Chapter 10 - The Tree of Knowledge
Changelings, Love and Lollipops
Chapter 10
The Tree of Knowledge
The changeling paused at the schoolhouse door, looking down the barrel of a cannon so large he could have crawled inside and had enough space left over for a book to read while waiting for the end. It was only a brief glimpse, because his over-tenderized brain knew exactly what was coming next. With eyes tightly closed and shoulders hunched, the changeling waited for the end.
And waited.
“Hi, Mister Tolliver,” chirped a familiar cheerful voice. “Could I get you to move just a smidgen to the left?”
He obliged, shuffling his hooves to the side, although he kept his eyes tightly closed.
Maybe she just doesn’t want to splatter the little nymphs with changeling goo. That’s not just a cannon, it’s field artillery. Partillery?
Giggles filled his ears as Pinkie Pie tapped him on the shoulder. “Not that left. The other left.”
Shuffling carefully, he moved again, and then again as she added, “Just a touch more. An itsy-bitsy smidgen more. Aaaalmost there. Just a little further. One more step. Perfect! Okay, you can open your eyes now. You don’t want to miss this one.”
Taking a deep breath to steel himself for the end, the changeling opened his eyes just in time to see the cannon go off with a massive blast. Confetti and streamers filled the air with flying objects, one of which smacked him in the head with several orders of magnitude less pain than he was expecting, and remained stuck on his horn afterwards.
“Surprise! Happy Birthday, Dinky!” echoed around the room, boosted by the lungpower of a dozen energetic little colts and fillies. Blinking away an errant piece of confetti, the changeling tried to make sense of each of the little school desks, which were now covered in confetti and topped with a single slice of cake. Each of the little ponies was now wearing a little paper hat, almost exact duplicates of the silvered paper cone topped with a sparkly pom-pom stuck on his own horn. Even Cheerilee’s desk had a small paper plate with a substantial slice of creamy white cake sitting on it, and a paper cup full of punch to one side.
Don’t ask. Don’t ask. Don’t ask!
“How did you do that?” he blurted out as Pinkie Pie bounded over to the little birthday filly and rubbed her noggin. “How did she do that?” he continued to Cheerilee. “That’s a cannon. It shoots!”
“And today it shoots cake,” said Cheerilee, sneaking a quick bite of hers and patting the floor next to her chair. “Would you like a piece?”
“Now?” His eyes drifted over to where Pinkie Pie and the birthday filly were dancing around in circles while singing a song about birthday wishes.
“Cake now,” clarified the teacher, closing her eyes as she sunk her teeth into a second bite. “We can talk later, but for now, just sit down here beside me. Would you like a fork?”
* * *
It was, he decided, educational. The changeling had worked in several office environments and experienced their version of parties, which mostly consisted of a group of ponies who otherwise would never have talked to each other standing around and eating cardboard cake out of a cardboard box. Rushian versions of parties involved vast quantities of alcohol and… well, something else. He had never been able to remain conscious long enough to find out.
The little ponies and Pinkie Pie might as well have been from a different world than his previous life. This party had laughing and singing, games involving removable pony body parts, presents for the birthday filly, and despite his best attempt to remain gloomy and out of the festivities, participation.
Although it probably was not exactly the same as any of the other parties Pinkie Pie had thrown.
Near the end when everypony was just starting to show signs of the party breaking up, the royal little pony, Diamond Tiara, had made a rather snotty comment about Toliver being a ‘pitiful blank flank changeling’ just like the three other little ponies who had made his life so miserable. It should have felt good, having the three little menaces put in their place by one of their own kind, but instead, it felt as if his own heart was being torn out when he looked at their anguished little faces.
I must just be weak from hunger and trying to assimilate into whatever insane hive I can find. I’m still doomed to die. But I might as well go out in style.
He bent down and put a hoof on the shoulder of the little birthday filly while trying to smile as best he could without showing too much fang. It was a new experience, and he was a little uncertain about how best to approach the topic, but ‘head on’ seemed like a good place to start.
“As a hatching day present for you, I’ll change into whatever famous pony you want. Sapphire Shores, Daring Do, Poggles the Clown, anypony. Even one of the Princesses, if you want.” He winked. “I even changed into Santa Hooves once.”
