"Stupid Hornette... this trip is gonna take forever... and I don't even get to fuck the Broodwife? Come on..."

Cerana had spent the last... however long it'd been since she and her new luggage stumbled out from the brush atop Canterlot Mountain muttering to herself, a seemingly unending spree of grumpy mumbles spilling out from her pouty black lips. Fluttershy didn't mind– she needed the (relative) quiet to think. And, if Cerana was to be believed–

"I swear, you'd think the Worker 'lings would be hard at work building, uh... something to make getting around the Hivesprawl easier– but nooo..."

... Well, this wouldn't be an expedient journey.

Cerana gave the mare's hand another impatient tug, quickening Shy's lagging pace once more. Away from the 'warfront' outside Canterlot, the Changeling had dragged the mare deeper into the ever more fortified complex surrounding the city. It was a surreal sight– as though the bugs were looking to build their own version of the Capital surrounding the other. If only they could've known the state of things within the shield bubble– all of this was excessive overkill. Shy hardly had the time to marvel at those odd towers of living crag, though– another tug on her hand leading her down into a haphazard opening in the mountain rock.

This cave, Fluttershy discovered, was something of a Changeling Metro– just one of the many thousands of entrances into the Hivesprawl, the new infrastructure veins of former Equestria. Fluttershy hadn't realized at the time, her nerves still on high-alert and her thoughts a scrambled mess looking to piece understanding back together, but that final breath of mountain air– so easily, unknowingly exhaled as she trudged close behind her captor– would be the last aboveground fresh air she'd be getting for quite some time.

Tunnels.

Tunnels, and lots of them.

Tunnels seemed to be the modus operandi of Changelings, those who so loved to stay hidden from the waking world above. That subterfuge wasn't all that necessary anymore, but it seemed old habits died hard. Under the glittering glow of bio-luminescent mosses growing wild along the brutishly-carved cave path, the two walked a lonesome bend of snaking offshoots and stairs upon stairs– trotting toward the depths of the earth. With a still firm grip on Fluttershy's hand, Cerana kept her face straight ahead and her mouth glued shut. Shy noted the peculiar stick the Changeling's... skin(?) seemed to have, as if a natural film coated the entirety of her body like clammy, biological-velcro.

"U-uhm, Miss Drone Cerana, Ma'am...?" Fluttershy began.

The Changeling's angle nor posture changed.

"What."

"May I, ah... ask a question?"

Cerana was just as quick with her second answer as she'd been with the first.

"No."

Fluttershy bit her lip, her own grip on the Changeling tensing– but obeyed all the same.

Right up until Cerana got bored.

"... Ngh– okay, fine, what."

Ever polite and seemingly having been granted about as much protection from any handsy Changelings as could be afforded to a ‘Broodwife’ by mere lip service– Fluttershy had been given some breathing room to speak with just a bit more confidence.

"Oh, thank you– so, uh... how can you know where you're going? This path doesn't seem all that... easy to remember."

Cerana scoffed "to a pony, maybe. I could walk us alllll the way over to the Crystal Empire if I really wanted to– wouldn't need to pop up from the Hivesprawl veins even once before we were there."

Shy's eyes traced the odd buffs of green & blue-glowing lichen mapping the walls. "Through these plants?"

Finally, the Changeling cranked her head back to face her prisoner– though only to shoot her down. "What? No. It's... oh, how to make a bimbo Broodmare get it..." Cerana chewed on her cheek, her eyes briefly darting away from Shy's as she mulled over her thoughts. "Ah! It's like... you guys sense pheromones, right?"

Now it was Fluttershy's turn to look away.

"I... I don't think so?"

Cerana rolled her eyes, her 'breakthrough' having come up short. "Okay, well, you know what instincts are at least, yeah? It's like that. We just know– and really, there's no easier place to 'know' than wherever the Queen is at any given time; so I know this is the fastest possible route to get to her."

