"The one day when I should have been in a costume and I had to be 'having a break." Please flipped through the legal documents pertaining to the trial, of course Equestrian law being what it was, they were only mildly enforceable with a princess around. "Maybe there is some sort of mathematics for that, that would let me rate how useful a law was as a factor of distance from an alicorn?"

"Oh you can believe that any law can quickly become useless when one is." Cherry walked into the library and found a desk across from the lawyer. "It gets even worse when you are working with them."

"You work with them a lot?" Please studied the other mare, noting that they looked just like she did right now. "Sorry for staring, didn't encounter many changelings before all this." She waved a hoof, generally indicating the town.

"It's me, Please." Cherry giggled and focused as Sleek had told her. With a flash of green fire she looked like her old self. "Just my luck to want to dress up as my wife for Nightmare Night."

Please Do blinked a few times at Cherry. "Well, with luck you will go back to normal." She blushed the moment she said it. "No, I don't mean that. Ugh this is such a pain to deal with, if it wasn't so nice and relaxed here, if everypony wasn't so happy, I would have so much trouble feeding."

It was Cherry's turn to be a little surprised. "Sleek said you need to eat more than other changelings, is it really that bad?" Having made a living helping changelings feed themselves, she knew well how much interaction each changeling needed to feed.

"About eight to ten times, near as we have figured out." Please folded the documents up and put them in her case. "So I need close contact with three happy ponies a day." Cherry had to fight her brain, working out how many "shifts" Please would have had to work back in her business.

"Wait, you aren't exactly hurting for bits?" Cherry pointed to the law book at the other changeling's side. "You could always hire ponies, a house-cleaner, a cook?"

"Only a few of my clients actually pay me, the rest I…" Please hung her head, she was revealing her one true failure as a lawyer. "I work for free, and much as a happy client could feed me, I don't work enough cases for it to add up."

"What type of law do you specialize in?" Cherry's mind was working in a completely different way now, plans were forming. A glance at Please revealed that she had spotted something in the tone of the question. "Too fast? I was going to try to slowly angle around to it."

"A little fast. What is your angle and why would you need to hire me?" Please Do certainly wouldn't mind a new employer, or at least another pony willing to pay her to fill out their forms for them.

"At the moment? My problems are Vanhoover and the Crystal Empire. Each is against me expanding, each for different reasons." Cherry eased back into her chair. "Vanhoover seems to be full of ponies with odd superstitions about changelings. Nothing overt, but my businesses there are not doing so well."

Please's eyes widened. "Businesses?"

Cherry nodded and smiled. "Indeed. The Crystal Empire is a whole other egg. They embraced changelings, took them to their heart. It was astounding how much the ponies there accepted them after their darling new princess was saving one when she ascended… the same one that is challenging me now. Apparently I am not allowed to bring my own labor into the city, at least, changeling labor."

A book lifted from the bookcase, born aloft in green magic. Please floated the book to her desk. "That I can help with…" She paused, looked up at Cherry.

"Oh, don't worry, you are hired. I will even throw in meals, while you are on my jobs." Cherry waved a hoof in the air. "Ponies are happy to do anything when you pay them enough, and you will find that well-paid ponies are very happy indeed."

"Wow." Gel Pattern had felt his world rocked, and it wasn't by high magic, or mind-numbing sex acts. Just one mare and one stallion. He lay beside Applejack in the leaves, not saying anything else as he collected his thoughts.

AJ leaned in and pressed her nose firmly into Gel's neck. "Ah like how one o' the cleverest ponies Ah know is speechless after all that."

"You want me to show you something I can do that doesn't need me to say a word?" Gel tilted his head, turning the nuzzle into a kiss. The pair held close, enjoying the moment.

Breaking from the kiss, Applejack looked around for her hat, floating it closer in the convenient magic she now had. "Well, you may be ready for more, stud, but this mare needs a break…" She set her hat firmly on her head and started to try to get up. It took some work, but Gel pushed and poked, helping her to rise. "And no racing back, Ah don't know if Ah can fully walk yet, let alone gallop." Applejack was delighted to see Gel having as much trouble gaining his hooves as she did.

Taking an offered hoof, Gel got himself upright again and wobbled a little. "I wonder how everypony at the castle is getting on, I bet Twi is about ready to tear out her mane." He couldn't help himself, he leaned in and kissed AJ along the neck. Slowly, each began to put their hooves one after the other, making their way back to town.

By the time Gel and AJ reached town it was well toward lunch time and they naturally gravitated toward the slightly odd market. Unlike normal, everypony was a little on edge. For a start there was a huge statue of Cerberus, with a great big cockatrice curled tightly around it. Then there was the fact that most everypony was not a pony at all.

"Fluttershy?" Gel stepped closer, Applejack moving with him every step of the way. "Are you okay?"

"Gel!" Fluttershy's exclamation was still the softest Gel had ever heard his name said in shock. "Oh, uh, this isn't what it looks like…" Shy kept her eyes closed, she didn't want to doom anypony else.

"I heard the story, it is a shame for Spike and his family, but if you ask me Discord sort of deserved it." Gel had to stretch up a little, but he nuzzled Fluttershy's coiled form. "Slipper is being looked after, I promise you that."

Some tension went out of Fluttershy's coils at the words, she started to open her eyes and then slammed them closed again. "Thank you, Gel." She reached out with one big wing, giving the stallion a squeeze. Or at least, she hoped it was Gel.

"They have a whole herd of alicorns up there to feed on, including two Cadances, I doubt any of the changelings in the castle are going to want for food." Gel snuggled against the mare. "Applejack is here."

"Heya sugarcube." AJ bumped her head against Gel. "An here Ah'm thinkin' you forgot yer old friend when Ah forgot you can't look." Applejack, being a bit longer than Gel, managed to rear up and give her friend a proper hug.

