Sweetie had worked out why the syrup had tasted so familiar. She had blushed hotly while eating it, but hadn't stopped.

"This is really good. Who makes this?" Starlight's mouth was working, devouring the delicious pancakes and syrup.

"Oh, uh, a mare in town, Octavia." Sweetie giggled a little.

Lyra stared at her lover, then it dawned on her how Octavia would have made it. The giggles her Bonny had were contagious and soon both of them were snorting and giggling.

"What's the joke?" The words were icy and Starlight didn't have to guess to much to assume she was the butt of this gag.

Starry shook her head. "Oh, just thinking of how much effort Octavia puts in to it, like everything that mare does, I am sure it was made with love." You are worse than both of them, can't you see she is hurt? The words from Twinkle sobered Starry immediately and she stopped her own soft giggles. "Sorry, but it is… well, she bonded with a plant and um… she makes it… herself."

Starlight sighed, these words at least sounded honest. "Thank you, Starry was it?" The mare nodded. "Seems to be a strange little town here, how long have you been working for the princess?"

"Working?" Lyra coughed from one giggle to the next. "We don't work for her, we are her friends."

Starlight wouldn't have looked more hurt if Lyra had used a whip.

The roar of the Dragon Lord silenced all the dragons present, not that Ember could hear him. He moved fast, though, rage and anger mixing with pain to drive Garble beyond what he would normally be capable of.

The ferocity of the sudden attacks drove Ember back, dodging each as she watched that broken wrist dangle uselessly. "If we can repeat that all he will have is his teeth." Ember did a somersault backwards, narrowly missing being hit by the swinging claws.

Then something collided with her back. Neither the dragon nor Gel had seen the tail coming until they were flying to the side. The heavy spikes on the length, however, failed to pierce the reinforced armor.

Garble stood above the felled dragoness, his mouth working again. It seems actually connecting a blow had stirred him back from the madness the pain had brought. "You don't want to know, he is going on and on about how a dragoness' place is raising clutches of eggs." Gel's voice soothed Ember. It had hurt a little when they had been struck but between the princess' magic and the changeling shifting himself to compress the wound, it barely hurt. "If you want to get serious, I would suggest hitting his jaw. Something he really prizes."

Ember couldn't stop herself, she was laughing. Wheezing a little, but laughing. When Garble finally looked down at her and appeared to be asking her something she struck. Her powerful legs coiled and sprung, her wings gave a strong flap and she put her shoulder into connecting with Garble's mouth.

It lacked the explosive force that connecting with her tail had delivered, but there was a feeling of something giving way as she moved to flip out of the way. "Oh that worked a treat, I think you dislocated his jaw." Gel kept an eye on things as the dragoness flipped out of reach of the good hand that swung at her.

Garble stared at Ember with more pain than anger now. Why did she do this? Why was she fighting him? He was meant to rule, he won the race, he got the scepter. She shifted her weight from one leg to the other as if she had been born to fight, Garble wasn't even sure how she was doing half the things she had done but he knew one thing. That last blow should have hurt her a lot more than it had.

Ember watched as the Dragon Lord's good claws lit up with a dark black glow and like a freight train he was barreling down at her. "Over the top." Gel murmured it and Ember didn't even have to try to reply. As the bigger dragon got closer she kicked up and back. Her wings pumping to lift her above Garble as her somersault brought her tail spinning around and there was a dull thud as the magically accelerated tail collided with Garble's head.

Torch smiled. For the first time since the fight started he actually smiled. "Dragon Lord Garble, can you still stand?"

When Garble moaned a little, Ember, from her perch on his back, walked along his spine and flicked her tail lightly against the side of his cranium. The big body slumped further. "You won." Gel's voice was barely heard, a roar of voices was in Ember's restored hearing.

"I won?" Her own voice sounded small, tiny.

"You won, Dragon Lord." Torch had approached and lifted his voice louder. "Do any here dispute Ember's claim to the title of Dragon Lord?"

Twilight stared on in amazement, there was an aura of magic swirling around, she cast a quick detection spell and watched it seeping from not just Garble, but from every dragon present. It was all flowing to Ember.

"Dragon Lord Ember!" One draconic voice called, then another, and soon all the dragons were chanting it.

"Dragon Lord Ember." Gel's voice in her ear sounded a lot less reverent and a lot more… friendly. That word now meant a lot more to her. The others had done everything they could to help her win this fight but Gel had stood where she stood, taken the blow she had taken. "We will need to talk before I leave, but I think you have your people to see to."

The feeling of the changeling flowing from her was almost one of loss. Ember felt him drain off her form and become solid beside her. She didn't hesitate, she stepped close to the pony even as he was reforming. "Thank you, Gel." She wrapped both arms around him, hugging him tight.

Gel lifted his form up and hugged the dragoness back. "Hay, it was no problem, what else are friends for?"

The word had been taunting Ember before. Now it all made sense. She looked at her talons, thinking that this pony, or any of her other… friends, needed her, she wanted to be there.

"Ember, come on, Dragon Lord." Torch's tail flicked as he addressed his daughter with her title, it really felt good to roll it off his tongue.

Celestia hadn't even made it out the room. She was sitting on Splash, the stallion's shaft sunk deep in her moist and clutching vulva, while above her Crash was riding, equally deep in her tail-hole. She wasn't even sure what time it was, or what day it was, all she knew was how wonderfully full she was and that the two stallions were wonderful.