Even though it was forbidden and dangerous. Little ponies swarm like flies to that form, and can see through the slightest flaw in the disguise.
Over the gasps of amazement in the small audience, Scootaloo piped up with, “Rainbow Dash! Do Rainbow Dash!”
“Can you change into any pony?” asked the little filly, her little golden eyes sparkling with anticipation.
“If you can describe him or her well enough, yes,” he said, holding a hoof over Sweetie Belle’s mouth in anticipation of the inevitable question about what would happen to his ‘thing’ if he took a female disguise.
“Well…” The little filly fidgeted uncomfortably before beginning her description, which was quite detailed, right down to the precise color and shape of the target’s cutie mark and style of his mane. The warning signs were all there, if he had been paying attention, and it took until after he had filled the room with the glare of green fire from the transformation spell before the depth of his mistake soaked in.
The little golden eyes of the birthday filly swam with tears as she wrapped herself around his neck, holding onto him with a fierce intensity that should have filled the changeling with cascades of love to fill his empty aching belly. Instead, the pain in his gut only grew as a faint trickle of tears damped the snow-white fur on his neck and the muffled sobs of the filly were the only thing that could be heard in the deathly silence that filled the schoolhouse. After an uncomfortably long time of nearly strangling the disguised changeling, the little filly sniffed one last time and took a step backwards into the company of her little peers.
“Thank you, Mister Tolliver. You can change back now.”
Taking a well-needed breath and trying not to wince at the pain in his gut from where one errant hoof had pressed during the intense hug, the changeling asked, “Are you sure?”
“Yes,” said the filly, sounding much more grown up than her age. “I know you’re not really my daddy, but I’ve missed him so much.”
With a brief hesitation, the changeling flared with green fire again, this time emerging as his familiar lemon-yellow unicorn form, which carefully knelt down on the schoolhouse floor.
“Look, kid. I know how hard it is to lose somepony you really care about. It hurts so much, like your heart is being torn out. It may fade with time, but it never really goes away completely, and it makes you afraid to love anypony else, for fear they will be taken away too, and the pain will come back. But do you know the best way to deal with it?”
After a brief sniff, she asked, “How?”
“You go right back out there and keep on loving. You’ve got your mother, and all of your friends, and all of the town who love you. And someday you’ll discover your special somepony, and the two of you will make more little ones just like you to love.”
“Do I have to?” echoed the birthday filly in protest. “I mean, colts are icky!”
Giggles from the older ponies mixed with the universal vocal agreement to the concept from both the little colts and fillies in the party, and the changeling had to laugh despite himself. “That will change too, over time.”
~ ~ ~ ♡ ~ ~ ~
After the party bits and pieces had been picked up and the changeling found himself pushing the gurney back towards the hospital with Pinkie Pie tethered at his side, he had a few moments to reflect on life without staring down the barrel of a cannon. Well, he was fairly certain that the cannon she was towing behind her was loaded, and could pick him off at altitude before he could shed his leash and get away, but as long as it was not pointed at his head, he could at least think straight and ask the questions that had been bothering him.
“Do you know why Miss Cheerilee seemed so interested in having me stay behind after school, Pinkie?”
“I dunno,” she chirped while hopping along, “maybe because you’re so sexy and handsome in that form.”
“It can’t be that,” he scoffed. “I’ve used this form before. It never really attracted the mares until now.”
“Well, maybe Cheerilee is attracted to you because she’s lonely and single, and you’re lonely and single, and you could be aaaaaany pony she wanted. And she’s in heat,” finished Pinkie Pie with a giant bound that made the massive cannon she was towing hop a little too.
After a little thought, he had to agree with Pinkie. Normally, a pony in heat was a beacon of fire to a changeling’s emotional senses, which made reading their physical cues unneeded. Without the ability to sense emotions, he was at a strategic disadvantage… well, it did not matter anyway. Still, it was puzzling. “Is Applejack in heat too?” he asked, almost without realizing it.
“Yep,” chirped Pinkie Pie. “She said it just came out of nowhere, just like mine.”
