Decoy

A few days passed without anything remarkable happening. Its tasks varied from day to day, but rarely required anything more interesting than turning into yet another Maulwurf – there were Earth Ponies on the crew that could break rocks with their hooves and dig with a shovel a decent percentage of the speed a diamond dog could manage, but nopony was as strong as a giant mutant mole monster, or even a changeling facsimile thereof.

The mare spent most nights in its bed, cuddling it in its cuddle-form, but the showers usually had other ponies around, which made her a bit self-conscious about going any further. It thought about ways that it could get her alone, since she seemed to be increasingly frustrated, but then she finally managed to get her unicorn friend to spend the night with her, so it considered the onus to keep her satisfied passed.

Sex was still on its mind a disturbing percentage of the time. Sometimes it worried that the Saddle Arabians had broken something, but it didn’t feel broken. Just… hungry. Still, it had decades of experience resisting hunger much worse than that.

The mousy pegasus who seemed to be in charge of its work assignments called it into the office one morning. “You have a package,” she said. “I’m afraid company rules require us to have an agent present when you open it, to make sure it isn’t something to help you escape.”

“Alright,” Decoy said, sitting across the desk from her. It glanced at the small box sitting in front of it, which seemed to be made of changeling slime. “Can I open it now?”

She nodded. “Please.”

It picked up the box and examined it for any markings to reveal who exactly it was from, but it wasn’t familiar enough with the new leaders of the hive to tell whether it was from Pharynx or Thorax. Surely it was one of the two of them, though. It sharpened its hoof with some subtle shapeshifting and sliced the box open.

A large beetle squirmed out of the slit and dropped to the desk, legs skittering against the wood as it turned to face it.

“Ah!” The pegasus rolled her chair back against the wall, shielding herself with her wings.

It looked up. “It’s just a communication beetle,” it explained. “Thorax must want a report on how you’re treating me.”

“So it’s trained?” she asked, relaxing a little, or at least recovering her composure. “Like a carrier pigeon?”

“Sort of,” it said. It tapped the beetle lightly. “Connect.”

The beetle lit up with a bright green glow, and a loud chime resounded through the office… but nothing else happened.

“It might take a while for him to get to his own beetle,” Decoy said, staring expectantly at the glowing bug, which chimed again. “Chrysalis always sent us with a set of three, so we could stare at her giant head while she ordered us around. With one we’ll only be able to send our voices.”

After a few more chimes, the glow faded a bit, and the beetle crouched down closer to the desktop. “Hello?” came Thorax’s voice. “Hello? Who is this?”

“Decoy,” it replied.

“Oh! That got to you faster than I expected. Are you okay?”

“I think so,” Decoy said. “I’ve been spending most of my time as a Maulwurf, but the food is good.”

“That’s good to hear,” Thorax said, with obvious relief. “Have you been getting enough love? You haven’t tried eating your own love, have you? Princess Twilight thinks that might reverse your reformation, and that’s the last thing we need.”

“I have a cuddle-buddy,” it said, “and plenty of pony food, so I don’t need much. Maulwurfs are huge but they’re relatively mundane.” It paused, uncertain whether to ask. “Have the riots –”

“They’ve calmed down,” Thorax said. “We still have to watch out for protesters, but Pharynx has it under control.”

“Dee’s location is being kept confidential, as you requested,” the pegasus added. “We don’t want trouble out here any more than you do.”

“Dee?” Thorax repeated, chuckling. “What a cute nickname! Is that your cuddle-buddy?”

“No, she’s my… boss?” it looked over at her.

She shook her head. “Caseworker. Your ‘boss’ is whoever is supervising you at the day’s work site.”

“Well, miss caseworker. Do you have any complaints about Decoy’s behavior?” Thorax asked.

“No, she’s been very cooperative so far,” the pegasus said. “Occasionally sarcastic, but that’s not actually against the rules.”

“What about you, Decoy? Any complaints?”

“Um…” Decoy said. “I’ve been thinking a lot about sex. It’s distracting.”

“What about sex?” Thorax asked.

“I’m hungry for it,” Decoy said. “I had an intense sexual experience and now I can’t stop thinking about it. Is this something to worry about?”

“Hmm,” Thorax said. “I don’t know. Feelings are usually a good sign, but I’m not so sure about feelings of hunger. Does having sex satisfy you?”

Decoy flattened its ears, which it was pretty sure meant that the unpleasant sensation crawling across its skin was embarrassment. “I, um, haven’t. Since the event.”