Fluttershy's eyes lit up. Even if just for a moment, the 'safety' of her position and the briefest of conversation on something other than Canterlot's defenses or Equestria's battleplans... well, Fluttershy felt almost normal again.

"M-my, that's so interes–"

Almost normal. Had she forgotten that she had been captured and was currently being brought before Queen Chrysalis for who-knows what? Had she forgotten that the very bug she was about to compliment had, just a few hours ago, been ready to rape her? Had she forgotten that this same Changeling was just one of the millions hellbent on bringing that same fate to all Equestrians?

... Had she forgotten the excitement that bloomed throughout every little spot those eager Changelings touched at across her body?

Cerana just sighed. If nothing else, it at least seemed her mind was away from those prior grumbles now.

"I know this tunnel's pretty long and boring, but we're nearly at a central artery. You haven't seen shit yet, my fat-rumped Broodmare. This," Cerana motioned to the mere rock– rock that was now nearly covered in the glowing moss " –is just a cave, the sort we'd dig up to scout out stuff above ground. We'll really start making time when we get to the artery– and you'll get to see why you should've given yourself up to the Queen a long time ago."

Looking down at her feet, Fluttershy didn't respond. Once more, too many questions were on her mind. Questions that she didn't know how to answer. If nothing else– at least the damp coolness of the cave had begun giving way to something warmer. Even more humid than before, sure: But whatever lied ahead in that queasy glow felt like the very beginnings of a sauna...

Despite her racing mind, Fluttershy's pace kept up with Cerana's just a touch more.

Cerana hadn't been lying.

That meager crawlspace of a tunnel, eventually drenched in both the glow of all-encompassing fuzzy lichen and now the hot fumes from somewhere beyond, bloomed outright and quite suddenly into...

Well, Fluttershy couldn't quite wrap her head around it. Those dark towers that'd increasingly begun pocking the skyline of Canterlot? They weren't just buildings– they were growths. Growths that spawned from... this... Cerana's description of 'artery' had been apt, for the innards of this subterranean highway spilled out before tiny, tiny Fluttershy's eyes like a living cathedral. The pegasus clearly hadn't realized just how deep she'd ventured underground, for from her meager spot just beyond one of the many capillary caves branching off from the interior hall– not even all the light washing this hazy haven could illuminate a ceiling above.

The dull slate of the earth had seemingly been grown over and covered up entirely by whatever this... thing was, as though Fluttershy had never been underground at all– but instead swallowed by some impossibly massive serpent. In the rocks' place, a throbbing bubblegum painted over the cave with fleshy, ribbed bulges– like carpet that'd been pushed up against a wall and was beginning to hill. Fluttershy didn't know whether to awe at the sight or wretch, seeing how great black support arches and pews had been erected along this artery of the Hivesprawl, giving the whole grand way something of monument status. Nothing– nothing down here should have been, both by the decree of logic & what should've been simply universal rules of what was and was not possible. Despite all of that– here it was. A mere highway to the Changelings, at that.

Cerana couldn't help but giggle, lightly raising Fluttershy's jaw shut with a hand.

"Hehe~ Impressed, aren't you?" The she-stud bug drank in the look on Shy's face, showing off how her foot sank into that chewed-bubblegum flesh with a slight give. “It’s almost bouncy! See? Super safe, if you ever fall. It’s next to impossible to scrape up your knees in the Hive~” Cerana wiggled her eyebrows with that last bit– an innuendo that flew nice and high above Fluttershy’s head.

Fluttershy tried looking out into the expanse, the horizon within down either side of the artery hall soon enough obscured with an ever present fog. Still, clearly expanding without fail as far as her pony eyes could see– Changelings of all sorts stayed as active as the beast they dwelled within. Something akin to meager shops and stands amassed along the borders of the artery where the floor met the pulsating walls, apparently selling everything from strange materials, stranger foods, and even Equestrian prisoners themselves. If the middle straightaway of the hall was a highway where Changelings went to and fro along an endless sidewalk– the sides were an equally unending expanse of rest stops and marketplaces.

