After leaving the hyperspace, I stopped the ship just outside the restricted zone that surrounded the space station, waiting for Flight Control to contact us.

Shortly after, we were pinged, and I opened the voice communication unit via a small crystal next to my flight console.

"This is Lazarus Flight Control. You are about to enter a restricted traffic zone. State your intention."

I tapped the crystal again, allowing it to carry my voice. "Black One returning from mission. Sending code, please stand by." I channelled some magic into another crystal next to the communication one, sending them my unique magic signature to confirm my identity.

Discontent, I noted that it took a minute for the response to arrive. "Welcome home, Black One. You are clear for landing."

"Thank you, Lazarus. Black One out." With clearance to proceed, I pushed the accelerator forward, entering the final stretch of our journey home. A few more minutes later, the space station slowly came into view, the sight of it always bringing a smile to my face. It felt good to be home again, and I couldn't wait to feed on genuine love again; the watered down rations we had on us, no substitute for the real thing.

Lazarus Station was one of the largest Equestrian Navy shipyards, built in orbit of an uninhabitable ice planet and always bustling with activity, with more than a hundred thousand Equestrians living on it. The station itself had the typical cylindrical shape of many stations out there. What set it apart was the massive ring around it, the drydock, where ships were constantly repaired or built from scratch. Massive Magic Accelerators, weapons capable of firing magic at enormous ranges with devastating destructive power, were placed around this ring, providing security from any would-be attackers.

As we closed in on our hangar, a sense of unease settled over us - something felt off. The reason for it became painfully clear as we rounded the station. "By the Queens, what happened here?" I gasped, my jaw hanging open in sheer shock as I tried to comprehend the sight before us. The Celestial Hammer, Grand Admiral Celestia's personal ship, was slowly being guided into the dry dock by a few smaller vessels. The damage she had sustained was staggering, the usually bright sun core now only faintly glowing, and large holes marred her once-pristine white hull. It was a miracle she had made it back here in one piece.

"What could have possibly caused this much damage to one of the biggest ships the Navy has deployed?" I asked, not expecting an answer. My subordinate changelings shook their heads in unison, their shock about this revelation as clear on their faces as it was on mine.

We were quickly approaching our destination, so I ordered them back to their seats and prepared for landing. They vanished into the crew compartment without objection, and I made the last adjustments for our arrival.

I tapped another communication crystal, which directly connected me with our command centre. "Initiating automatic guidance." There was no need for the useless protocol that the ponies liked so much; the changelings in our command centre could feel my presence already.

"Everything is prepared, your Highness. The landing platform is clear, and the guidance system shows green," they immediately answered.

I relaxed in my seat, letting the automated docking system take over and waited for our transport to pass through the white shield that kept the air inside and set down smoothly inside the hangar. After shutting down the ship's core, we exited through the loading ramp and set hoof on our home station for the first time in weeks. The buzzing of wings and clanking of tools were a pleasant reminder that every changeling was hard at work.

I spread my wings, lifted myself into the air momentarily, and stretched every leg before continuing onward. 'First order of business, meeting with the Queen. She needs my mission report and I should inform her about the 'Hammer'.

The station was divided into different sections, the largest being the civilian area, with homes and shops for everyone on board. The section of the station I was in right now was dedicated to us changelings - two large hangars with space for four transport ships each. These ships were the closest thing we had to something ponies were allowed to see, our other ships being highly classified and strictly off-limits for them. Our standing cooperation agreement with the ponies forbade them from even asking about our technology.

The most secure room and closely kept secret, the Trans Hive Communicator or THC, was located right behind the hangar. It used our emotional connection to allow instantaneous communication between our outposts. Only the ruling royal of an outpost was allowed to initiate communications to give status updates to the Queen. Swiftly moving towards the pedestal near the middle, I activated the device with a flick of my horn, allowing it to go through its start-up sequence.

I bowed as the image of Chrysalis appeared in the centre of the room, spreading my wings as a show of complete loyalty to her. "My Queen, it's an honour to be in your presence again," I said, my voice filled with reverence.

"Rise, Storm Shadow." I did as commanded and our eyes met for a split second. I got lost in her green-slitted eyes before averting my gaze to avoid offending her. If I were any other changeling, she would have killed me for the audacity to look her directly in the eyes. Fortunately, I was a changeling prince and nearly her social equal.

It also helped that I sired over three thousand eggs with her and would do so again if she asked me to, giving me more room for mistakes than others would get. I knew she held me in high regards, and that trust in me was something I would never betray. My status even allowed me to keep drones, capable of egg laying, around to replenish our numbers if need be, but I never saw a reason to do so, the constant influx of changelings moving here was enough to keep our numbers stable. "What do you have to report?" She asked after the brief pause.

"My Queen, our latest mission was a success; however, one of my drones sustained minor injuries. She was healed in a cocoon before we left," I said, hoping she would not take offence at the minor incident.

"How is your love storage doing?" she asked, her tone thankfully still neutral. "A healing cocoon can be taxing on your reserves."

"We are still doing well, My Queen. The amount of love we are gathering could sustain our changeling population twice over, but I don't want to strain the good relations with the ponies by increasing our numbers for no reason."

Chrysalis looked like she was thinking about something, her eyes subtly shifting from left to right. She returned her gaze to me a moment later. "Have you found love yourself yet?"

I blinked for a moment, confused by that sudden shift in topic. She had asked that before, and if I didn't know any better, she would have sounded concerned about my well-being. I knew better, though; I was expendable and replaceable, like any other changelings. Only the Queen mattered, and she would never worry about any of us. We simply followed her orders and were happy to do so. Her asking was a way to secure our love supplies and nothing more. "No, My Queen, my personality doesn't resonate well with ponies."