“Your town is weird,” said the changeling.
“Yep,” chirped Pinkie. “Are you feeling any better?”
“No. My stomach hurts more than ever. Although the chamomile tea helps a lot.” He pushed the gurney a while longer before asking, “Are you going to let me go?”
Pinkie’s bottom lip trembled, although the cheerful expression she wore did not change. “I’d like to,” she started, her hops losing a little altitude and the cheerful bounce in her mane becoming a little flatter, “but you’re my responsibility. I signed for you, and that means I promised, even though it’s not as fun as I thought it would be. I mean you’re so alone here with none of your little buggie friends and you must be so lonely and terrified at being in such a strange place and nearly getting killed even though I’m really really sorry about almost drowning you and I’m sure the Crusaders are really sorry about almost poisoning you and being flung through the roof of their clubhouse, but if you want to go with Corporal Crumpet tomorrow, I suppose…” She trailed off with a sniff. “I didn’t get to throw you a party.”
They walked side-by-side for a little while longer as the clues tumbled down around his ears. “You curled up in bed with me last night and most of the morning at the hospital, didn’t you?”
How in the world did she manage to stop in mid-air?
“You’re not mad at me, are you?” The pink pony floated back down and just sagged when her hooves touched the ground. Even her puffed-up mane seemed to lose a little puff, and her tail dragged in the dust. “Because I can understand if you’re angry at me and hate me because I’m keeping you from escaping but I really kind of like you because you’re fun and different and interesting even if you’re a meany liarpants who tried to invade Canterlot and put all of the ponies into coocoocoons and suck all the happiness out of them.”
“True,” he admitted after thinking for a while, quickly adding, “but I’m not mad at you, I’m—”
How do I tell her that she’s the closest thing to a changeling I’ve found in this crazy town? That she’s amazing and mind-baffling and can change in the blink of an eye, and that every time I’m around her chattering, it feels like home? Wait a minute. Is that what I really think?
“Do you like me?” asked Pinkie so quietly that he could barely hear. “Because I can’t tell if it’s the hormones or the fact that you’re so different than everypony else. I mean, I’ve never had a very special somepony or I guess somebuggy before so I don’t know what it feels like but I’ve been in heat before and it’s a little like that but not quite and I know you’re not supposed to tie up your very special somepony except on special occasions with code words and velvet rope but that’s all I can think about when you’re around so maybe if you’re not feeling very well, I should put you somewhere away from me for a little while so I’m not really, really, really tempted to—” Now it was Pinkie Pie’s turn to look around, darting over to nearby bushes and trees to look behind and underneath them before dashing back over and putting her mouth right up to the changeling’s ear and whispering, “—make foals.”
“We’re not fertile,” responded the changeling almost immediately, babbling a little in his haste. “I mean ponies and changelings aren’t fertile. After all, our two races have mated for years, maybe centuries, and there haven’t been any offspring. Even changelings who want to have offspring with other changelings take a huge amount of love from each of them in order to become fertile, and then the female changeling needs a lot of love over the next few months while the little grub matures inside.”
“Oooooh,” said Pinkie Pie. “Does she bite her mate’s head off and suck all the love out of him in order to feed their new foal?”
“No!” There was a brief pause where the changeling thought back to his time in the hive and the rather suspicious absence of most of the male progenitors, who were supposedly ‘out harvesting’ while their assigned mates gestated. “Not that I know of,” he corrected.
Pinkie Pie’s ears perked up and the sparkle in her eyes grew into a blinding dazzle. “So does this mean we can get rid of my heat by going back to my room and having s—”
The changeling paused, one hoof on Pinkie Pie’s mouth, and tried to gather his thoughts. It was a process that would have been easier if Pinkie had not been licking him on the bottom of his hoof. “Pinkie,” he managed to say through gritted teeth, “I’m going to tell you something that I don’t think has ever been said by any changeling all the way back through history.”
“Wmumph?” mumbled Pinkie around the impeding hoof.
“I don’t think we should have sex.” The changeling carefully removed his hoof and observed, trying to figure out if he would be able to make a break for freedom in the amount of time Pinkie would take to turn the cannon around and shoot him.