“I think you should try it and see,” Thorax said. “Consider this an assignment – try to have enough sex to satisfy your hunger, and we’ll talk again in a moon.” The beetle’s glow flickered. “Ah, we’re almost out of time. Goodbye, Decoy! Remember to make friends!”

The glow died completely, and the beetle stood up and started walking around on the desktop. Decoy glanced at it, then up at its caseworker.

“Do you have somewhere to keep this safe?” it asked. “It’s valuable.”

“You don’t say,” the pegasus said. “I don’t suppose they’re for sale?”

“You’d have to ask Thorax about that,” it replied. “This one obviously isn’t, since he wants me to report in again once it recharges.”

“Alright. Wait here.” She left for a few minutes, leaving Decoy to herd the beetle back into the center of the desk whenever it approached the edge, then returned with a cardboard box with air-holes punched in the top. She held it open, and Decoy shifted itself a horn so it could safely move the beetle into its new home. “What does it eat?”

“Ambient magic,” Decoy replied.

She nodded and put it up on a shelf. “So, about your… assignment… you’re allowed to have sex with other employees, as long as you all obey the rules. Have you read over the employee handbook yet?”

Decoy shook its head.

She sighed, resting her forehead on a hoof. “Well… the rules about sex are pretty much the same as anywhere else, I guess. Just use common sense.”

“So, no sex in public?” Decoy asked.

“Definitely no sex in public.”

Decoy looked around. The office had no windows, and the door was closed. “This is private. Want to have sex?”

“I’m not into mares,” she replied.

Decoy changed into a stallion. A Saddle Arabian stallion, towering over her and her desk, his huge, erect cock sitting at about head height. “I’m not a mare,” he said, trying to give her a seductive smile.

“Ah… stop that,” she said, closing her eyes and breathing heavily.

“What’s wrong? I can tell you’re interested,” he asked, lying down on his side to bring his head down level with hers, and get the penis she supposedly didn’t want out of her line of sight.

“It’s against the rules,” she said, shaking her head.

“I won’t tell anypony,” he replied, smiling at her.

“I don’t want to stake my career on that,” she said. “Especially when it would give you blackmail material you could use to force my cooperation, covering up for worse offenses.”

It changed back and clambered up into its chair.

“Thank you,” she said. She glanced at the empty package. “That’s all I had for you today, other than your current work assignment…”

===

It was digging the trench again. They’d run out of sandstone, so the task was a bit different – shifting tons of sand, while the unicorn followed behind and solidified the walls. It considered changing into a better sand-moving form, maybe with a rotary digging wheel instead of arms, but the Maulwurf was fairly good at the task and it wasn’t sure it could get it right on the first try. Since there wasn’t a way to gradually go from one form to another, getting it wrong would be both obvious and embarrassing.

Besides, the unicorn was distracting. “Do you find me attractive?” Decoy asked, in a deep rumbling voice after giving the Maulwurf vocal cords.

The unicorn looked up, although he maintained the spell gradually working its way along the trench behind it. “I’m not into giant moles, no.”

Decoy rolled its eyes. “You’ve seen what I really look like. And you know I could change into anything, if it’s something physical.”

“You’re… not bad to look at,” the unicorn said. “The wings are cute, when you bring them out to buzz them.”

Decoy wasn’t aware that it had ever done that. It shifted itself a set of wings on the Maulwurf’s back, and buzzed them for the unicorn, who chuckled at the display.

“What brought this on?” he asked.

“Do you want to have sex?” Decoy asked.

“We have a job to do.”

“I meant after work,” Decoy said. “Unless you think we can fit something in during lunch?”

“We’re kind of exposed out here,” the unicorn replied. “And I’m seeing Puffball tonight.”

“That’s fine,” Decoy said. It had no problem sharing with Puffball. Or sharing Puffball. However you wanted to look at it. Then it focused on its work, to ignore the hunger. It was easier with the promise of relief at the end of the day.

During lunch, it hopped over to the unicorn’s side of the little table he’d made, and leaned up against him while they ate, growing its tongue all long and sticky so that it could pick up its food without having to move its head from the unicorn’s shoulder. It wasn’t sure about the look the unicorn gave that, but he did reach up and stroke its back with his hoof, which seemed affectionate enough.

===

It met up with the mare after work, and followed her to the showers where they had the big mirrors she used to put on her makeup.