"He made me so angry, I wanted to give him my stare… my normal stare, but I forgot I wasn't myself." Fluttershy adjusted herself so her friend's forelegs could reach around her. "I just wanted him to know how I felt…" Applejack squeezed her neck tighter and Fluttershy leaned further, holding on to the "statue" with her coiled tail.

"I don't know him as well as I heard you do." Gel sat back and let the two mares have a good hug.

"We are going to have to have a talk, when he is free. There will not be tea." Fluttershy would have stomped a hoof in support of her statement, but she lacked such; which only made her more resolute.

Gel smiled at the timid mare's rigid stance, but something told him that she was on an edge. "Fluttershy?" Gel walked around so he could lift his snout up and nuzzle Fluttershy's neck.

"Yes?" Shy was a little surprised at the sudden intimacy, but she wouldn't look a gift-pony in the mouth.

"Tonight, just on sundown, be awake. I am going to come down with a book and read you a story." Gel closed his own eyes, realizing just how alone Fluttershy would be feeling, particularly since his own emotional-sense had been cut off. "Would you like me to bring Slipper, too?"

It was too much, Fluttershy moved forward, wrapping her odd wings around Gel and cuddling against him tightly. She felt the flow of energy from the statue reduce a little as some of her left contact with it. "I would like that very much."

Applejack was left blinking at the pair, her snout pulled into a big grin. "Well now, maybe we can all come on down here, have a little gatherin'." In that moment, when they were all quiet and relaxed, both Gel and Applejack's bellies gave deep rumbles.

Fluttershy was first to laugh. "Oh my, I am keeping you from lunch?" She could tell it was lunch by the warmth of the sun, and how long it had been shining.

"A friend is more important." Gel gave Fluttershy another squeeze. "But we probably should find some food. Maybe I could try some apples?"

The sound of Applejack's jaw falling was nearly audible. "You haven't had any apples before?" The alicorn trembled in shock. "Come on, we gotta git you back to the farm!"

A wing snagged Gel and he was pulled along. "Until tonight!" Gel waved to Fluttershy as AJ pulled him along. "Slow down, what is the matter?"

"You not having tried apples!" Applejack's horn flared and she lifted Gel into the air.

"But I had an Apple earlier, she was delicious!" Gel tried to poke at the sphere holding him. "Put me down, okay, I'll follow."

Halting, Applejack turned and looked at Gel. "Ah can't believe you would say that…" She tried to hide a blush and leaned in to kiss Gel. "Come on, Ah bet Ah can find something that will make you smile."

Scootaloo was bouncing around and rolling, the changeling foal-grubs were the cutest things she had ever seen and they all had one thing in common; they loved to play games. "Bet you can't stop me this time!"

Apple Bloom watched her friend with the foals and couldn't help but smile, well, smile more than having Tender be beside her. "So much energy, I wonder if they will calm down?"

Tender reached one big white foreleg up and booped the alicorn at his side on the nose. "What do changelings feed on?"

"Love, happiness… kindness… laughter…" Apple Bloom giggled at the boop but started to focus. "Gel told me… there was one more…" she suddenly blushed hotly, remembering what it was, "uh, never mind that."

"And what is Princess Cadance the Princess of?" Tender leaned sideways, quite happy that Apple Bloom was of a similar size to himself.

"Oh…" Apple Bloom leaned against Tender without even thinking about it. "So I am feeding them?" She blushed at that, then blushed more because while it seemed a little odd, it didn't feel bad. Then she realized that her present emotions were likely feeding them more. "I wonder if Scootaloo will have enough energy?"

"What?" Scootaloo stopped in her squirming and suddenly had three foals leap themselves onto her wings. "Whoa! You got me!" The door opened and Scootaloo looked up from where she was defeated. "Oh, hi Muffins! Help, they got me!"

"I am not Muffins." Celestia instantly regretted not continuing the charade, Scootaloo, Apple Bloom, and Tender Taps all jumped up straight. "Oh relax, please. I came here to sneak away. Muffins said she would cover for me so I could come up and meet the foals." Moving further into the room, Celestia dropped her enchantment, that had hidden her belly. She lay down beside the three little changelings. "They got the short end of this, didn't they?"

Bloom and Tender kept their snouts shut, not sure how to respond to such an open princess; Scootaloo, her energy high still, and cuddling one of the little ones under a wing, shook her head. "They're having fun, look at them. Seeds, Wingy, and Slips here, it is sort of like a holiday for them."

"How can you tell who is who?" Celestia blinked, trying to spot any way to tell the three changelings apart.

"Easy, Seeds protects Wingy, no matter what. Wingy keeps trying to move limbs she hasn't got, and is a bit slower. Slips is not a loner, but she doesn't rely on anypony and usually charges into anything first." Scootaloo pointed to each, finally giving Slipper a little nuzzle under her wing. "How long until you have yours?"

"Soon." Celestia smiled widely, her maternal instincts that normally covered an entire country, focused on just her own foal for a moment. Then something tickled at her mind and she stole a look to Apple Bloom. Aunt. I best not tell her, until I have spoken to Applejack alone.

"Uh, Your Highness?" Apple Bloom was sweating under the look Celestia gave her, it was at once proud and kind, pondering and restrained. "If'n you don't mind me asking, who was the father?"

Celestia's mouth was half open before she pulled it shut. "I really need to talk to them before I tell anypony." It wasn't a lie, but it wasn't the whole truth. Celestia filed the little knot in her belly under "stuff to worry about later" and plastered a smile back on her face.

Author's Note

What's this? No questions in the last chapter? Maybe I am going to have to let Nightmare Moon out to teach some of you a lesson?

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.

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