said to the both of them, “It will come with practice. The better you get at it, the easier it will be. You should also practice changing your voice. We changelings have a wide vocal range. I’ve been told that I’m a great singer more than once.

“Soon we’ll have flying lessons. Its super easy. Well, its super easy after a while. I can stay aloft for hours on end. But maneuvering...well, we’ll get there.” He paused. “What have I forgotten?”

Roddi let her disguise fall in a flash. “I believe,” she said, “That I should talk about our history for a while?”

He nodded. “That’s a good idea. Go ahead.” He sat on the outer rim of the circle.

“I’ll start as far back as I know,” Roddi said. “We weren’t always as we are now…”

…

Days turned into weeks and weeks to months. Every day he would run drills on changing, flying, and general mannerisms. He also taught them rudimentary magic, like levitation and how to manipulate objects with their magic. Roddi would stand in as his test dummy. And after, they would retreat back into their room while his daughters read or played.

One such time, as they lay in their shared bed, he said to Roddi, “You know, you should try practicing changing and whatnot. You’re not going to get very far relying on the meager skills you have.”

“Pssh,” she scoffed. “I don’t plan being anywhere but in your bed and between the floor and your stomach.”

He sighed. “I hope you’ll reconsider at least trying to take in some of what I’m trying to teach, Roddi. I’m trying hard to remember what you teach.”

“You’re more than I will ever be, my love,” she cooed, leaning into him. For what you have given me, a little knowledge and some stories are the little I can offer to you in return. And, of course, my body and soul. But you already take those a lot.”

“Tell me,” he said, laying his head down. “What was that...that thing that you became in the archives when you stared down Chrysalis?”

Roddi smiled. And even though he could not see it, he could hear the fascination in her voice. “Ah, that. Back in the day, when we had our own kingdoms, they were the fiercest predator that roamed the dark places of the world. The word for them is lost on me. There is no translation for it. But, apparently our ancestors scoured the deep caves that we now call home to kill the beasts. We hunted them almost to extinction.”

“Almost?” he asked. “Like, there might still be some out there?”

“Its hard to say. Up until recently, I believe most of the world thought that we were also gone for good.” Roddi rolled over to look him in the eye. “The hunt for the monster is what started our exploration of the caves in Equestria. That’s why we have the maps. That’s why no-one ever goes far from the Hive. Somewhere down in the depths, they may still be lurking.”

“Your stories do little to scare me,” he said, kissing Roddi’s nose. “I’ve faced death from a number of species, mostly recently my own. Why not just add another to that list?”

Roddi ground her hips forward against him. “Oh, I know. Your power is something I’ve grown quite accustomed to. And I don’t want it any other way.”

He grinned, showing off his teeth. Roddi made a show of being scared. “Oh, my!” she exclaimed. “This big powerful creature is going to have his way with me!” Roddi dropped the act and laughed.

A sound from their doorway turned their heads. “Um, Father? Roddi? Can I ask a question?”

They both looked over at Acheri where she stood, just inside their doorway. “I uh,” Acheri started, “I, uh...uh, I’ll leave you alone.”

He called out after her, “Acheri, come on in. You need not be embarrassed. What do you want to know?”

Acheri turned and entered their room, bringing a book along with her magic. “I have some questions about the things in these books. Ponies are so short-lived, and they are so fragile.”

“I think we are no less fragile, my dear,” he said with a soft, but serious tone.

“Yes,” Acheri replied, “But equines seem so prone to disease. Some of the things here, like this one-” she turned the book around so they could see a sketch of a great pile of dead bodies. “The book says it took one thousand equines in a single day. And yet we do not seem to be affected by it. It...it fascinates me.”

Roddi wrinkled her nose. “What about dead bodies fascinates-”

“I find it fascinating too, Acheri,” he interrupted. Roddi turned to look at him as he continued, “I think it's in the fundamental differences of our kind from them. We can be hurt, yes, just like they can. But in all my years around them, I’ve had to fake being sick a few times so not to raise suspicion. Read some more and come back later to tell me of what you’ve learned.”

Acheri nodded, and eagerly left the room to continue reading.

After she left, Roddi looked back at him. “Do you think it’s wise,” she asked, “To encourage such behavior?”

“I think that they will grow they way they want. I would rather they have their own intrests and specialities.” He shifted forward, pushing Roddi out of the bed. “I will encourage and support them as much as I can, and I only hope that it will not turn out to be in vain.” He climbed out after Roddi. “Wait here.”