She gave me a fang-filled smirk. "You are my best warrior and infiltrator; the ponies are too soft to appreciate your skills." She relaxed her expression, returning back to her stoic self. "Now, is there anything more to report?"

"Yes, My Queen. When we arrived back home, we saw the Celestial Hammer being towed into the dry dock. We don't-"

She lifted a hoof and interrupted my attempt to explain. "I'm already aware of that situation. There was a fight against a Machine Dreadnought. The 'Hammer' and ‘Harmony’ sustained substantial damage during that fight. You will get new orders from the ponies soon. For now, enjoy some downtime; you earned it."

"Thank you, My Queen." I bowed again, and her image vanished. 'All this talk about finding a mate again... I'm a warrior and don't need a pony to hold me back!' Thinking about it for a moment made me remember how happy my changelings were when they found their own mate. 'What if I hide my true personality and act like a normal pony?' The thought of lying to a possible partner didn't sit right with me; I’d rather spend the rest of my extended lifetime alone.

A massive wave of magic energy ripped me out of my thoughts. The source of it was getting closer and closer, and I could already feel the temperature of the room rising. There was only one pony that could cause this. As soon as I exited the THC, the face of Grand Admiral Celestia greeted me. Saying she looked angry was an understatement, her multi-coloured mane billowing in an unfelt breeze. While she could mask her emotions, her expression was filled with rage, and the changelings escorting her stood as far away as possible so as not to give her any reason to be offended.

Most of her body was covered in bandages, her usually white coat marred with scorch marks and an eyepatch covering one of her eyes, some of her blood still clinging to it. A large cut, starting and ending just short of it, clearly marked the loss of said eye.

I stood at attention and saluted her. Our treaty with Equestria gave her some authority over us as long as it didn't affect the hive. "Ma'am, what brings you to our little corner of this station?"

"Are you Storm Shadow?" Her expression turned blank, and all her rage vanished in an instant.

'That is the stupidest question I have ever heard.' I was the only royal changeling on this station, and my status was obvious to anyone. Her ignorance about our race only made me mad. "Yes, Ma'am," I answered, suppressing my feelings.

"I want your changelings to perform around-the-clock sweeps of the area. My ship will be here for a while, and you will make sure the supply ships stay safe."

I had to suppress a smirk. Leave it to the Queen to know what was about to happen before anypony else did; my new mission had already arrived. Without the words of the Queen, I would have refused Celestia's demands and thrown her out immediately for the audacity to order us around. "As you wish, Ma'am, I will coordinate the efforts as soon as possible."

"The first ships will arrive in a few weeks. Make sure everything is ready by then." She turned around and left without giving me a chance to say anything more to her. It was no secret that Celestia disliked and distrusted changelings. Why she still held a grudge after almost two thousand years was a mystery to me, but there was nothing I could do about it. The assassination of one of her students was still heavy on her heart.

Setting up infiltration and scouting missions around this area would only take me a few minutes. All my changelings were perfectly capable of taking care of things on their own, giving me enough time to relax a little for once. 'Good, next up is getting some food, the healing cocoon really took it out of me.'

The room I headed to next was the love storage. It was the last area of the changeling section, and it was almost as secure as the THC room. Our housing units were in the same area as the ponies, and we made do with our single meeting room. After all, proper integration into the station's population was in our best interest. There was another room for us, but it was empty for now. It would be the hatchery if we ever needed it and would be even better secured than any other room once it was in use.

Approaching the love storage, two guards stood at the door, giving me a quick bow as I moved past them. The first thing anypony would notice were the massive tanks with pink glowing liquid inside. The storage held five of them, all filled up to the limit. I encouraged my changelings to use as much love as possible and not hold back, but we still gathered too much. This was a common problem for most outposts, as there was no need for dramatic expansion, and the ponies generally accepted our presence. My changelings outperformed any of them by a large margin.

It was hard to believe that our race was on the brink of starvation at some point. The years after the unification were especially hard on us. With no way of harvesting love discreetly and ponies unwilling to share freely, our numbers dwindled to less than a few hundred. That was the point where ponies started to take pity on us; seeing a starving changeling on the street was too much for them, and they started to open up to us. More and more stable pony-changeling relations formed, and after a few years, our race slowly recovered. Now, there are over two hundred million changelings spread around equestrian space, most of them in large hive-like groups living their lives doing mundane tasks amongst the ponies. Some of us formed smaller groups and worked on stations as infiltrators, like my changelings and me, and the rest lived in the main hive on Equus, serving the Queen directly.

I approached one of the large tanks. One of the love tenders, who had just looked up from his notes, approached me. "It's good to see you have returned, Your Highness. Did something happen, or are you here for a quick snack?"

"We had an injury, and I had to charge a cocoon," I responded. He made a quick note on the clipboard held in his green magic. While it was unnecessary to keep tabs on food consumption, I had ordered to keep it up in case we ran into any trouble.

I touched my horn to the container and fed. Nothing came close to the taste of pure love, and my reserves began to fill. We could consume all kinds of positive emotions, but love was by far the most filling, and we gathered a lot of it, allowing us to fill the storage with nothing but love. I leaned back again, savouring the taste for a moment longer, even letting out a little moan before opening my eyes. The level of love was noticeably lower now.

"Your Highness, I don't mean to offend, but you should look for a mate. While we can sustain your hunger now, your feeding requirements would drain our stores dry in less than a year if anything disrupts our harvest." I could tell he was concerned about my well-being. As a love tender, he was trained to be more compassionate towards others, allowing him to judge our future love supply more accurately.

"I'm aware of that…" 'I should try to date a pony again. The Queen is right; I would be happier.' With a sigh, I left the room and returned to my apartment.

Author's Note

Thanks again to Resu for helping with the editing.