“Ohhh, I can’t wait. Do you think they’ll let us have samples?” Pinkie drooled happily as she bounced alongside the rest of her friends.

Applejack rolled her eyes. “Don’t be rude and ask them something like that right out of the gate. Besides, the mares working the honey stand seem friendly enough, they’ll probably have something prepared. Or at least Ah’d hope so.” She gave the massive complex sitting in the middle of the sprawling fields of flowers a dubious look. “Don’t rightly know why someone would need a big factory like that just to make honey. Feels too much like one of them FlimFlam brothers’ schemes if y’all ask me.”

“Well, they do have quite a lot of different products. And I don’t know how much goes just into producing the raw honey itself. Just think of that big conveyor belt Cherry Jubilee had just to sort her cherries.” Rarity stepped to the side to take a whiff of yet another new type of flowers lining the path, humming in appreciation.

“Ah guess we’ll see.” Applejack huffed, before licking her lips. She couldn’t deny that the new honey brand was in a class of its own, so she really did hope that there didn’t turn out to be some kind of catch to it. The mares who had started setting up their stall in the Ponyville market a few weeks ago certainly didn’t seem shady, happily selling and gossiping with ponies and not being too aggressive with their sales. Not that they really needed to be, with how popular their product had turned out to be.

She blinked, realizing that while she’d been reminiscing, their group had made it all the way to the front gates of the factory. Twilight held up her letter to the bored looking guardspony and they were waved through without any questions, something that certainly wouldn’t have happened in any operation run by the infamous pair of huckster brothers she seemed to keep running into.

As they came closer to the large main building, a smaller door opened not far from the large gates that probably held the loading bay. A tall earth pony mare with a rich amber coat and a yellow and black mane stepped out and waved excitedly at them. “Ah, Princess Twilight and her friends! Welcome, welcome everypony. Thank you all for coming.”

“Thank you for inviting us.” Twilight smiled, leading the group towards the mare. “To be honest, I didn’t expect an invitation to a tour of a honey factory, much less that you’d send one to each of my friends as well. I certainly appreciate it, though, all of us are big fans of your product.”

“Oh, yes, well, we were originally just looking into proposing some small business deals to Sweet Apple Acres, Sugarcube Corner and Carousel Boutique. But when we realized who was likely to be sent to discuss those, we couldn’t just not invite you as well, Your Highness. And well, leaving out the last two of your friends from the invitations just seemed rude at that point.” She giggled. “Oh, but don’t let me ramble on out here, come on in, come on in! We’ve set up a small snack table for you all in case you’re hungry before the tour.”

The group followed the mare through the door into a bee-themed reception area. Applejack gasped as she saw the small buffet, although not as much as Pinkie Pie did. There were enough honeycombs, honey cakes and honey glazed flowers to feed a small Apple family reunion, and that was before you considered the actual honey fountain everything was set up around.

“Wow, that looks- PINKIE!” Twilight yelped when Pinkie galloped past her and jumped into the fountain, disappearing into the honey for a few seconds before popping back out right underneath one of the fountain spouts, mouth already open.

“Pinkamena Diane Pie! Do you have no sense of composure at all!” Rarity was bright red as she stomped after her friend to berate her and hopefully pull her out of the fountain before the mare’s pink mane was completely soaked beyond help.

“Oh please, don’t trouble yourself for such a silly little thing.” The mare giggled again, waving off. “We have more than enough honey to go around, and I always do enjoy seeing someone so excited about our product. Please, take as much as you want, we can move on to the tour whenever you are ready.”

“Well, if you’re sure, Miss…” Twilight paused in the process of taking a bite of a honeycomb. “My apologies, I don’t think I caught your name?”

“Oh dear, did I forget to introduce myself?! I’m so sorry!” The mare did a curtsy. “Radiant Amber, CEO and owner of the Amber Drop Honey Brand. But that’s a bit of a mouthful, my friends simply call me Honeybee.” She giggled again at what was probably a bit of an inside joke. Or perhaps not as much of an inside joke, Applejack thought as she looked around the honey-themed buffet in the honey-themed room of the honey factory. She chuckled quietly as she took a bite of the honey cake she’d grabbed, before gasping softly as the cake turned out to be filled with more honey that ended up gushing into her mouth and dripping down her chin.