“And… and this is just the path from one Hive to another…?” Shy questioned, finally having built up the courage to touch her toes to the squishy flesh of her new home.

Cerana shook her head. “This is the Hive, Fluttershy. Whether you’re here, or the Hive Main, or any outpost Hive being built into the surface.” The Changeling patted Fluttershy’s rump, as if the gesture would be as supportive as a pat on the shoulder. “I figure it’s hard for your Broodmare brain to comprehend– but there is no end point here; just a single, whole organism.”

As if it was something Fluttershy ought to be happy about, Cerana cocked her head and gave the pony a genuine smile. “If everything else is the ‘limbs–’ you can imagine we’re going to the core of the body, or the brain: Hive Main.”

Gradually, Fluttershy lost control over her lower jaw once more, eyes fixated on a lumbering beast of many legs and a round segmented shell. Cerana followed the pony’s view.

“And that is what we call a Burden Bug: A Pillipede, to be exact!”

Fluttershy weakly nodded. Just like any other animal, the many little crawling critters of the world had smitten her heart long ago– and the mare saw nothing wrong with adoring spiders just as she adored bunnies. The issue here was that, well...

Fluttershy knew Pillipedes. The biggest of them were hardly larger than a finger nail. That one was more comparable to a Manticore in size. Just as she'd began to accept that her surroundings were indeed a reality, the poor pony was thrown for a loop once more.

... And for better or worse, Fluttershy couldn't keep that blooming happiness from welling up in her heart.

"O-oh my."

Holed up within Canterlot for so long, so high on the mountain, Fluttershy had all but lost access to her beloved animal friends with little chance to make new ones. To her, the mere sight of the Pillipede weighed down with bags and tied to a slaver-merchant's shop was something akin to a little filly seeing her first teddy bear.

Her first really big teddy bear.

"We use the bigger beasties like him to lug around the heavy stuff; guy's back is practically made for– Fluttershy, hey!?"

Now Fluttershy was the one pulling Cerana. The pegasus wouldn't hear another word on the matter, dragging her solo entourage through the bustling mass of she-bugs heading from one end of the Hive to another. Shy needed the release– just to pet the thing, really. It might've been a temporary salve to stave off those pestering questions running rampant in her mind, Shy knew that much; but the mare had been through a lot. Between the ever-worsening situation back in Canterlot, to getting captured and almost raped, to seeing how her species had been brought so low all around her–
Fluttershy needed to pet that overgrown pillbug.

Cerana yanked back against Shy's hand– finding her pastel mitts far more resistant to obeying when she wanted them to be. "S-Shy, you twit! A Broodmare can't just be pulling a Changeling around like this! You'll just attract more attention to yourself– and I really, really don't think I can convince the entire swarm that you're not to be touched! Even worse, my sisters will never let me hear the end of it if I'm seen getting pulled around by you!"

If Cerana's words were heard at all, they went ignored. Going only as far as to announce her beelining warpath with a litany of mumbled "S-sorrys," Fluttershy pushed aside the warmth feeling of Hive-flesh squelching up between her toes as she stomped her way to the other side of the artery hall. Even those 'attacks of opportunity' went largely ignored by the determined mare– many Changelings seemingly on-instinct taking a touch tax upon coming too close to a Broodmare. Not like any of the bugs were going to be reporting an instance of public molestation, anyhow.

Finally, the many legs & shell of many segments loomed dully before the pegasus, its comparatively beady eyes meeting Fluttershy's own with nothing to say. She met this stare for a few moments– letting her steeled determination melt away from her face not long after.

"Oh my goodness, you big boy! I've never seen a cutie Roly Poly quite so big as you, mister! Oh, you must just love hugs! But I can't even wrap my arms around you, my big snuggums..."

