Chapter 6-Emotions Running Wild
I stood at the door, unable to say a word as I saw the green and black pegasus standing there. "Surprised?" she asked.
"Yeah, just a little." I managed to say.
She laughed. "Well, I was flying around in Ponyville and I heard about a certain changeling that had been there. That wouldn't have been you, would it?"
"What made you think it was me?" I asked, suddenly suspicious. "And how did you find me?"
"Oh, I could smell you when I flew over here." she said.
"Oh that makes sense....wait. What?" I said. As I looked at her, her body rippled. Her wings grew more ragged and her hooves did also. Her eyes turned green and she grew two little fangs. Misty was a changeling.
"Surprised?" She asked. Seeing my face, she nodded and said, "I thought you would be."
"So you always knew." I said. "Is that why you became my friend?"
Misty shook her head. "No, I really did want to become your friend. But now that I know for a fact that you're a changeling, I need to teach you."
"Teach me what?" I asked.
"I need to teach you how to be a real changeling!" Misty snapped. "I bet you can't even shift into anypony you know."
Trying to prove her wrong, I focused hard. My body shimmered and I felt it shift. But, it felt too familiar. "Shifting into your other form doesn't count, Shade." Misty remarked.
I sighed, now in my changeling form. "Ok then. Let me leave a letter for Fluttershy first." Misty nodded and I went back in the house. Grabbing some paper and ink, I left a quick note and returned to Misty.
"You ready? Let's do this!" Misty said, clearly excited. Her horn flashed with a green glow and the two of us disappeared.
...
Twilight had been pouring herself over her books ever since the other ponies had left her house. "No, that doesn't help." she said exasperated as she levitated another book to herself. Spike grabbed the book she had just been reading and put it away. Twilight slammed the book she was reading shut. "Spike! Have you seen that book that Princess Celestia sent me? Umm, it was called, The True Aspects of Changelings?"
The baby dragon went through the books on the ground, "Nope. All the books that the princess sent you are right here. I don't see that one."
Twilight groaned in frustration. "Are you sure? Check again."
Spike rolled his eyes, but he carefully went through each book on the ground. "Sorry Twilight. It isn't here.
Twilight stood up and walked over to her bookcase. "How am I supposed to know more about changelings when all my books have mostly the same info?"
"What if we found a changeling?" Spike asked. "Then you could just study it."
"That's what we're trying to do, Spike." Twilight said. "The only non-aggressive changeling we know is Shade, and we can't find him."
Spike thought for a moment. "Where do you think he would be?"
Twilight shook her head. "I have no idea."
Spike's eyes suddenly lit up. "I do! Think about it, Twilight. He's a changeling, and they feed on love, right?" Twilight nodded. "Well, before he left he seemed rather weak to me, that day before. He also doesn't know much of the surrounding area around Ponyville."
Twilight looked at her dragon assistant. "Go on Spike. I think you're onto something."
The dragon continued. "If he isn't feeding off of love, and he doesn't know anywhere around here he must still be in the area."
"Right!" Twilight said, her eyes also lighting up. "And he told me before when he used that wing spell that he wasn't very good at flying! He left in the middle of a storm! He HAS to be around Ponyville!"
"He must be hiding though, or too weak to leave." Spike thought out loud. Twilight pulled him in a hug.
"Oh thank you Spike!" Twilight exclaimed. She dashed out of the front door, then put her head back in. "By the way, you can have today off. I'll clean up here." She pulled her head back out and teleported away.
Spike grinned and said, "Well, guess I better clean some of this up anyway. Celestia knows, she won't remember." He started to sort out the books on the ground.
...
Misty and I were in a wide open field under the open sky. The weather was calm and sunny. I breathed the cool air in as it rushed past me.
"Ok, Shade. Time for your crash-course in being a changeling." Misty said. I looked at her and saw that she looked like a pony again.
"Fine then. What should I know first?" I said, sitting down.
"Have you been trying to eat pony food lately?" Misty asked, sitting across from me.
I nodded, "It doesn't fill me up though. I've been feeling weak for some time now.'
"That makes me think I'm right about you.” Misty said. "Changelings are different then just about every creature on Equestria. We feed on emotions, mainly love."
"Really? When I was living in Ponyville, I wasn't loved." I said. "I was respected, but nopony loved me like as you mean."
Misty nodded, "I know, and that's what made me come to my conclusion. A very rare trait of changelings was that they could feed on more emotions then just love. Basic changelings need next to nothing to survive. You on the other hand, have been without love for over 5 days and you almost died. If you only fed on love, you would be dead right now.
"So you're saying that I don't just feed off of love?" I asked.
