The Pile

Mai smiles and gives over a new dress gown for Taylor to wear, as well as her jacket, though it looks to have been worked on a bit, being larger and more suited to her new frame. Zula then held up their eggs. "We have a feast prepared right in the throne room for you. Let's get you all fed sweetie."

Taylor smiled and nodded slipping into the red and black dress before slipping into her jacket happy to see that she had many more places to put new pins from here on out. Once fully dressed she then reached over taking the twin eggs before nuzzling them gently and following the pair out to the feast. "They've gotten so BIG! I'm so proud our first two little ones will do so much good for the hive when they've grown."

Mai nods and smiles "They really are, I believe they got enough to become super majors, such giving mothers." She hugs Zula and Taylor as the strong smell of food wafted out. "And I think you need some more food yourself, sweetie."

Taylor couldn't help but chitter in excitement. Gently handling the eggs and moving them into Zula's arms before going into the feast room. Seeing all kinds of foods and moving into the line instinctively to get a plate and fill it to the brim with food. Mostly meats but still making sure to balance things out.

Zula having already eaten simply holds their eggs while smiling at Taylor. Mai gathers a smaller meal and takes her seat, just keeping an eye on the new queen. "Once you got down some of the things and have seen your babies come out of their eggs fully, then when you are ready we can have you go through a full breeding session. As a queen, you will be able to carry about 24 comfortably."

Taylor nodded excitedly before sitting down to the side of Mai and shoving the meal into her mouth. Happy to hear everyone talking and communicating with each other through the hivemind despite the fact the ants had been sitting quietly. Actually tearing up in joy from the experience happy to hear her name tossed around by people excited for her change.

Zula smiles and leans against Taylor, thinking at her 'Everyone has been abuzz with thoughts of you and your transition. Having a fresh queen is exciting, especially after the worry with Mai's advanced age.' Mai playfully gave Zula a look before shaking her head "The hive mind is another part of why your memories are clouded, it would be quite overwhelming." She sighs "We learned with the first transition. They were bedridden with migraines for a few weeks, since then we have focused on the clouding."

Taylor nodded before sighing and hugging Zula tightly. 'Sweetie don't make fun of mother!' She giggled a bit stomach now filled with food. "And I'm ok with it honestly. Yes, I would like to have clarity of those memories back eventually... but I do remember just how bad things were for me outside of our family and am just happy to get to meet more of it now that I've transitioned."

Mai smiled "I am so happy you came here, having Zula happy, and just having every extra person to help out takes so much weight off my shoulders, especially with you being able to become a queen. Like I said earlier, I do have some time left, but knowing that there is someone to take over when I pass helps me feel so much better."

Taylor smiled and hugged Mai tightly. "And I love you mom. I look forward to spending the rest of the time we have together learning everything I can from you. Then... whenever the time comes I promise I'll take care of everyone."

Mai smiles and a few tears drip from her eyes "Thank you, Taylor, thank you for joining our family." As dinner finished, several of the ants come up and congratulate Taylor on her change, a few of the workers coming around to hug her, gently cleaning a little food off of her before nuzzling the queen. After things clear out, only a few guards taking positions at the doors casually, Zula leans into Taylor with her own big smile "I love you, Taylor."

"I love you too." Taylor gently nuzzled and kissed Zula's cheek. "Now what do you say you introduce me to more of your friends finally." She put one hand on the eggs basket. "I'm sure they would love meeting the little ones up close."

Zula nodded "Alright! I gotta show you to Sami and Cathy!" She giggles a little more "They are other attendants that I worked with in the past more closely, They have gotten with others who have transitioned, though they have more free time since their partners do more general-purpose jobs in the hive."

Taylor nodded, giggling slightly in excitement. "Also I really understand the love of shinies now! Like I always loved my pin collection before but now they just make me super hehehe levels of happy!" She then hopped out of her seat picking her eggs up and then taking Zula's hand. "Let's go!"

