Alternate slowly started walking backwards to his room. He did not want to be a target of Twilight´s rage. He figured it would be painful.
He shut and locked his door upon entering and let himself fall onto the bed. He sighed, he was very tired. Angel hopped off his back and beside him. Alternate eyed Angel and just now realized his own stupidity. How is he supposed to get some sleep with that bunny beside him? He would not be able to turn into his Changeling form with the bunny around. He tried to use his magic. It still did not work. He was worried, that has never happened before. Ever.
He looked at Angel and found he already fell asleep. He also found him rather cute how he snuggled against him. He smiled and chuckled softly, shaking his head.
A grumble interrupted the silence around the two. It came from his stomach. He was hungry. He panicked a little bit. He hadn´t had any love to eat for at least one month! No wonder his magic didn´t work. He wondered how he was able to ignore his hunger. His stomach grumbled again. He thought of where and how he could get the love he needed so desperately. Friendship is a kind of love, he thought, so maybe if I can find two ponies- strangers to me- who are friends, I can maybe get some love from-
His thoughts were again interrupted, but this time by a smell. A smell he knew very well. The smell of some kind of love. He couldn´t put his hoof on what exact kind of love it must be, it was so different from the usual smell of love he knew.
Suddenly he noticed how warm his side was and saw that Angel was nuzzling against him in his sleep. He smelled at the bunny´s chest, where his heart was, and realized the smell of love came from him.
Why by Queen Chrysalis´ wings would he feel any kind of love in this situation? Did he grow to like me or what?, he chuckled at the thought, but found it much more realistic now that he thought about it. And it was very advantageous for him too. If Angel stayed with him for a longer period of time and still feels that love- which Alternate still couldn´t identify properly- he could feed on that love and wouldn´t have to put much effort into it either.
He chuckled lightly and grabbed Angel with his mouth and put him in front of him. He snuggled against the bunnys little chest and breathed through his mouth. A soft red dust appeared from where the bunnys heart was and wandered to Alternates mouth who inhaled it, feeding on it almost greedily.
After a short time he was satisfied. His stomach was filled again and he felt very tired. Angel won´t miss the love, it is a nearly endless source after all. Alternate quickly tried to use his magic to lift Angel and adjust his sleeping position- the position Alternate had put him in with his mouth seemed rather uncomfortable- to find that his magic now worked again. Happy with himself he pressed Angel to his chest like a stuffed animal and cuddled with him, slowly drifting off into some welll deserved sleep.
His eyes opened as they were hit by the sunlight coming from the window. He looked down to his chest and found Angel was struggling to get out of his grip. He opened his arms freeing him. He chuckled as Angel hit him in his chest looking very embarrassed for some reason. He seemed to get even more angry after hearing Alternate laugh-most likely thinking he was laughing at him.
He rolled his eyes and got up from the bed. He yawned and looked out of the window. It was early morning. He looked around the room and found his bag lying where he had left it. He opened it and looked through the stuff he called his own. He stumbled over something that he didn´t put in there though. It looked like a rubber band to him, but it partially felt to like it was made out of some cloth or something. What did they call this again? He didn´t remember. At the rubber band thingy was a little card attached to it. He read it out loud
"Not much of a good present, but I figured it would be the easiest to put in your bag without you noticing!
- Silver Blade-"
He inspected the little object that was supposed to be a present again. It was blue of color and he remembered having seen one of the guards, Bronce spear -the cake thief- use something like that to tie his hair together. He shrugged his shoulders and decided he could try it out. His hair as a Unicorn was often a real mess that he couldn´t handle at those points. He walked over to a mirror and found a brush lying under it. He picked it up with his magic and brushed his hair to the back so he could easily tie it together. He looked at himself in the mirror. He had to admit, his hair tied back like this suited him. Silver Blade made a good choice giving him this as a present.
With one last glance to Angel who was staaring at him the whole time -which he found only a little bit creepy- he went to the door of his room. He unlocked it and walked out in the main room of the Golden Oak Library- the library part of it was the main room. He walked towards a shelf where the books about animals were. He searched for a book about bunnies. He had absolutely no clue what a bunny would eat, and if he wanted to keep Angel as a source for food he had to keep him alive. A dead heart isn´t able to produce love after all, big shocker there. He finally found a book that was specifically about bunnies and he smiled, opening it and looking for the page about what food they eat. Angel had followed him into the main room and started climbing up Alternate to get on his back again. Alternate casually levitated him and placed him on his back. He found the page and quickly scribbled the things down on a seperate piece of paper he had grabbed from his bag earlier. He walked into his room again and got some money from inside his bag.