Roddi sat on the floor as he exited the room. He came back briefly with some of the scrap iron that had been sitting in the far corner for some time. “Since I’m awake now,” he said, piling the metal on the floor, “Let’s see what we can do with this stuff.”

Roddi reached out with her magic, picking it up with a green glow. She clenched her teeth as she strained at it. “Nnnnngh! It’s like trying to stretch the wall. I can’t make it do anything!” She dropped it in a huff, obviously annoyed.

He smiled. “Remember the technique in the book. Its not as easily moved like a pillow, or a book. It can be bent, but only through great force of will, not great force of strength.”

“Ooh,” she cooed sarcastically. “Well why don’t you give it a try, then?”

He reached out with his own magic, and picked up a broken chestplate. Holding it with his own green aura, he concentrated hard, imagining the metal bending. He saw in his mind’s eye the metal flowing, smoothing, and fusing.

An awe of excitement sounded from Roddi. “You’re doing it!”

“Shh,” he scolded her, keeping his eyes closed. “I’m trying to concentrate.”

Roddi shut her mouth with a snap and continued to watch at the broken steel plate that he held aloft ever so slowly bent and stretched, the broken edges coming back together seamlessly. She also noticed that he was straining hard, and soon he opened his eyes to inspect his work.

“Whew!” he exclaimed, turning the plate over in front of him. “That’s not easy! Chrysalis made it look so nonchalant. Well, practice makes perfect.” He placed the plate against the wall near their bed. “Come on, lets gather the girls for some more training.”

They left the room together, Roddi heading to the far side to get Mara, Acheri, and Kishi, while he went to rouse Fext, Lamia, and Chakora. Gathering in the center, he smiled at them. “Welcome back. I want to go over another important part of changing, now that all of you have got the basics down. Now we’re going to go more advanced and talk about changing size.

“Going up in size is very easy. The same way you project a magical field around yourself to simulate the appearance of fur, hair, feathers, you just extend the reach of your field to greater ranges. Its still soft, nearly immaterial, but with practice can be very effective.”

“So I’ve heard,” Roddi said from the back.

He sighed. “In order not to raise alarm, I’m not going to be demonstrating the form I’ve used before. There is...a lot of pain associated with it.”

He paused, and continued, “So instead let’s talk about the more difficult process of decreasing your size. You can’t just make yourself appear smaller, as you can when you increase size. You actually have to get smaller.”

He waited, to see if anyone was going to ask how, but nobody did. “In this case, Roddi won’t be our test dummy. So I’ll show you.” He stood nearer the center of the semi-circle, and stood with his legs farther apart than normal. “You have to kind of...push. It will excrete fluid out of the holes around your legs...like so.” He made a show of scrunching up his face and gritting his teeth as a green slime started to seep around his legs and pool on the floor.

Chakora, who was closest to him, shrieked and scooted backwards. “Ew! No! Ew ew ew!” She winced as she leaned on her rear legs, but continued to slide backwards. “That’s nasty!”

Roddi stuck her tongue out as her master started to shrink in size. “Bleh. You better not be getting smaller everywhere,” she said.

He didn’t respond, instead grunting as his shell shifted, collapsing in on itself to match his diminutive new form. Panting, he opened his eyes. He shifted about, somewhat uncomfortably. “As you can see,” he told them, “I suffer a slight handicap in that my armor plate does not change size. Damn this thing is heavy...”

They looked on, dumbfounded. Lamia raised her hoof. “Can I try?”

He chuckled. “You are already kind of small. How much smaller do you want to be?” Seeing Lamia’s eyes widen and a pout start to form on her face, he smiled and waved her off. “Go right ahead, my dear.”

Lamia motioned for the others to move away from her. As they did she mimicked her father by closing her eyes and scrunching up her face. “Nnng! Come on, get smaller!”

Her father took two steps towards her to help but stopped as he noticed that slime had started to seep from around her legs. “You’re doing great Lamia,” he encouraged her. “You’ll feel yourself start to lose size. Just go a little further.”

Lamia, spurred on by the encouragement, strained a little harder. Her shell shrank as well, folding back in on itself, as her already smaller than normal form regressed in appearance of age. Lamia exhaled roughly, having held in her breath for so long. Opening her eyes, she inspected herself. “Ooh! Look how small I am!”