Honeybee winced a little at the sight. “Ah, it’s a bit of a mess, isn’t it? Don’t worry about the floor, it’s certainly no stranger to honey, but I swear we had some napkins and wet wipes. Let me just… go see if I can find them.” The mare looked around in mildly annoyed confusion before turning around to head through a door behind the reception desk, her voice calling for assistance cut off as the door closed behind her.

Applejack chuckled and shook her head before licking the worst of the mess off her hoof, then turning back to the buffet to try a few of the honeyed flowers which seemed to be fresh from the fields outside. Rarity had given up on trying to get Pinkie Pie out of the fountain and had instead found a platter of fruits on sticks, her and Twilight holding them under one of the honey spouts not occupied by Pinkie. Rainbow was stuffing her face with cakes while Fluttershy was quietly but happily sucking on a honeycomb.

Grabbing another honeycomb and one of the fruit kebabs to swish through the fountain, Applejack wondered how much honey they were making at this place that something like this didn’t even register in their books. The Apple family certainly wasn’t shy about putting out regular feasts, but she’d assumed that an apple orchard gave out somewhat more product than a honey… factory? Hive? Whatever you called it. More importantly, she wondered how they could produce this much honey without compromising on quality at all. Quite the opposite, where with any other honey she’d tried she probably would have gotten rather tired of the sweetness by now, this Amber Drop honey was so good that even Twilight and Rainbow Dash couldn’t seem to help themselves from helping themselves to another treat as soon as they finished the last. Applejack realized that she herself had lost track of how much honey she’d ingested by now, and had at some point stopped eating the fruit of the kebab sticks to just lick the honey off them and drag them through the fountain once more.

“Sorry for the wait! I hope you didn’t get too sick of honey while I was gone.”

Applejack blinked and stumbled back a little, finding Miss Honeybee’s smiling face suddenly right in front of her again. She made to give some kind of denial against the mare having to apologize, or against the idea of getting sick of honey somehow, but between her words getting jumbled up and her mouth still busy licking honey off her hoof, it came out as little more than an indistinct mumble.

Miss Honeybee didn’t seem to mind though, and instead produced a cup holder from behind her back, moving nimbly past them across the sticky floor to dip the cups into the fountain. Before any of them had even fully processed her arrival, they were each holding a large covered cup full of honey with a big straw.

“Wonderful! Are you all excited to see our amazing honey factory, then?” The mare stood in front of them again with a bright smile.

Applejack blinked and opened her mouth, then closed it again and nodded slowly, still trying to catch up to everything that was happening. She definitely liked honey and something amazing sounded amazing, but her thoughts felt too slow and sticky to really figure out how to be as excited as Miss Honeybee looked.

The mare didn’t seem to notice the mumbled answers and dazed looks on her guests’ faces, instead happily turning around to lead them towards a door with a cheerful “Follow me, everypony!” Applejack blinked and slowly started forward until she was following at a steady clip with the rest of her friends, absentmindedly bringing the straw of her cup up to her mouth to take some sips between steps.

The group stepped through the door and into a large production hall. Huge machines were stirring honey in massive vats that seemed to be made of solid beeswax, while others were dipping in and out of low basins, lifting up sheets of honey like taffy. Miss Honeybee was talking at the front of the group, pointing left and right and explaining the various machines, but Applejack couldn’t remember a single word she’d said.

A loud slurping sound echoed over the sound of the machines as Pinkie’s cup ran dry, and Applejack found her own cup only a few seconds behind. She started looking around, ignoring their guide as she tried to find some place to refill before freezing in place as a sweet, mesmerizing scent reached her.

She moved forward without a second though, noses twitching as the whole group walked right past Miss Honeybee to instead follow the enticing scent. They only had to turn a corner and walk a bit more until they found the source, a series of tubes all running down a wall to a conveyor belt. Where the honey they’d tried so far had been a rich, amber color, this one was a pure golden color that seemed to glow inside the glass tubes. The conveyor belt was turned off and the tubes turned away from the belt but not closed, leaving a single large, golden drop at the end of each tube facing towards them, covered in a thin layer of hardened honey.

