It was no intense love, such as the Ponies knew at their most fortunate. There was friendship, but not friendship against all others, for the first love and loyalty of any sane Changeling was to Queen and to Hive. There was a dim kind of lust, and occasional mating, but there were no romantic meetings, shy courtships, special somelings or anything like marriages: for all but the smartest of Changelings, sexuality within the Hive was starkly reproductive, rather than sentimental. The love was vague and tasteless to her empathy, which was proper since Changelings could not feed off the love of one another. And the minds behind that love were, to Ceymi's brilliant brain, but dim and flighty ones, useless for any serious conversations, such as Starry Eyes had enjoyed, with Thermal Soar and a few other Ponies. (Chapter 5)