“Nice work sister,” Chakora complimented her.

Now her father took the steps to her and kissed her head. “Indeed. Now why don’t you also taking a pony form? You could pass for a foal.”

Lamia smiled. She lowered her head and hunched her shoulders as an off-white coat grew from her black shell. She folded her wings back as they were covered by her new fur, the frills on her head covered by a pink mane that fell in a wave halfway down to the floor. An identical pink tail flowed from her rump, and as she completed the transformation squeaked, “Daddy!” The tiny Lamia held up her arms, asking to be picked up.

“I don’t think I’m the right size to be your father, dear,” he said, a similar white coat growing over his plate. He too folded his wings back but a straight blond mane sprouted from his head and rump. “Maybe more like your older brother?”

Lamia nodded and embraced him in a hug. “Wait,” said Mara from the circle, “How do you get back to normal? All your...stuff...is on the floor.”

Lamia broke out of the embrace and rolled her eyes at Mara. “And why would I want to do that? This is way more fun.”

“I’m glad you’re enjoying it, Lamia. We’re going to be stuck like this for a while.” Her father walked back to the front of the group. “No free time until you’ve all managed to do it.” Hearing a collective groan, he folded his arms and sat on the floor. “I mean it. I’ll give you more time off, but no-one leaves until then.”

Fext stood up. “Fine, I’ll go next.”

…

His daughters sat in a circle around him in the center of the training room, with their eyes closed. "Reach out with your mind," he told them, "And tell me what you feel."

Acheri spoke first, "I feel a dark aura, all around, and especially in front...where you are?"

He nodded. "Yes, very good. We are able to sense emotions, as we depend on them for life. Changelings, as you can tell, are like a void of emotion. They pull in everything around them. With practice, you will be able to tell how far away the emotions, and hence the subjects, are from you.

"When your mother and I were having an...ah, disagreement, shall we say, I kept close track of when I could first feel her coming and count the footsteps. And sometimes, oftentimes, she would pretend to leave, but she didn't fool me.

“Do you feel at the corners of your mind, a warm, almost glowing sensation?" He paused, and cracked an eye at them. They were straining, so he asked, "Roddi, you feel it, don't you?" He closed his eyes again.

Roddi approached him from behind, walking slowly into his circle. She swayed her hips from side to side despite his closed eyes, mostly due to force of habit. "Of course I do, my master. It's mother and her continual waves of love she sends out for us to feed on." Roddi stopped in front of him, looking back to see if his eyes were still closed. They were.

Roddi backed up, slowly, quietly. She licked her lips, and addressed them, "Do you sense anything else? Roddi stopped her rump a few inches from his face, still wagging it abit to try to waft her scent to him.

He already discerned what she was doing, but stayed silent as Kishi said, "I feel something. It's dark, and swirling as before, but it feels different. It seems directed outward, not inward. And it feels...inviting, like, like...!"

Kishi trailed off as a moan of pleasure caused them all to open their eyes. Roddi was drooling as her eyes rolled back in pure pleasure. He had buried his snout into her and was licking earnestly. He pulled his snout back, trailing saliva, and bit at her backside.

Roddi squeaked, and pushed back at him. He bit at her again, harder, saying in a growl, "Go on, tell them what that aura is."

Roddi opened her mouth but lost her train of thought as his hot breath fell on her open folds. He growled slightly and brought his jaws down of the soft folds of flesh around and inside her slick green sex.

Roddi screamed in partial pain and partial pleasure. "Ahh! Lust....!" She dropped her head low to the floor. “Come, master, show them what pleasure really is by using me."

His member already bobbing beneath him, he stood behind Roddi as his daughters watched from all around him. Placing his hooves on her back and positioning himself, he smiled. He slowly met her dripping sex with his tip, but pushed Roddi away as she tried to back up onto him.

Roddi whined, and he asked his daughters, "Who does not feel what Kishi does? Who does not feel lust?"

They looked at each other, and Chakora spoke softly, "I don't feel it, father."

He nodded. "That's okay, Chakora. Will you watch carefully, please?"

They all nodded as he rammed himself forward into Roddi who screamed a second time. "Ah! Master, you're too hard! Don't break your toy!"

Mara and Kishi looked at each other and smirked. Acheri ground her own butt against the floor, feeling something stir watching the brutal but somehow enticing scene in front of her. She panted softly, a warmth spreading between her legs where Father was pushing his thing into Roddi.