Zula grins and leads the way, whatever confusion that Taylor once had for navigating these halls was cleared up as she could smell trails, almost naturally 'feeling' what went where as they progressed. Eventually, she would almost hear Zula 'Hey you two, I got someone to introduce!' and two happy feminine voices ringing back at her as she pushes a door open, leading to a simple living room looking area with a few couches and two other ant girls about Zula's size who rushed forward to hug the girl. "Hey, this is Taylor, she just transitioned to be our new young queen." The two excitedly start looking over Taylor "Hello there, it's nice to meet you!"

Taylor smiled softly before putting her eggs in front of her and smiling softly. "It's very nice to meet you too. These two are me and Zula's little eggs, and she's been very excited for me to meet you both." She did a little bow happy to be able to feel the pair's excitement around her.

The two giggled and gave their own bows back before cooing at the eggs "Ohhhh, are these your first? That is great! Oh, my name is Sami by the way." The other ant, a little quieter but still quite peppy "My name is Cathy, thank you for choosing to transition into being our new queen." She bows a little deeper "It really means a lot to all of us."

Taylor smiled at the pair. "And it means the worlds to us that you would want me to be a future queen." She then led the pair over to the couch before sitting down and petting her eggs. A bit oversized for the room but it was still clear that the rooms were all built with a queen's comfort in mind while visiting. "But they're me and Zula's first eggs, so I wanted to meet you two as people who would help get me full of eggs in a few weeks when they hatch."

The two giggle "We will do our best, and being able to help a queen reach a full clutch is exciting." The girls high-five each other while Zula smiles and shakes her head "You will find it easier to move around while full as a queen, even if you may still want to take it easy." She playfully swats Taylor's abdomen "This isn't just for show after all."

Taylor giggled rubbing it lightly while looking over the group. "Yeah I gotta admit I feel really light without any eggs in me, so having that weight back is gonna be so nice." She then pulled Zula over to sit down with her, pulling her partner into her lap before sighing in relief. "I'm glad you two are excited about the session. We are just waiting until the little ones hatch before we do it to make sure that everything is just right for them."

Sami nods "Yeah, while you could right now due to your transition, it's best to get in the habit now. Even with our developed lotions and all, it is best to wait for one clutch to hatch before going for another, gives the body, even a queens, time to rest and recover. While in a pinch anyone can have back-to-back clutches, the body quickly wears down and can lead to mothers in such situations bedridden for an extended time. Queens CAN bypass this by having half clutches, but they will be achy in the long run doing this, as well as producing less overall even if it can be good in the short term if the hive were to lose a large number."

"And I highly doubt mother would want me or any of us doing that without it being an emergency." Taylor sighed wrapping her arms around everyone and pulling them all against her sides. Chittering in excitement and enjoying the group's body warmth, happy to be learning more and more about her new home.

The girls all cuddle into her, seeming to be very at ease "Your pheromones for calming those around you are amazing Taylor, mix that with just how lovely your thoughts feel and I could just rest like this all night." Zula gently hugs Taylor while the other two giggled and clutch to her sides. "You get plenty of rest Zula, if it is just the three of us filling Queen Taylor, we will each need to give out 8 eggs."

Taylor giggled and nodded, trying to focus on releasing relaxing pheromones so the group could just cuddle and enjoy each other's warmth and happy thoughts bleeding into each other. "Indeed you will, and I can't imagine that it will be entirely easy on any of you to do so. Now just let me hold you all and relax, we can even play some games if you wanna."

Cathy smiles "The bee royal guard, Celica met up with me in town before they got their new queen, showed me about board games and all. I collected a few that seemed really fun that we can play. I also found some card games that seemed pretty great too!"

"Ohhh cardgames are super cool especially if they are the collectible type! They have rare shiny ones that are just so pretty." Taylor giggled smiling softly before nuzzling Cathy and Zula. "But let's play some board games!"

She nodded "There was only a little, though we did put some requests for the store in town to start stocking those. Now let's see, I've got Monopoly, Sorry, and Candy Land so far." Cathy gets up reluctantly and moves to a shelf, pulling the games down. "I want to look into getting some more though."