"There's no other conclusion." Misty said. "I've calculated it over and over. You WOULD be dead if you hadn't fed off some other emotions. Think back, Shade. What did the ponies of Ponyville feel when they knew that you were a changeling?"
I thought back. Confusion, sadness, but the one that stood out was...."Fear. They were afraid of me."
Misty smiled. "Exactly. Fear is a very strong emotion. You can't just be a basic changeling, Shade. You need fuel and a lot of it. The fear of the ponies was what kept you from dying."
"If that was the case." I asked. "Why wasn't I at my full strength when I left?"
"Because you don't know how to control it." Misty said. "Not much is known about an Emotion Changeling. We only know that one of the strongest emotions is love. Changeling automatically feed off of love. Fear is different. Your body absorbed just enough to keep you alive."
"So when I left the area that had that emotion." I realized. "I cut myself off from that source of energy."
"Which is why you almost died." Misty finished.
I was quiet. Celestia had to have known what I was. But why didn't she just leave me? Or at least return me to other changelings? Did she think that if she kept me, that I would never know of my abilities?
"One more thing about this Shade?" Misty said. "Because these are emotions that we don't normally feed off, and because you're stronger, you can actually drain power from ponies by taking their emotions. So you have to be really careful. I nodded in agreement.
Suddenly, Misty broke into a grin. "Come on! It's time for your training!"
...
Everypony met back at Twilight's. "How did the search go, girls?" Twilight said, reappearing in the room.
"Nothing for me." Rainbow Dash said, slumping down.
"We didn't find anything either." Rarity said and Pinkie nodded.
"Sorry, Twilight. Ah couldn't find out anything." Applejack sadly said.
Fluttershy shook her head. "My animal friends haven't seen him Twilight. I'm sorry."
Twilight just grimly shook her head. "I think that we should tell Princess Celestia now."
"Didn't you tell her when you wrote that letter for those books?" Rainbow asked.
"Yes, but she replied when she sent them to write her back if we needed a ride up to Canterlot." Twilight said.
"Oh, Twilight, would it be possible that we went tomorrow?" Fluttershy asked. "I mean, if that's okay. I just want to be sure that my animals will be alright."
"Why, sure." Twilight said. "I'm sure that the princess won't mind."
"Oh thank you." The shy pegasus went to the door. "I'll see you all tomorrow." She left the house.
Applejack cocked her head to the side. "What in tarnation do you think that was all about?"
...
Training went off without a hitch. Apparently I had been feeding off of Fluttershy and her animals because I actually had enough energy to learn how to shift today. But, as Misty pointed out, my shifting was special. Misty told me that changelings had the ability to sense if another changeling was in the area by "casting out" our changeling pheromones. Also, I used no energy whenever I looked like my pony self, blue coat and all that. Misty said that was because my body had looked like that for so long, it was recognized as what I "naturally" looked like. But the real fun part, like I said before, was the shifting. My very first shift was into Rainbow Dash, and then Applejack, then I even pulled off Fluttershy. But, Misty and I both found out that something was....different about my shifting. Whenever I shifted, I copied that pony's voice and abilities. In essence, I wasn't a COPY of that pony, I WAS that pony. I did keep my own thoughts though. So, to test it I shifted into Twilight and tried using a complex growing spell on a sunflower. The spell worked, growing the flower as tall as Twilight's home, but I was DRAINED. I shifted back to my pony form and almost passed out.
"Interesting." Misty said. "Shade, you're like a glass cannon."
"How's that?" I gasped.
"You're strong enough to shift into maybe even Princess Celestia and use her magic, but without a stream of energy flowing into you, you wouldn't be able to hold that shape for long."
I shakily stood up. "I could hold it if I just didn't use any of her magic."
Misty nodded. "That would work."
I looked up and saw that the sun was coming down. "Misty, I've got to go. We'll hang out later." Concentrating, I teleported myself back to Fluttershy's
...
Misty looked at where Shade had disappeared from and smiled. "Don't you worry Shade. We sure will do this again. I have an even better place for us to practice next time." She disappeared also.
...
When I arrived back at the house, I looked at the clock and saw that it was almost 7. I went into the kitchen to see that Angel was trying to cook something for dinner. Bless his little heart! He remembered that I wanted to try to impress Fluttershy over dinner tonight. And I had completely forgotten about it. Oops.
When Angel saw me, he proceeded to hop right over and kick me in the shin. Hard. "Okay, I deserved that one. We still have time though, right?"
Angel held a three in one hand and made a zero in the other.
"I'm going to guess 30 minutes." I said. Angel nodded his head. "Well, we still have some time. Come on! Let's make this a good one!" The little bunny nodded at me and we got to work.
...