“Oh, you found our little secret.” Honeybee giggled as she watched the ponies slowly shuffle closer and closer to the tubes, eyes locked onto the shimmering golden drops of sweetness. “You may have heard of Royal Jelly. That is… something similar, altered and tweaked specifically for pony consumption and… well.”

None of her guests paid her any mind, simply moving forward until they were each right in front of a tube. One by one they slowly leaned forward to suck the drop away, and each of them moaned and nearly collapsed in pleasure as the honey covered their tastebuds.

Honeybee smiled and slowly moved around the conveyor, golden flames melting her form away like soft wax. None of the ponies paid her any mind as she stopped right in front of them, now clad in chitin with a soft, thick yellow and black fuzz covering her main body, a pair of long antennae standing up on each side of her horn.

“I’d be happy to let you have more. If only you agree to do me a little favor as well. I’m sure you would do anything for more honey, wouldn’t you?” The fuzzy yellow feelers at the end of her antenna lit up with magic, a soft buzzing going out from them that grabbed the ponies’ attention from where they had been trying to get another drop out of the tubes. All six stared at her dumbly for several moments before slowly nodding one by one, mumbling their agreements.

“That’s what I like to hear. And as a reward, you will get all the honey your hearts desire~” She grinned and her feelers lit up brighter, the buzzing getting louder. There was a loud clunk from somewhere above them and the glowing golden honey inside the tubes began to move, gushing over the ponies’ faces before they each eagerly moved forward to latch onto the tubes, moaning and suckling.

Queen Amber watched with a smile as the ponies filled up with her special royal jelly, their pupils gradually changing color until they were a solid gold. By the time she finally shut off the supply again, each pony had a visibly full stomach, yet they were still whining as they licked the last bits off the tubes and then started trying to lick it out of their fur as well. The queen ignored their efforts beyond a small chuckle as she moved around them again, stopping behind the alicorn. A small drop of golden honey dropped right in front of the princess’ eyes made her lean down to lap it up, raising her flanks in the process, and Queen Amber eagerly stepped forward, a large golden cock growing between her legs and pushing into the pony as she mounted the princess. Twilight gasped and moaned in pleasure with each buck of the queen’s hips, but barely even noticed the source, mind instead still trapped in the sweet golden embrace of the honey she was licking off her hooves now.

Queen Amber made one final push forward and moaned, her cock throbbing as it delivered a number of glowing amber eggs into the convenient store of royal jelly the princess had so thoughtfully prepared. Where before Twilight’s stomach had been visibly filled with honey, now it was nearly touching the ground, full of eggs and the jelly they’d need to grow. The queen gave it a light rub before moving on, one by one giving her attention to each of the ponies and filling them with eggs before she finally moved around in front of them again.

“Your attention, please.” Queen Amber’s feelers lit up again and this time the ponies froze instantly, abandoning their antics to all stare right at her with golden eyes. “Wonderful. Now it’s time for your part of the bargain. If you’re all good drones and don’t resist, you’ll get all the honey you could want.”

The ponies shuddered happily at that thought, smiling and drooling as a low buzzing slowly got louder and louder. None of them reacted when a dozen pony-sized and pony-shaped bees flew into the hall and gathered above them, and none of them resisted when the bees lifted them up by their shoulders to carry them upwards, their queen following behind.