Cerana was released from her temporary property's death grip– left with a look of absolute bewilderment herself as Fluttershy tried (in vain) to wrap her arms around the Pillipede's... 'face.'

"... Fluttershy, you have no idea where those things have been, do you." Cerana posed her words like a question, but she was hardly asking Fluttershy. She knew the pony didn't– and she knew Fluttershy wasn't listening. The Changeling's dumbfounded staring wouldn't last long though, as the owner of said Pillipede took notice. This Changeling was an oddball– long, straight mane of the darkest violet and glittering bulbs of yellow for eyes. More importantly, she was not pleased.

Already, the slaver was stomping her own way toward Cerana.

"Sister Cerana..." she began, keeping her tone measured despite her clear annoyance. "Your Broodwife there appears to be getting chummy with my Pillipede...?"

Cerana slumped.

"Of all the fuckin' Lings, it had to be Trigona..."

Trigona gave the odd Broodwife another glance, making it quite clear the particular assets she was more curious about. Quickly, her head snapped back to Cerana "are you looking to make a trade? That bimbo's stacked– and if she already likes getting mounted by Pillipedes and Greenbands, you know I'll trade three for the one."

Cerana cupped her face with a palm, knowing that this could no longer possibly end well. Trigona was an oddity herself– even among Changeling kind.

"Ever the collector huh, Trigona? No, that bombshell isn't for trade and, as far as I know, she isn't infected with Leucochloridium. Yet." Cerana rubbed her chin, flexing an eyebrow. "Does seem to have a soft spot for the big & dumb, though..."

Trigona hissed under her breath, a common sign of displeasure among Changelings, but Cerana kept the bug's face focused on her own. Fluttershy was beginning to climb atop the unbothered Pillipede, and both fellow Drones and Broodwives alike began to watch from afar. This could turn bad, and fast.

"Keeping her all for yourself? Bah! Some Changeling, Sister Cerana. I can hardly blame you though–" Trigona began wriggling in the light clutch Cerana held her cheeks in " –that one is a beauty among beauties, and– will you let me go?"

Those dull, blue eyes of hers darted about the immediate scene– Cerana's mind already turning with the beginnings of a plan. The Changeling was never all that good with following directions. Not how the director wanted, anyway. Ignoring Trigona, who was now grunting in her grip, all Cerana needed was to see that plump yellow butt fish a fellow Broodwife up onto the Pillipede's back– to drum up a great idea.

"Hah! Yeah, Tri– somethin' like that..."

"... Say, you're gonna really hate me for this– but I'll make it up to you when we're storming Canterlot, yeah?"

Trigona was outright flailing against Cerana now, the impromptu Cicada ignoring every weak slap to her busty black tits.

"W-what are you– Sister Cerana!?"

The bug didn't waste a single second more– Fluttershy had managed to draw a host of watching eyes with her antics, but she'd managed to secure both a means of escape, transport, and a bitch to breed while on the road. Tactless, Cerana shoved her 'collector' sister to the floor, buzzing up atop the Pillipede herself with a mere jump & buzz of her wings.

"Throw off the bags, Broodmares! We're ridin' this Pillipede all the way to Hive Main!"

Fluttershy yipped, scooching up against her newfound friend as Cerana's extra weight spooked the Pillipede something fierce. Seven pairs of spindly legs began to scurry, already outpacing Trigona in the crowd before she could even pick herself up some the slimy mess of the Hivesprawl floor.

"S-sister Cerana, you greedy slut! I knew that bitch liked bug dick!" Trigona cried out. Honestly, pursuing the escaping Changeling would hardly be a problem– but it'd ensure that the bug's shop would be picked clean of its every valuable upon her return, too. Scurrying back to her own hovel, tucked within a living crevice of the Hivesprawl artery, Trigona called out amongst the clammer of a hundred Changelings swarming the main way "You better pay me back, Sister!!!"

"Queen's balls, Trigona has good fucking taste in Broodsluts...~" Cerana cooed out, her palm riding the back of the Equine's head as she guided the mare in long arching strokes up and down her cock.