"Tia?" Luna blinked, her fur dry after getting a quick shower at the beach to wash all the salt out. She had left her sister in the room mid-morning and it was now early evening. "Oh Tia, you really have found yourself a comfortable spot, haven't you?"

Luna turned, backing herself up to her sister and flicking her tail up. As soon as Celestia's tongue touched her folds, the dark unicorn gave a delighted laugh.

"Whoa, I thought you said you were sisters?" Swift propped his board against the wall and watched as Luna got eaten out by the mare being double-penetrated.

"She is." Luna blinked her eyes at the earth pony. "Oh, Celestia, you should have seen the waves!"

Both mares looked at each other, it was like the world had stopped.

"Yeah but Lulu, you got your board all squared away." Swift moved in beside the dark mare, nuzzling her.

Celestia didn't have to wonder if either of the twins had caught Luna on her mistake, each began to unload inside her and her own orgasm rocked away all thoughts of 'if', 'but', or 'maybe'.

"Swift, where did you get to?" A mare's voice from the hallway called before a pegasus with lime green fur and yellow mane trotted in. "Oh, hay Splash, Crash." The pegasus trotted up to the other side of 'Stud' and leaned into him. "Who is this?" Her eyes landed on Luna who looked like she was trying to keep her snout shut and be as tiny as could be.

Swift threw a leg over Luna's withers, however, pulling the unicorn in against him. "This is Lulu, she loves to get eaten out."

Luna blushed hotly, that wasn't the normal thing you told a mare when first seeing her!

"Lulu, huh? Well, lets see how she sings…" The unnamed mare trotted around and without invitation, dove her snout under the silver-black tail.

"So you don't know when she will be back?" Starlight had given up trying to get any information out of the three. Two were so love-lost in each other all they could do was giggle and say 'syrup' over and over at each other and Starry seemed a few foals short of a school. It was like she kept talking to somepony who wasn't there!

"Eventually…" Starry waved a hoof, levitating the breakfast plates to the kitchen. The life of a maid wasn't technically what she would have chosen, but it was stable employment and board and lodgings appeared to be thrown in. "How long do they normally take to solve these problems?"

Lyra shrugged. "What, anything from a few minutes to weeks." The unicorn then seemed to go cross-eyed and slump happily in place. Beside her, Sweetie was giggling.

Nuzzles had finally roused from his food-coma and was hungry, the best part was he already found lunch!

"Am I getting fat?" Celestia was sitting in her state room, the dark alicorn sitting not far away with a parasol shading her. There was a plate of cake at her side and she levitated it up with her green magic.

"If you keep eating that, you will be." Luna, or the changeling disguised as Luna, was having a ball. She had enough ponies that truly loved the night she didn't want for food and got to act like… well, a princess.

"It's not that, I mean, so many ponies love her." The changeling disguised as Celestia nonetheless used their green magic to take a bite of the most fluffy and delicious ice-cream cake ever. Being a stallion disguised as a mare wasn't a problem for him, he had done that enough times to earn his meal, but this was something else. Reaching a hoof down, he poked at his slowly swelling belly. "I think I am getting fat…"

"Who is coming over tonight?" Cherry Stripe was relaxing in her living room. In the kitchen of the little house a changeling poked her head out.

"Oh, some friends, hungry friends." Sleek Guise smiled at her wife, trying to take the edge off effectively telling her that she would be a snack for other changelings.

"Anypony I know?" Cherry felt a touch nervous. She had been on a bit of a whirlwind ride, her house now fully paid off, completely, by the hive. As she had found out, 'entertaining changelings' was a good way to make a living.

"Stretch, Guile, and Sliver." Sleek trotted out, tossing her apron and dishtowel aside and landing beside Cherry. "How was work today?"

Cherry leaned sideways, flopping to her back with her head landing in the 'lap' of her lover. "Oh the usual. Ponies and changelings all having fun mostly, a few claiming they didn't have fun. As if we can't check!"

"And how are you doing?" Sleek reached down and started playing with the mare's mane, her hole-filled hoof stroking and separating it, only to brush it together again.

The pegasus mare leaned up and kissed the changeling on the snout. "Better now. Running that place can take a lot out of me, but seeing happy ponies, changeling and not, is what makes it for me."

A knock at the door startled both of them not a bit. Sleek lifted her voice, she reached out and felt the three changelings at the door. "Come in!"

Two stallions and a mare trotted in. They didn't rivet their eyes to Cherry as they had when first arriving in the city of willing ponies. Vicious' hive had merged well and not a single one of them had been truly hungry since learning that ponies just wanted to be happy.

Author's Note

Wait, who are these extra ponies? Oh, it is Sleek and Cherry!

While it is nice to check up on ponies, I can't help but feel that we are nearing the end of the chapter. Everypony gets one guess, and one only, as to who the 'bad guy' is in the next chapter.

Winners will be announced by their cries of 'I told you so!' once next chapter is about 2-3 chaplets in.

Support me on Patreon or fuel my writing on Ko-Fi!

Join me on Discord. Warning, said chat may contain NSFW material and should be considered adult in nature.

Awesome ponies who are already helping to keep me in keyboards and rum:
Canary in the coal mine