Decoy

It was assigned to construction, of course. Any sort of desk job would have been a waste of its natural abilities, and the skilled workers could get a lot of mileage out of directing it around like a piece of machinery. Despite the desperately dry and dead conditions, there weren’t any other dragons or changelings on the crew – except for a single overworked diamond dog, it was all ponies. Mostly earth ponies.

“Up!” shouted one standing on its head as it lifted a heavy iron plate as a maulwurf. “Up a little more!”

It strained to get another foot out of its poor, abused arms. Maulwurf arms weren’t really supposed to unbend that far, and while the plate was resting against the framework of a wall, most of the weight was still pressing down on it.

“There! Hold it right there!”

“Ugh…” it groaned, closing its eyes and thinking of Chrysalis’ sadistic gaze as it struggled to ignore the burning in its muscles. There was nothing better for enduring agony than imagining what she’d do to you if you failed.

“Alright, you can start riveting now.”

…then again, there was no reason for it to endure this agony. Why use muscles to hold things in one place? Muscles were for moving things. If it fused its bones, with some long tendons strung along the arm and hooked to its spine and hips… the fire burning along its arms changed in texture, as it adjusted its internals to something more suited for holding a heavy weight at full extension. No need to get complicated, since it was already in the right position.

“Hey! Dee!” somepony said, kicking its side.

It vaguely realized that this wasn’t the first time the pony had shouted at it, and turned its head to look.

“Finally! Are you okay? You were looking really spaced out there.”

It blinked. “This isn’t a natural position for a maulwurf. I was concentrating.”

“Yeah, I know I’d feel like my shoulders were going to tear themselves out of their joints if I tried to hold something up like that. Just a little longer, though.”

“I’m fine,” it said. And it was. In its altered shape it could hold the thing in place all day.

The pony laughed. “Good, because we’ve got another fifteen of these to place today, and I’d hate to think we’d worn you out after the first one!”

===

It bunked with three ponies – all mares, of course, because it had been marked down as a mare. Two earth ponies and a pegasus, who loudly refused to take the top bunk. Not that it really mattered, since both earth ponies wanted top bunks, and Decoy didn’t really care. It did feel a bit more at home with a ‘ceiling’ in close, although it was still agoraphobic compared to a sleeping nook in the hive.

“So, did any of you sign up for the sex thing?” asked the mare who was supposed to be sleeping above it, but who evidently wasn’t tired after a long day riveting.

“I hope not,” said the pegasus, looking up from the book she was reading. “I mean, you all heard what happened to that poor filly…”

“I signed up,” Decoy said. “Was that a mistake?”

“Only if you don’t like being raped and murdered,” the pegasus said.

“I signed up too!” the pony above him said cheerfully. Her hoof reached down over the side of the bed, and Decoy obligingly bumped it. “That was, like, one thing that happened once. Everypony’s blowing it completely out of proportion, because they don’t want to admit that ponies actually have sex sometimes.”

“Can we not talk about this?” said the mare in the bunk above the pegasus, holding her pillow over her head.

“What, sex?” came the chirpy voice from above.

The cringing mare pulled the pillow down harder.

“Sex sex sex sex sex sex sex!”

“If I have sex with you, will you shut up and go to sleep?” Decoy asked.

The mare’s face peeked down over the edge of the bed. “I don’t know,” she said, squinting. “If you’re too tired to talk, how are you going to screw me properly?”

“I’d eat your lust for energy,” Decoy said.

She blinked. “So… then I’d end up with, what? Less lust? That doesn’t sound very fun.”

“Trust me, you’ll make more,” Decoy replied.

She giggled at that, and flowed down into Decoy’s bed, straddling it with the blanket between them. “Does some-changeling need looooove? I thought you colorful ones made your own now.”

There was a whimper from the top bunk across the room, and then the pegasus was out of bed, yanking the mare off of Decoy and onto the floor by her tail. “No. No sex in the room. I don’t want to watch it, I don’t want to listen to it, and I really don’t want to smell it all night. If you two want to screw, go find somewhere else.”

“Can we cuddle?” Decoy asked.

“What?” the pegasus replied.