"There's a lot of board games and with all the shiny we can collect down here I'm sure that we will have a very large collection of them before too long." Taylor giggled a bit taking out Sorry and starting to set up the board. "I mean look at everyone in the hive we all have our pins and I introduced those to everyone only barely two months ago now."

The girls nod, each of them with their own small collection, mostly random pins currently. "You are right, collections of things are fun, and I know everyone has enjoyed finding pins they like, as well as working on making our own. We even have a few workers who have gotten interested in painting because of the pins, and they have started by designing special job-based pins, before moving on to more casual collection designs. That and vests have really taken a shine as a style for us."

"Well, it definitely makes everyone look cooler." Taylor giggled a bit before kissing Zula's forehead. "And personally I love the idea of jobs being shown by pins. It will allow more volunteers to know who does what before they transition or if they choose not to they will at least have an easier time with their stay."

Zula smiles and leans into the kiss "Yeah, and while we never really need it personally to understand each other, it is still nice." She slowly slips out of Taylor's lap and pets the eggs before taking her position as the other two do so as well, ready to start the game.

The attempt at playing the game was a mess. Everyone trying to outsmart everyone else despite the hivemind giving everyone else information on their plans. But on the whole, everyone had fun agreeing that whoever won the game would get to go first when it was time for Taylor to be filled with eggs. Causing Zula to get very competitive about the game more so than normal.

As the game continued, it seemed to largely end up with Sami and Zula playfully at each other's throats, Sami giving little jabs about Zula already having had her turn, while Zula would counter with her own arguments that Taylor was hers first. In the end, while the two were distracted, Cathy was able to quietly sneak her pieces through and win first, shocking the other two as she stuck her tongue out.

Taylor giggled at this before leaning down. Letting her pheromones flood the room before deeply kissing Cathy. Gently pulling the smallest of the ant's into her lap before looking over at the pair. "Well, she did win fair and square so Cathy gets to go fiiiirst~"

Zula pouts but is quickly shut up by Sami pulling her into a heated kiss "That just means that we can keep each other all heated up while waiting for our turns. Besides, what would be more special, being the middle one, orrrrrr being the last one, and getting to give our new queen that sweet sweet aftercare." Zula blushes and nods...noticing that in their kiss, Sami had stealthily rolled and was able to get her last piece to the end. "Cheater." She looks down, but is pulled back into another kiss. Cathy meanwhile enjoys the attention and after kissing Taylor, gently bumps her antennae against the queen's, giving her little kisses along her cheeks as the smaller ant makes sure she is all clean.

Taylor gigged cradling Cathy happy to just spend time with what would for now on be her three designated breeders and guardians. "Zula you did that one to yourself sweetie, and I'll have you know I would have kicked all of y'alls asses if I had decided to play." She shook her head a bit rubbing her antennae back again against Cathy's letting the smaller ant feel all her joy and love.

Zula playfully sticks her tongue out but is quickly halted as Sami claims that tongue, ticking Zula's sides a bit before letting the ant go and cuddling up into Taylor's side, letting Zula take the other side, closer to their eggs of course. Cathy just lays her head on Taylor's chest and nods "After this clutch, we should get a couple of the guards to come give you the third clutch. Making sure to spread out the attention will help improve hive morale, though we will always be around to care for you and your clutches."

"Yup, making sure to rotate and get to every end of our hive is very important. Especially because we still have a few years with mother left so I have time to learn from her..." Taylor smiled softly enjoying the massive cuddle pile yawning and curling up slightly before starting to fall asleep.

Zula quietly monitors the eggs, making sure they had the perfect heat and moisture levels before letting herself fall asleep in the pile. Cathy simply closes her eyes and enjoys her place, hearing Taylor's heart, while Sammi gave each a little kiss before falling asleep herself.

Two Weeks Later

Taylor was sitting in her new bedroom bouncing excitedly as the other three ants in the bed were woken up by the bouncing and constant movement. "It's time! It's time!" As she was saying this entirely independently the pair of eggs which had fully grown at this point started to break apart in their basket. The tiny ants within trying to worm their ways out.