He noticed Acheri's movements and slowed his pace, bumping against Roddi's backside, allowing her to catch her breath. "Do you know what we are doing, Acheri?"

Acheri shook her head, eliciting a laugh from Kishi. "They're fucking, Acheri," Kishi said, "How can you not know that?"

Acheri looked down, so he shifted on top of Roddi, grinding against her and causing the slime of their lovemaking to audibly fall to the floor, coating it with a slick sheen in the magical light. Roddi whined, clenching down on him, wanting more.

"If you know so much, Kishi," he said, looking over his shoulder at her, "Then you can tell us what happens next?"

Kishi glanced around the room, to find everyone staring at her. Except Roddi, who was staring blankly towards the far wall, drool coming from the corners of her mouth.

"Well then, this is the best part," he told them. "If you can learn to do this correctly, you can make any stallion give you love." He sank down, wrapping his front legs around Roddi's hips, and said to Roddi, "Beg for it. Tell me how much you want it."

Roddi craned her neck up and back towards him, her eyes blank. She moaned, "Yes, master, please fuck me with that big cock of yours! Please, fill me up! I'm your little fuck toy. Please! Don't make me wait!"

He did wait, letting silence fill the room for a few seconds as they all took it in:
Mara stared intently. He was obviously the one in control here but she assumed that could easily be flipped around on weaker minds;
Acheri moaned a bit herself, feeling the floor become wet underneath her;
Kishi and Fext were fixated on his member as he pulled slowly out of Roddi, despite her moans and pleas;
Chakora and Lamia looked at each other, and back at Roddi, then back at each other.

Becoming angry from the teasing, Roddi growled from beneath him, "Find a different teaching aid if you're going to be this slow. I want my fucking!"

He growled deeply, brown feathers sprouting from his back and wings, and talons growing from his hooves to dig into Roddi's shell. His snout hardened to a beak, and with his more agile griffon form he rammed himself back into her.

Roddi let out a snarl of her own, pushing back hard against him and begging anew. "Yes! Fuck me harder, please! Fill me up like never before, Give me that wonderful seed, Just FILL ME!" Roddi clenched hard, trapping him inside.

Grunting, he loosed himself into Roddi, the massive pressure she was exerting keeping every drop inside her. She purred happily, and as he started to slow and soften, relaxed her grip.

"What, ah," asked Fext, obviously confused, "What was the good part?"

Roddi smiled, letting him slip out and turning her rump toward Fext. His white seed contrasted against her black shell and green flesh. "That there is the most wonderful feeling when its in you. This is the best place but I'll also take it down my throat or even on my face or shell. But this is definitely the best.”

He panted, letting his griffon coat fall off his shoulders and onto the floor. "Its the best for me too. And its here where, if you can control the act of sex, that you will receive more love from a stallion than you have ever felt at one time."

Mara nodded solemnly but the others looked doubtful.

"Don't worry," he told them, "Soon we'll get you some test subjects that you can practice on."

Fext cocked her head. "Can't we practice with you?"

Roddi whirled around. "No! This one is mine!" She snarled, baring her teeth, to which Fext recoiled.

He walked beside Roddi. "Calm down. Lets remember who owns who here."

Roddi drooped her ears. "Sorry, master. It makes me scared to think of losing you."

He kissed her cheek. "Come, everyone, that's enough for now. Free time, we'll continue later."

The group disbanded, heading back to their separate rooms. Acheri helped Chakora onto her back carried her back to bed. Roddi wobbled slightly making her way back to his bed. She looked back to him, where he was arranging some things against the rear wall. "Are you coming, lover?"

"No, Roddi, I need to get some things ready for the next lesson. Take a nap and come find me when you're done. I'll need your help at some point."

Roddi nodded but something about his tone bothered her. She lay in the straw bed and tried to think of what it was.

…

When she woke up, Roddi stretched and wobbled her way back into the hall, where he was drawing some diagrams on the stone walls. They appeared to be physiological diagrams, of changelings in particular. He had a book open, from which he would glance and then re-create on the larger surface.

Roddi approached him slowly and asked, “A lesson on us? What good does that do?”

Not looking away from his work, he said, “Knowing how your body works is useful in knowing the limits of what you can and cannot do, at least physically. Magical limitations are much harder to quantify. And besides, this is also a learning experience for me. Do you have any medically trained changelings?”