He walked out of the tree and walked towards the market in the middle of the town. Angel took a hold of the list for Alternate and read it. Apparently Angel was not pleased with what was written on the list because he started hitting and kicking Alternates neck and sounded like he was complaining. Alternate could understand some of it like What is THIS? , You . . . me to . . . it?
Alternate rolled his eyes.
"Bugger off, Angel. You will NOT get anything else than what is on the list! And don´t even think about complaining any further! At least I´m caring enough to actually keep you fed. I could just as well not give a flying Hydra about you, understood? So be grateful, ok?", he stated. It was only partially true. He had chosen Angel as a source of food, so he wouldn´t for any price let him be unfed and possibly die from it or make him dislike him for it. Just to make sure Angel wouldn´t get any stupid ideas to sabotage the shopping list though, he took the list from his little paws with his magic. He looked over it and went to the little stands for each thing on it. He found it rather inconvenient that the stands were so far apart from each other and that there are so many different stands that only sell one thing. It was just awful and unneccesary.
He got everything he needed for the little bunny as he noticed Angel had been able to scribble another thing on the list while he had been busy arguing with the ponies over the outrageously high prices. He raised both brows giving Angel an Are you kidding me? look. Angel on the other hoof had an almost pleading look on his face. Alternate rolled with his eyes and sighed.
"Ok, one cherry is all extra you´ll get! Nothing more, nothing less!", he gave in and walked over to the cherry stand. The pony running the stand was a tough looking earth pony talking to another customer in a dark, intimidating voice. He seemed to intimidate his customer greatly, because she started to back away, head down. Alternate looked at the pony and saw that it was Fluttershy!
"Hello, Fluttershy! How are you? What were you doing here- Oh, my appologies. That was a stupid question, I´m sorry. You were about to buy cherries now, weren´t you?", she nodded, "Well, why are you stepping away from the stand while you obviously haven´t bought anything yet?"
Instead of Fluttershy, the pony who was running the stand answered for her. "She´s apparently not ok with my prices," he chuckled, emphasizing the word prices.
"Huh, I see. Well what is the price? I wanted to buy a single cherry myself.", Alternate stated calmly. He could almost smell that something was up and that this guy was not a nice guy.
"He says it´s 20 Bits for one cherry.", Fluttershy said, her head hanging down.
"20 BITS?! That is OUTRAGEOUSLY high for a SINGLE cherry! I demand a smaller price AND an explanation as to why the price is so high in the first place!", Alternate asked angrily. He could almost not believe his ears.
"Well, thanks to her being a doormat once again, of course. For you it can be one bit, of course." he simply shrugged with his shoulders , as if that was just normal like that.
"Ok, then I´ll take two cherries.", Alternate simply said and put two bits on the counter. He raised a brow expectantly at the stallion in front of him, making sure he had a judging look in his eyes.
"Here ya go.", he gave Alternate two cherries andd took the two bits.
Alternate walked away, pushing Fluttershy along. Around the corner, he gave her the other cherry.
"My goodness, that guy was a . . . uh. . . I honestly can´t think of any insult to describe him right now. Fluttershy, you gotta stand up for yourself, ok? Could you do that for me next time? Don´t exagerate though.", he smiled and before Flutterhy could respond he made his way back to the library.
He got the cherry out of his bag, using his magic and handed it to Angel who squeaked happily over the cherry making Alternate chuckle at the noise. He immediatly got a glare from Angel whom he simply ignored him for the sake of ignoring him. He went into the library and into his room. He put his bag down and the food in a shelf in the room- one Angel couldn´t reach. Suddenly he got dizzy. He put his hoof against the wall to support himself while his other hoof held his head. Angel patted his head, concerned. Alternate started to see black spots in his vision and he knew that was a bad thing. I´m probably just not used to the love an animal feels, he thought, so this is probably just my body reacting accordingly- trying to get used to it or something.
He didn´t know what he was doing anymore. He felt his hooves walking, but he didn´t controll it. His breath was uneven and his heart was thumping wildly against his chest. He was panicking on the inside. He was only barely able to see.
But the last thing he saw was a bright blue-ish light before he passed out completely.