“How about nookie?” asked Pinkie with a tilt of her head.
“No nookie,” declared the changeling.
“Banging?” asked Pinkie, tilting her head the other way.
“No banging, no making whoopie, no grinding hips, no doing the horizontal slide, no dancing the bedtime boogie.” With each ‘no’ he spoke, a little air seemed to escape Pinkie’s mane until it lay flaccid against her neck in a thick layer of dull magenta. She stood there for a long time, just looking into his eyes. Finally, she blinked, and her mane puffed back up into its original splendor.
“Can I still throw you a party tomorrow?” she asked, the familiar sparkle showing back up in her eyes again.
“Yes,” he said with considerable reluctance. “If I’m still alive tomorrow, you can throw me a party.” He paused. “A party, that is. Cake, punch, games. Party games with other ponies.” He paused to scratch at his side and run a hoof over his aching stomach. “A small piece of cake. That cursed itching is back. I wonder what that rope is made of.”
“Then it’s a date!” declared Pinkie, bouncing down the path again with her cannon behind. “And I know just the nice quiet place to put you until tonight so you won’t be bothered.”
~ ~ ~ * ~ ~ ~
It was a peculiar building, but then again, Ponyville was a peculiar town filled with peculiar ponies, one pink pony in particular. Libraries belonged in cavernous stone buildings filled with elderly earth ponies and elderly books, and with little nooks and crannies where pairs of young lovers could cuddle up together with books of love poetry and pretend to read.
This library was in a tree. It contained no elderly ponies, but it was jammed to the bark with books of all ages and types, giving the structure that homey lived-in characteristic that ponies preferred in their businesses. Once Pinkie had bounced on back to work, he checked out the small bedroom and kitchenette, just in case an elderly librarian was shriveled up in a forgotten corner. There was even a tea set sitting on the modern stove, and he popped a small package of dried chamomile flowers into the teapot to steep while he regarded the task which he had been given.
“Reshelving. Joy.”
For a library as empty of patrons as this, there certainly seemed to be a lot of books that needed put back on shelves, but at least the citizens of the town were well-read. As he shuffled around the book-crammed main room, referencing tags and putting away books where they belonged, he sipped his tea and considered the dwindling possibility of escape.
With as much as my stomach hurts, I must be almost out of love. I might be able to make it until Pinkie’s party, I hope, but if I die in the middle of it, she’ll never forgive me.
Stopping to blink a few times at the mental image, he shook his head and returned to reshelving.
This place is not only crazy, it’s contagious.
After shelving an entire series of advanced spellbooks dealing with the somewhat near to his heart issue of mind magic, he paused at the next set of flimsy paper books, comic books to be specific. They had been tucked behind the cover of a large magazine titled Equestrian Library Association - Organization Weekly, and seemed well-used, detailing such colorful antics as the Power Ponies monthly adventures against various costumed villains. He sat down on the couch and flipped through a few pages, eventually just relaxing and reading through the whole collection as the afternoon wore on, chuckling at the little pony who followed the six heroes around and the misfortunes that followed him in turn just as inevitably as… well, himself.
“Hey, what are you doing with my comic books?”
Glancing up at the main room of the library, he caught a glimpse of a small purple creature of some sort, standing oddly on its hind legs much like a minotaur, only with the slit pupil eyes and sharp teeth of a—
* * *
The huge dragon coiled in the bottom of Twilight Sparkle’s lair snapped and snarled at the purple unicorn who was counting the hatching eggs, making little sparks and curls of smoke rise into the cavern roof as the newborn little dragons tumbled and played in the sandy floor.
“...seven, eight! What a wonderful hatching, Spikeavarious. You must be very proud.”
“Little vermin,” snarled the vicious dragon. “Starving little beasts, always wanting to be fed.”
“Oh, don’t worry about that, Spikeavarious,” said Twilight Sparkle, picking up one of the little spawn and giggling at the way it tried to bite her nose off. “I’ll put a lure spell on some comic books in the library, and that should bring in enough changelings to feed your brood and then some.”
“I suppose,” rumbled the dragon. “Although they’ll probably eat up the brains first and just leave me the hooves.”