Applejack’s mind was covered in a thick, wonderfully golden layer of sticky sweetness, drowning out anything else she might have been thinking about. Her tail twitched slightly as she was carried towards a set of small hidden vats of dark amber, almost oaken honey and slowly lowered into one of them. As she sank into the thick, heavy syrup up to her shoulders, she felt something slipped into her ears, a small bud each with an attachment that wrapped snugly around her ear to secure it before stretching upwards, each settling into place right before the honey rose over it and covered them. A soft buzzing filled her ears, growing louder as every other sound was swallowed by the thick syrup. She opened her mouth to let her last breath escape, not worried about air as the syrup flooded into her mouth and nose and every other opening, cradling her and filling her and wrapping around every inch of her while supplying her with everything she needed while the buzzing and the honey drowned her mind as surely as the syrup covered her body.

~~~~~

Queen Amber smiled as she watched the last of the syrup be drained away, now devoid of magic. It had taken a lot of magic to create and even more than that to tweak it to perfection in the first place, but now it was as close as possible to turning a pony into a member of her hive without actually achieving a sorcerer’s ultimate and quite probably impossible goal of permanent transmutation.

As soon as the vats were properly drained, the sides of them swung open on hidden hinges, revealing her newest drones. Each of them looked as close to identical as was possible with their natural differences, covered in shiny skintight wax-based rubber that formed yellow and black stripes. Their cutie marks had turned into a simple black single-piece representation of their old selves trapped inside a drop of amber. The two pegasi and one alicorn had yellow wings while the other three had large transparent bug wings made of the same material as their suits. Their manes and tails were hidden inside a sleek and straight octogonal layer of black rubber-wax. Most eye-catching however were their faces, covered in perfectly identical drone masks with amber lenses, a pair of antennae rising up from behind their ears and bouncing faintly, designed specifically to catch the signals from their queen no matter where and transmit them right to the little earbuds inside their ears.

“Drones. Step forward and stand at attention for your Queen.” She lit her feelers to transmit the orders magically as well. The six former ponies straightened up immediately, stepping forward out of the vat and flying down until they were standing lined up in front of her. “Very good. Tell me what you are.”

“We are Queen Amber’s obedient drones.”

Their synchronized answer would have been near intelligible to a normal pony due to the way their masks turned their words into near incomprehensible buzzing, but to Queen Amber and her hive it was clear as day and thanks to their antenna it reached their ears that way as well.

“Very good. But we still have one more thing to test out.” Her feelers lit up one more time as she concentrated on sending the order, making sure to leave no room for misunderstandings. One by one the drones’ feelers lit up and their bodies started to melt. But instead of melting away, they seemed to produce more and more wax, a thick layer of yellow amber covering them completely before tightening more and more, until the yellow color began to change and shift. Within moments, six regular ponies stood in front of her, no trace left of their masks and suits or even the eggs and jelly stored inside them. The only visible difference were the deep amber pupils that stared blankly ahead, focused on her, but after a few more seconds even those shifted to their natural colors as the buzzing in their ears filled their minds with new orders from their queen.

~~~~~

“Well shucks, Miss Honeybee, ya didn’t have to load it up like that. Ah ain’t even signed anythin’ yet.”

Honeyjack gave ~~Queen Amber~~ Miss Honeybee a guileless, slightly embarrassed smile, settling further into her role with each word.

“Nonsense, dear, just think of it as a gesture of good faith. I’m sure you’ll have your family’s agreement to our little contract in no time.”

“Well, if ya insist…” Honeyjack turned around and hitched herself to the cart piled high with jars of honey. Looking around, she saw Pinkbee Pie already hitched to a similar cart for Sugarcube Corner, and slowly getting into the groove of her own role as she talked faster and faster at Bumbleshy, while Rainbuzz Dash pretended to complain as she was hooked to a cart filled with slabs of high-quality beeswax by ‘Poilight and Raribee. Her ~~fellow drones~~ friends were all in their disguises and acting more and more naturally by the minute, and would probably be perfectly innocuous before they even reached the edge of the flower fields.

“I do insist. Share the honey with your friends and family and sell it to everypony else in that town of yours and I’ll be more than happy.” Their ~~Queen’s~~ new business partner’s smile turned sharp for a second before it was bright and cheerful again. “Oh, and before I forget!” She pulled out a stack of envelopes and divided them up between the six. “Here, have some more invitations for my factory. I’m sure you’ll find some ponies who will appreciate them.”

Honeyjack took her share of the envelopes with a smile, making a low buzz in the back of her throat to signal that she’d understood the hidden order to hand them to any ponies who they deemed suitably ~~addicted to their hive’s honey~~ enamored with Amber Drop Honey products. And of course, it was an addition to their original unspoken mission, to spread Amber Drop Honey to as many ponies as possible.

She smiled as she pulled the cart through the main gates, indulging in inane chatter with her fellow drones to solidify their roles while her mind droned with a constant low buzz. It would take time, but they were not recklessly impatient like that fool Chrysalis. They had as much time as they had honey, and that was quite a lot. And whether it would take weeks, or months, or even years…

In the end, their hive would bee victorious.

Author's Note

There were considerably fewer bee puns in this than I expected, to be honest.

Tomorrow will probably be a short one again. It definitely will be compared to this one, either way.