When Fluttershy finally reached her house, she was rather tired. "I hope that the princess will have a solution to all this. I don't like lying to my friends." She checked herself. "But, I did say I would help Shade." She shut the door behind her and went into the kitchen, where she saw that the table was lit up with candles. She also saw Angel asleep on the table.
"Angel! Did you do all this for me?" The little bunny nodded and jumped off the table. "But, where's Shade?"
The bunny grinned at Fluttershy, then his body shimmered. Fluttershy stepped back as the bunny grew into a blue coated pony. "Phew, That was not easy."
"Oh wow!" Fluttershy said in amazement. "You can....you can change your body now?"
Shade nodded, "Yup! But we can talk about it over dinner. Sit down! Angel and I made it for you." Fluttershy smiled as the real Angel hugged her leg.
...
Angel and I did ourselves proud. Apple pie, and a lovely fruit salad were for dinner. Fluttershy and I talked about what I had found out about myself today over dinner. After we finished, I refused to let her or Angel help me with the dishes, although when I finished Angel lightly punched me on the arm and mockingly gave me a sweet smile. "Yeah, I know Angel." I said.
He was about to jump off the counter before I caught him with magic. "Hey Angel. Thanks." He smiled, but then shook his fist at me, signaling that I better tell Fluttershy how I felt about her tonight.
I finished up and joined the pegasus outside, watching the stars.
"So, we are going to Canterlot tomorrow Shade." Fluttershy said. "You could come if you want."
I thought for a second. "I'll try to think of a disguise tonight. But, I probably won't see the princess."
Fluttershy asked," Are you sure?"
"Yeah, I'll probably walk around town for a little bit first." I said. I didn't want to tell Fluttershy that I was afraid of seeing the princess, now that I knew what I was.
We stayed silent for a while, before I decided to get it over with. "Fluttershy, have you ever, well thought about love?"
"Oh no." Fluttershy said, blushing. "I had wondered what it would be like, but I've been content to stay with my animals." She was silent before she softly asked me. "W-what about you?"
I closed my eyes, thinking carefully. "When I lived in Canterlot, I never tried to flirt with any mares. I doubt I would have been any good at it." I said with a smile. I heard Fluttershy give a slight laugh. "I was never good with talking to any other ponies in general. I spoke mostly to the two princesses. But, when I came to Ponyville, I started to open up a little bit." Fluttershy stayed silent, letting me continue.
"It was alright, until that party. But, in a way it sort of helped me." I said.
"How?" Fluttershy asked softly.
"It allowed us to grow closer." I said. I was worried about this next part. I didn't want to drive her away, but I decided there was nothing for it. "Fluttershy, this last week has been one of my best. Not because I discovered that I'm not even a pony, but because we were able to spend it together." I felt intense heat on my face and knew that I was blushing. I could tell that Fluttershy was blushing also. "I've been struggling to figure out how to say this Fluttershy, but I decided that maybe I don't need to use any words."
At this, I conjured two matching necklaces. I had bought these three days ago, by breaking into a store and leaving the bits I needed to on the counter. The necklaces were golden. There was a ruby set in the first one and a diamond in the other one.
"These are promise necklaces, Fluttershy." I said. "It doesn't mean that we are engaged, but it means that we have the same feelings for each other. I-." My voice broke and I offered the necklace to Fluttershy.
She took the necklace, not saying a word. She had her head turned from me so I couldn't read her expression. I was respectful to her and didn't try to sense her emotions. A few minutes passed. Then she turned back toward me with the necklace in her teeth. She walked up right in front of me and laid the necklace on the ground. Then she gently took the necklace with the ruby that was in my hoof from me. She motioned me to lower my head, then she picked up the necklace that she had put on the ground. She gently put the necklace around my head and said blushing, "You gave me the one that the stallion is supposed to wear. She then silently put the other necklace around her head.
Tears freely flowed down my face. I could see that Fluttershy was also crying. The look that Fluttershy gave me was so full of love that I could FEEL the love pressing up against me, tempting me to feed off of it. Instead I looked at Fluttershy. "Are you sure about this? You know that we won't be understood by lots of ponies."
Fluttershy walked up to me. "Well, I'll explain to them how love can work." Then she kissed me.
I felt pure love flow from Fluttershy into me. It wasn't stealing from her, she was offering it to me willingly. As I kissed her back, I accepted her gift to me. The love flowed into me and seemed to strike at my very soul. I felt an innermost connection to Fluttershy from my soul to my mind. We held the kiss, not caring about anything else in the world. When we finally released each other, I felt euphoric. "Fluttershy..."
She held her hoof to my lips. I realized that she didn't want either of us to talk and ruin the moment. But as we leaned in to kiss each other again, I saw Angel in the window giving me a fist pump.