"S-she, uhm, just wanted to ride on the Pillipede too, Miss Cerana..."

Cerana sighed contentedly "yeah well, she'll be more than happy to ride on me too. Right hon?" The Changeling gave the mare fellating her black buggy cock a dopey smile. A wet, muffled "mhm!" from below seemed to prove her right.

Fluttershy kept her eyes– hell, her entire body, turned away entirely from the two in their act. Shy had just wanted to feel the big bug's armor, and one of Trigona's Broodwives had shared the sentiment. Now that the mare thought about it though, what with those odd, stubby stalks sprouted from the other pony's mane– maybe the Broodwife was looking for a different sort of feeling with the Burden Bug. The thought made Fluttershy a bit queasy.

"Well, ngh, you made the right call, Shy. This bitch is fucking fantastic and– ah... I-if I don't get to fuck you, I need something to wet my dick on. No time for sleep when I got a special delivery for the Queen herself, right?"

If Cerana's intent was to make Fluttershy feel better about the situation: It wasn't working. As far as she was concerned, she'd been complicit in yet another affront against her species: Unintentionally serving the Broodmare’s body on a silver plate for Cerana. Worse yet, it was another mare Fluttershy at least somewhat recognized– Blossomforth. Just like Lily and the other mares of their former home, she was just as eager to serve her current Changeling like all the rest.

Fluttershy bunched her knees up into her chest, merely sitting atop the skittering Pillipede no longer bringing the comfort it had before. With only the constant sloppy ‘glrks’ of Blossomforth to be heard; Fluttershy had to once again meditate on her situation, watching the gross walls of the Hivesprawl shift and squirm.

‘I didn’t even push their hands away. I just… froze up.'

‘Part of me…’

Fluttershy didn’t let herself think the rest of that thought– though she knew exactly where it’d been heading. Even now, she still felt that lingering stick of Changeling spit coating her plump asshole. Try as she might when Cerana wasn’t looking to wipe the remaining goop away– the act only stimulated hot pinpricks of sensation, some little part of Fluttershy’s mind increasingly growing in volume, telling her not to wipe the stuff off of her ponut– but to instead stick a finger or two within.

Now down in the Hive itself, Fluttershy’s desire was only getting worse. That fog, she’d come to discover, was far more than just excess moisture in the air.

Gently, Cerana pulled at Shy’s tail to get her attention. “Y’know, I really, truly, don’t understand you prude ponies. Blossomforth is, mhng– l-loving her treatment right now; but I’m sure she was just as cold as you when we first captured her.” Cerana could feel by how her dick moved with Blossomforth’s head that the mare was saying ‘no.’ For the sake of her words, the Changeling ignored it (but made sure to pet the pegasi’s mane in approval).

Well– how was Fluttershy supposed to respond to that? What could she have said? The mare still knew next to nothing about the Changelings, aside from their penchant for capturing innocent ponies and making them do all sorts of unmentionables– hell, things Fluttershy equally couldn't understand. Just why on earth would even the foulest of Changelings want a pony, or anything for that matter, to lick at her... butt!?

Of course, therein lied the problem. Fluttershy couldn't understand. Even the personal panics and horror she'd faced thus far had been dulled to some capacity by her own ignorance, her own innocence.

Cerana sighed once more, noting Fluttershy's quiet streak. "Bah. A shame I can't stick around until the Queen herself has broken you in. I guess you can't really help it, being in your state." The Changeling let her upper body fall back completely along the segmented shell of the Pillipede, drawing idle little circles upon it as her ever so lovely orgasm got to work, her cocktip blooming out within Blossomforth's throat to dump both seed and eggs alike. "Fffuck me...~ Not a bad ride on this big ol' thing, I gotta say!" Cerana gave the Burden Bug's shell a few heartfelt whacks "big guy's got us nearly at the Hive Main in a record pace! Shows what those Cicada Drones know– they shoulda been doin' it like us since the beginning."