Roddi hesitated. “Yes, a few. But I highly doubt that they’re going to be interested in coming down here to help you with much of anything. You might not have heard but since your, uh, rampage in the nursery, but they had to triage a lot of us and well...I don’t believe they are too happy with you.”

“Ah,” he mused, “I hadn’t thought of that. Oh well, can you assist me with putting some diagrams up here?”

Roddi approached and lifted the book away from him with her magic. She peered at the contents, flipping back and forth a few pages. “This, uh, this is kind of gruesome,” she said with a disgusted look. “These are, erm, internal diagrams.”

“I’m well aware of that, Roddi.” He pulled the book away from her as he continued, “But especially now, considering that we likely won’t get any sort of medical support, we might as well teach ourselves the basics in case someone gets hurt.”

Roddi stepped up to the wall where he had been putting the diagrams to inspect them. “Who would get hurt? And how?”

He gave Roddi a sideways glance and motioned to Mara’s room. Roddi rolled her eyes at him, and said, “I wasn’t referring to that. More like, I thought your plan was low-key? Are we going to be in any danger?”

He sighed, and put the book down. “Roddi, our entire race is in danger. All the other species of this world hate and fear us because they’ve been taught to. No-one cares to get to know any of us and would rather just remove the problem than try to fix it. One slip, one wrong word and any one of us might be staring down a spear, or a sword. I’d rather be prepared just in case rather than to just hope something won’t happen.”

“Then stay here,” she said, moving to nuzzle him. “I’ve never been as happy as I am now. Mother will let you stay, I’m sure. She’s let you have this much freedom, I can talk to her to see if we can-”

“No,” he interrupted. “I don’t want to stay here. It might be easier, but it doesn’t make me happy. Trust me, while the outside world can be scary, and is always dangerous, with practice it is easily kept at bay. And besides, I won’t have my family always breathing down my neck and telling me what to do.” He sighed, and looked up to the ceiling while closing his eyes. “Ah, how nice it will be to breathe fresh air again. To feel the soft grass and be able to stretch my wings and fly. I do not particularly like the sun, but you take the bad with the good...”

He trailed off so Roddi nudged him. “Hmm?” he asked, looking back down and at her. He blinked a few times. “Sorry, I must have gotten lost in a memory for a minute there.”

Roddi smiled softly. “You keep telling me you have no more stories, then you allude to things that you haven’t told me about. Why do you hold back from me?” Roddi swished her tail and kissed his cheek.

He kissed her back. “Trust is not an easy thing to come by, Roddi. While I do enjoy your company, my experience tells me not to fully trust anybody.”

Roodle leaned in and put her head on his chest. “I understand why you say that,” she cooed, “But just so you know, I trust you completely.”

He put his head on hers. “I know that. Thank you.” He straightened up. “Come on, I think I’m about finished. Go gather up everyone and bring them back out here.”

Roddi smiled sweetly. “As you command, master.” She bowed to him and trotted off.

He turned back to his book and finished marking up the diagrams as his daughters started to gather around in their familiar arrangement. He closed his book and turned around in time to see Acheri carrying Chakora out to their circle.

As they sat, he addressed them, “Welcome back girls. This time we’re going to talk about ourselves. What’s inside us. how our bodies work. And why that’s important.” He paused and paced back and forth a bit as he talked. “I can tell you a lot about myself and how I grew, but each of you are a little bit different, and I suspect your growth is going to be likewise different.

“Your body is pretty straightforward on the outside. Wings, horn, shell, skin. But what’s inside is what makes us really different than the other species of the world. Take a look here-” he turned to the wall and picked up a spearhead from nearby to use as a pointer. “This is the internal diagram of the standard earth pony. Brain here, internal organs take up the most of the interior space here. Other races follow this same format on the inside. Notice also that there isn’t a lot of empty space. In contrast to us over here-” he moved the pointer over to his other diagram, “Where you can see we’re kind of empty inside.”

“So we’re...missing parts?” Fext asked.

“No,” he replied, not looking away from the diagram, “I’d say we have the right amount for what we need. Notice over here on the earth pony they have a stomach, and intestines. It really takes up a lot of space, because this is how they get energy; they eat food to survive. We have kind of a pouch instead. Our body breaks down material food to replenish our internal fluid. That means, if you don’t eat after changing size, it’ll take a very long time to get back to your normal size.”

Lamia asked from the back, “And this is the fluid that we can excrete, correct? To take the form of a foal?”