Zula smiles and rubs Taylor's back, all while Sami and Cathy have some bottles filled with water "While we all can breastfeed them, it will take a lot on our parts and will make any of us very thirsty. Right now your breasts didn't really grow to be ready, as your body recognizes that only two wouldn't need you to increase beyond base production speed. When you have more, expect to get nice and heavy to compensate." Sami giggles and lays out some blankets while Cathy keeps a close eye on the eggs.

As this was said a small but hard hand pushed through the first of the eggs. Pulling itself out slowly before a pink-haired ant infant plopped out and onto the blanket that had been set up for her. Being quickly bundled up by Cathy to keep the little ant from trying to crawl around. After another few minutes, a red haired ant popped out of the second egg getting the same treatment as the first before starting to cry, unlike its sister. Taylor quickly swooped the first of the twins up pressing her against her breast helping move the infant around until it could latch properly. "There we go, sweetie."

Zula gently picked up the other twin and holding them to her breast "Mommies are here for you, just drink up all you want." She gently pets hers while smiling at Taylor. "They are beautiful, aren't they?"

Taylor nodded gently before leaning into Zula's side. Making sure to keep both of her hands supporting different points on the first of the twins. "Now about names... I know we hadn't really talked about it but I would like to name this one here Pinky I don't think I've ever seen a pink-haired ant before so I want her to always know how special she is. Both to me and in her own right."

Zula giggles "Cute, this one, I'm thinking Rose, this beautiful red hair, they are both so special." She smiles as Sami gives her a water bottle, letting her start to drink while Cathy held water for Taylor. "Just let me know when you need some Taylor, we can also run and get food whenever you two get hungry."

Taylor nodded before sipping the water and just gently rocking Pinky in her arms. Happily letting the little girl feed for as long as she needed. This went in waves for the next for a few hours eventually Mai showing up to meet the two newest hatches. "Mom!" Taylor hopped out of bed holding Pinky stable who was at this point entirely asleep. "They are so beautiful."

Mai smiled and looked down at the two as Zula got up a little slower, Rose being quite a bit fussier about moving. "They certainly are, not only are they wonderful new additions, and first clutches for you Taylor, but with this much care I bet they will grow so big and strong." She gently reaches out, and with permission gives each a little pat on the head.

Taylor giggled and nodded. "Yeah, I will admit that having Pinky have pink hair kinda like my natural purple is odd... but it's a good odd." She kissed Pinky's forehead before gently taking her and Rose down to the nursery ward.

Zula and the other attendants keep close as they meet with the workers in the nursery, who make room for the queen's new babies. As they are put in place, one of the workers smiled "We will make sure they stay fed, and we will alert you of anything that comes up."

"Thank you, I worry." Taylor kissed each of the nursery workers on the forehead before taking a few steps back and walking out of the room. Standing behind the glass to look at the pair of infants. Feeling a bit anxious at first being away from her eggs for the first time in several months.

Mai rests a hand on her back "There is only one of you, and it is their job to watch after our little ones. The hive as a whole looks out for each other, so trust your family to look after the whole family." She smiles a bit while Zula nods "Yeah, and if something happens we can be right here to check on them."

Taylor took a deep breath before nodding and stepping away with the rest of her group. "Yeah... I trust them." She then took Zula and Cathy's hands heading towards the queen's chambers. "So... it's about time for the next round..." She chittered excitedly because the empty feeling in her abdomen had become very agitating over the last two weeks.

Mai giggled a little bit "That it is, in fact, I have a special present for you." The queen leads them close to the throne room before opening a door, revealing a large bed and several cabinets, among some rather nice lighting as well. "I'm having the old chambers renovated, and I figured the queen's mating room would be needed first."

Taylor started bouncing in excitement almost shaking the ground around her as she hugged to Mai, having grown to her full 10ft height over the last weeks. All she could get out was chitters of excitement before heading into the room and climbing onto the incredibly soft but supportive bed.

The three attendants grinned at each other and bowed to Mai before following Taylor in. Mai closes the door and walks over to her guards, giving them a hug as the pair guided her to her throne. Cathy crawled up on the bed first, leaning in to kiss Taylor gently "Are you ready, my queen?"