She smiled to see its face appear besides her in the mirror. “Oh Dee! Can you help me with my makeup? I want to look nice for Grounder.”

“Of course,” it said, levitating the brush up and putting delicate accents on her cheeks. Should it doll itself up as well? The makeup was all the mare’s and only really suited to her colors, so it turned into a near-duplicate of her, with green eyes instead of blue, and pegasus wings.

The mare giggled, as her near-duplicate started putting the makeup on herself as well. “Are you seeing somepony tonight too?”

“I was going with you,” Decoy replied, considering shifting herself some ribbons to tie back her crazy mane. “I asked the unicorn today, during our shift.”

“And he said yes?” she asked, looking confused.

“Well, I said yes,” Decoy answered. It didn’t remember exactly how the conversation had gone, but remembered that it was the one who’d agreed to the mare’s presence.

“Wow, I didn’t know he was that forward,” she replied. “I had to basically corner him in his room and tell him I was going to screw him to get him to quit dancing around the issue.” She lifted a hoof and ruffled Decoy’s mane. “Nice choice in a shape. He’ll get a kick out of seeing two of us!”

===

Decoy had never been to the building where the senior employees had their private rooms, but barely spared a glance for the slightly-less-bare-bones décor as she followed the mare up to the third floor where ‘Grounder’ lived. Her fur was fluffed up, her tail held high, and her body tingled with anticipation. It was all she could do to keep herself from vibrating, and she heard her pegasus wings ruffle from time to time as they made their way through the halls.

The other mare with her didn’t seem as wound up – but then, she’d been screwing the unicorn all week, right? Her tail was half-lifted, and her ears perky enough that she was clearly happy about the situation, at least. When they got to the door, she knocked loudly three times, then turned to Decoy. “Play along, she said,” then reached around to pull her into a kiss.

Decoy was very happy to play along, stroking the other mare’s back and sides with her soft fluffy wings, and wrestling their silly slippery pony tongues.

Eventually the door opened. The mare gave a momentarily tighter squeeze, which Decoy took as a sign not to react right away. After making out for another thirty seconds, the mare pulled away, breathing heavily, and smiled up at the unicorn.
Decoy panted a bit, sitting down on the tile floor with a lewd squelch.

“Hey there, lover,” the other mare said, leaning forwards and nuzzling at the unicorn’s shoulder. “Tonight’s the night, right?”

“I –” he said, staring at her, and then at Decoy. He tilted his muzzle down to affectionately nuzzle at the mare’s curly mane, and his horn lit slightly with the nearly inaudible tinkle of a spell.

What are you doing here? his voice came in Decoy’s mind. I told you I was seeing Puffball!

And I said I didn’t have a problem with that, Decoy thought loudly, hoping that that was the proper way to reply. Her wings started to droop.

“Mmm, we should take this inside,” the mare said, slipping along the unicorn’s side, making sure to keep contact the whole way, and bump his shoulder with her hip. “Don’t want to break any regulations.”

Decoy looked up at the unicorn as he took a step back, ready to close the door. She scrambled to her feet, and lifted a hoof towards the entryway, stopping halfway and tilting her head a bit.

The unicorn shook his head, and closed the door in her face.

Fire flared brightly as Decoy returned to its normal form, slamming itself back into the familiar shape with three times the energy it took. It burned, and not just with hunger. There was anger – a feeling it knew well from its pre-reform days – and what it had identified earlier as embarrassment. It wanted to scream. It wanted to tear down the door, and make the unicorn reject it to its face. It wanted to go knocking on doors desperately begging for somepony, anypony, to screw it.
It settled on screaming, but made sure to fly far out into the cold desert night before giving into the urge, screaming an un-pony screech until its throat got sore, then shapeshifting stronger pipes to put out stranger wails. It could see eyes watching it from the darkness, but none of the desert monsters came closer to offer themselves up as an outlet for its frustrations.

It wasn’t sure if it would have fought them or fucked them. Maybe both.

It crawled back into its room fairly early, for all that. The shy earth pony was still out, and only the grumpy pegasus was there, reading a trashy adventure novel in her bed.

“I don’t suppose you want to have sex,” it croaked, flopping onto its side on top of its covers, half-curled up and facing the wrong way.

“How could I resist such a seductive offer,” she replied, not looking up from her book.

It shifted itself a cock and a vagina as it lay there, just in case she wasn’t being sarcastic, but if she noticed she didn’t say anything.