“I kind of do need some love. We make our own, but that’s for other changelings to eat. We can’t eat ourselves.” It paused. “Cuddling is a good way to absorb a little, without anypony feeling drained. And I don’t think she was serious about screwing me anyway.”

“I guess we’ll never know,” giggled the flirty mare. She ducked her head and nuzzled he way under the covers, and up Decoy’s body. Decoy shifted to give her a bit more room, as the rough-furred, muscular mare pressed herself against it. “Big spoon or little?” she asked.

It didn’t answer, instead wrappings its hooves around her, front to font, and shifting to be a softer, silkier pillow for her to cling to, while it buried its head in her shoulder, letting her curly mane slide through its head-frills.

She gasped, and cuddled closer. “Oh wow, you’re so –”

“Shh,” it whispered into her mane, stroking her slowly. Somewhat to its surprise, she quieted down, and the two of them slowly ran their hooves over each other, feeling each others bodies and warmth, and listening to the other’s breathing and heartbeat as they slowly calmed down, and at some point they slept.

===

They woke up before dawn, relaxed and refreshed and really, really sweaty. The worker dormitory was heated, and the thin blanket they’d been given was a lot warmer than it looked. Decoy headed to the showers to rinse off, and wasn’t too surprised when the mare followed it into the large bay meant to serve six ponies at a time. There weren’t many other ponies showering in the morning – why get clean before a day spent sweating in the hot desert sun? – so they had it to themselves.

It wasn’t too surprised when she started soaping it up after it turned on the water. It shifted itself a horn so that it could levitate a bit of soap over to return the favor.

“Oh!” the mare said, around the string holding her bar of soap. “I was going to ask if you missed your horn, but I guess you’re a shapeshifter after all.”

“Mmm,” Decoy said, enjoying the warm water cascading over its carapace, face held up into the stream. It felt the pony soap up its back, and flanks, and then reach down beneath its tail to search around.

“Huh,” she said.

“I can put something there if you’re interested,” it said. “Pussy, cock… tentacles?”

“Tentacles?”

It shifted a soft, wet opening that briefly looked like a vagina, before a series of slick black tentacles emerged and started to wrap themselves around the mare’s hoof, giving her a quick squeeze. She squealed, and pulled away, hooves clopping loudly against the tile as she danced around, giggling.

“Is that what changelings normally have?”

“We normally have nothing,” it said, slurping the tentacles back inside itself and then shifting that part back to the default smooth expanse.

“No no, bring them back!”

Decoy glanced back over its shoulder, then sat down and rolled over to brace its back against the wall, lettings its hind legs sprawl to the side, and shifting the tentacles back into place.

The mare gingerly took a step towards it, leaning her face closer to get a good look. Decoy had one of the tentacles boop her nose, then stroke against her cheek, leaving a trail of slime.

“Wow,” she said, grabbing a second tentacle with her lips, and sucking a loop of it between her teeth where she could give a gentle nibble.

Decoy let out its breath in a quiet gasp.

The mare took that as encouragement and started nibbling her way down towards the base… until the other five tentacles wrapped themselves around her head, and yanked her muzzle into its crotch, squeezing and pulsing as Decoy convulsed around her.

She squealed, and struggled, hooves scrabbling at the floor. There was another sudden shift, and her entire head was pulled inside Decoy’s body.

“Stop!” she screamed.

Decoy released her, and she staggered back, eyes wild, panting madly, and her mane and face-fur completely coated in slime.

“Did I go too far?” it asked.

She panted for a few more seconds, then held her head under the shower and rubbed a hoof around to rinse out the slime. “What in Celestia’s name was that?”

“I don’t know,” Decoy said. “I was improvising. Nopony actually tried to play with the tentacles before.”

“I thought you were trying to eat me!”

“I was,” Decoy said. “I was going to pull you inside, and shift a big space in my torso for you to squirm around in. Maybe shift some leg-holes and hollow out my head so you could wear me like a suit.”

“That’s…” she stared at him. “Is that even sex?”

It levitated the soap over, and helped wash out her mane as it got back to its feet. “I don’t know. I’m not the princess of sex.”

She laughed. “Maybe you should be.”