He turned to face them. “Yes, quite correct Lamia. It can also be used, as I understand it, to create the pods that you develop in. In my experience, it does not appear to matter what you eat to regain size.”

“Hey yea!” Lamia said, “How did you regain your size faster than the rest of us? It took me forever to grow back to this size. You were back to normal in a few days! What gives?”

He grimaced. “I did it by eating some of the hay in my bed. Now, moving on. Your shell covers this membrane layer-”

“You missed my favorite part,” Roddi interjected.

He looked at Roddi, who winked back. He looked up in exasperation. “Roddi, can you keep your mind on the task at hand for more than one minute? This is teaching time. Didn’t you get a good enough fucking last time?”

“It’s never enough,” she whined. “I need more!”

He sighed, looking back down. “Right, whatever. Dick goes in the female here, comes out of here on a male, what-the-fuck-ever. Moving on…” he paused but Roddi didn’t say anything, so he continued, “Your skin and shell covers your organs. My shell has developed over time into this hard plate. But underneath is a softer, more pliable skin. All of you have this softer skin because you are young. But Kishi,” he turned to face her, “May grow a hard plate. Your thorns look similar to the way my shell looked way back when my plate first started to expand. But yours is starting much, much earlier. Yours might be huge!”

Kishi rolled her eyes. “How long did yours take to grow?”

“To get this big, several hundred years,” he told them. “But it didn’t start until I was at least a hundred. It’s been a long time, I’m not positive on the details. But since it will change along with you, its very handy to have.

“Your shell is also self-healing. If damaged, over time it will stitch itself back together. But you have to be careful, if it gets severely damaged and you don’t set it in place, it will heal crooked. And the only way to fix that is to re-break it. Trust me, its very painful and you don’t want to force that on yourself just to heal it all over again.

“You’ll also notice that our wings are very thin and fragile, compared to other species. Gryphons and pegasi have muscular, feathered wings and dragons have leathery wings that can tear, but not as easily as ours. Practice your flying, an injured wing can take you down fast and for a long time.”

“How long do those take to heal?” asked Acheri. “I like my wings. Will they still be the same?”

“I don’t know, Acheri. I was fortunate enough not to ever tear a wing.” He picked up the book from which he had copied the diagrams, flipping through the pages. “There is not much information in here about that particular topic. I’d say just be extra careful. We can be killed, and just as easily as other species. Our talent is to blend and adapt. Not to fight.”

Acheri sighed, so he assured her, “Your wings are beautiful. I thought my purple wings looked good but the black coloration on the tip of yours is way better.”

Acheri smiled a little. “Thank you, father.”

He turned to the rest of the group. “Anyone else have questions?”

Fext raised a hoof. “So these, erm, internal parts. I assume we cannot live without them, right? Ponies too?”

He nodded. “Very much so. The removal of your internal organs does not cause immediate death, but can be, ah, very painful. I don’t know from experience but have had the chance to see..things.” He struggled to explain it. “Its not something that I enjoyed. It was valuable from a purely academic standpoint, but too gruesome for me. It was...unnecessary, to say the least.”

Fext looked at him quizzically. “Can you explain more? What happened? To whom? And how were you involved?”

“I don’t really want to, Fext.” Seeing her ears drop, he sighed. “Look, the gryphons have a reputation for being brutal. Not just to each other, but also to their captives. They had a method of obtaining information from a subject that involved a very slow process of removing their organs. The subject in question...he screamed for a long time.”

After he finished speaking, there was a moment of silence as they all took it in. Fext however, maintained her quizzical look. “Did it work?” she asked.

He squinted. “What?”

“Did the method work?” Fext repeated. “Just, uh...just curious.”

He gave Fext an irritated look. “How about you do some reading, eh? And stop asking me questions about things that I don’t want to talk about.”

Fext looked down, disappointed. “Okay…”

He waved them off. “Free time, girls. Take a look at the book here, ask questions if they are a little less morbid, okay?”

Fext grumbled and walked away. She talked with Chakora briefly but continued on to their room.

Chakora scooted along the floor, saying, “Father? Can I speak with you?”

“Hmm?” He turned and walked to her. “What do you need, dear?”

Chakora looked unsure. “I, uh, I have an idea.”

Author's Note

FYI, this story is completely self-edited, so I probably should apologize for any spelling or grammatical errors. Enjoy anyway!