... Cerana cared little about how the hulking Pillipede tossed aside the Changelings in his way down below, a chorus of insults having become a continuous echo in their stead for hours now.

Even with Cerana's attempt of... something resembling small talk, Fluttershy felt herself not in the mood to fire back. Innocent as she was, the pegasus was anything but stupid– but even the dullest of Equestrians would be able to see just how deep Shy had dug herself. There'd be no friends mounting a desperate rescue mission here– no longshot stroke of magical miracle to simply *poof* her back into the safe clutches of Canterlot. Those days of Equestrian luck were long gone. Now, Fluttershy was a prisoner down so deep in her jail that she'd not even needed chains. Her prison was all-surrounding, and alive, at that.

Nervous blue eyes peeled up from the safety of folded arms that clutched her knees in tight. Fluttershy's only remaining hope would be the wager that had convinced her to step beyond the shield bubble in the first place.

And even then, she'd still not be free.

While on her shared trip, Fluttershy had found the contemplative hours alone with her thoughts that she'd been dreading– having no choice but to face the reality of her feelings and the scenes that played on repeat in her head. All of this to the tune of Cerana switching positions with her current Broodmare of choice, forced to listen to every wet thwap and strained cry for more from Blossomforth, the poor mare on the verge of losing her voice.

Whatever distance she'd traveled couldn't be certain– nor the time, as not even Celestia's sun nor Luna's moon were given any respect down so deep in the Hivesprawl. Huffing that poisoned air for breath, tinged with the foulest mixture of sweat, sex, pheromone, and whatever ambient bug-stink just so happened to comingle with the rest– Fluttershy found herself fighting to repress those lewd scenes in her mind less and less, now simply watching as a spectator.

The euphoria splayed out in a drunken mess across Lily's face, before her vision was blotted out by the clenching swan eggs seeding her throat.

The giddy kisses, Broodwives reduced to schoolfillies who knew they were doing something they weren't supposed to, swallowing down inches of Changeling tongue before willingly sinking to their knees themselves for their own tonguework.

Blossomforth's inability to decide whether or not she was Cerana's personal cheerleader or most devoted worshipper, unable to control her drooling as Cerana lovingly gripped up a palmful of her mane– pounding into her needy pony ass like a jackhammer.

And her own excitement, marred with so much fear and so much anticipation, nearly putty in Cerana and her goons' hands as the she-stud laid that brutal slab of dark dick down between her cheeks.

" *Gasp!* "

Once more, Fluttershy felt her lower lips slip with the slick of wetness. She wasn't even at the Hive Main yet, and the mare was already beginning to crack.

Just what might happen when she is thrown before the Queen herself?

Author's Note

So– if it wasn't obvious, I went with the tease & worldbuilding route. I'm not super thrilled with how the descriptions have turned out thus far though, I must say. There's a specific look I'm trying to nail, but I'm just not sure if what I'm seeing in my head is what's getting onto the page. I'd offer actual visuals of just what I'm referring to, but to my knowledge, such things don't really exist. If you've ever seen the sort of animated tentacle porn that takes place in a wet, fleshy cave though– that's exactly it. I'd link some examples, but I'm not sure that's allowed– so I'll hold off. If this story is the sort of thing you're into though, I'm sure you know just where to find it though, perv~

Anyways, I think I'm looking to finally cut through the bullshit at the beginning of the next scene and hit the ground running. All the marveling at the inside of the Hive Main can wait– Shy's gotta meet her new Queen.

Hope you're enjoying! I'm sorry again if this has primarily been just a lot of build up so far– I know I said I'm a big fan of such things & I am, but even I'm starting to think I spent too much time fixated on setup and not the important bits– like Changeling sex!

EDIT: Special thanks to Nameless Goat for pointing out a pretty major typo! Not quite sure how I missed that... but it should be fixed now!