* * *
“DRAGON!”
Comics went flying as the changeling launched himself at the door, his disguise peeling away in a streak of green fire that only added velocity to his sprint. There was no telling how many of the vicious little monsters were about to tear him limb from limb, and the changeling went through the door faster than he had ever flown before. Even Rainbow Dash would have been left in the dust as he slammed his trajectory into a sharp ascent of roaring changeling wings with the intention of rocketing into the sky.
It probably would have worked better if he had not flown through the door to the basement.
While the stairwell in the oak tree went down, the rapid velocity of the changeling went up into the very hard and unyielding oak. Then down into the stairs. And more stairs. And more stairs. And a very firm and unyielding table leg at the bottom of the stairs.
* * *
The huge dragon coiled around the basement under the library blinked in surprise as a small snack was delivered right into its claws, tenderized by its rapid descent down the stairs. Uncoiling just slightly, the dragon moved its head enough to sniff the morsel and delight in the way it still twitched.
“Ah, fresh and still warm,” it rumbled, opening cavernous jaws and licking its lips. “I love delivery.”
* * *
Through the stars that still danced across his vision, the changeling staggered to his holey hooves and frantically looked for an exit. The lair under the library was considerably smaller and less dragony than he had expected, but piles of equipment under concealing dust covers sat around the walls, and ranks of test tubes and colorful potions crowded a nearby table.
And working at that table was a purple unicorn, whom he recognized at first sight even though she was screaming at the top of her lungs.
“Changeling!” screamed Twilight Sparkle, lighting her horn and lowering it at the soon-to-be-squished bug in question.
“Twilight!” screamed the changeling, turning and flying up the stairs with all the speed that a near lethal dose of adrenaline could provide.
Unfortunately, there was a heavy oak door in the way.
Also unfortunately, it had the hinges on the wrong side for rapid egress from the basement.
Fortunately, the door was not broken in the resulting impact.
And the darkness returned.
Stats
Page generated in 0.036 seconds
Total duration
973 users online
416,343 hits today, 2,561,572 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Well, the Tree of Knowledge is supposed to house a serpent, who watches over the tree and the fruit and encourages those who pass by to taste of it. The only difference really is the fruit of this tree can be checked out with a library card, and needs to be returned before two weeks or you'll face a fine of a bit a week.
Updates will slow to weekends only, as I'm still working through Chapter 13. Enjoy!
Thisvis gold. So much win.
everytime I see this update this song pops into my head
Wow, this guy must have -7 luck...
Oh, Mr Tolliver, you done good
Look like Tolliver's sexy bod is putting all the mare's in heat, I suspect he's actually overdosed on love and it's sort of spilling out of him and effecting those around him. Mac definitely won't be pleased.
5544355 Golly, only one bit a week? What a deal!
That is so true. Why else have so many of us come into this fandom?
5544434
all his skill points are in charisma and endurance
I kinda feel you missed an opportunity there to parody 'Does Anyone Want Any Toast?' skit from Red Dwarf.
Great. Now he has Stockholm Syndrome. Or is it Stockhorse Syndrome?
Well, he finally met Twilight. Looking forward to more.
Keep up the good work. Deus tecum.
Yup, I called it; he's being assimilated.
Oh Mister Tolliver, did you think you could escape? No one escapes Ponyville unchanged. NO ONE.
I love how afraid he is of Twilight Sparkle. He's built her up into this world-altering super being who's kinda nuts and... gets carried away... science... can move the sun... moon...
....Actually, he's right on the money, isn't he?
Twilight's a scary, scary girl. 
The moment with Dinky, though, brought manly tears to my eyes.
It'll be funny to see what happens next, though.
Tolliver: "WAAAAAAAAHHHH! DON'T EAT ME! I'M NOTHING BUT CHITIN AND BONES!"
Twilight: "No one wants to eat you!"
Tolliver: "YOU'RE GOING TO DISSECT ME AAAAAAHHH!"
I'll bet there's a scene where he's like, running around throwing stuff at her as he desperately searches for a way out, all the while wondering if this wasn't Pinkie's plan to eliminate him after all? And then, Pinkie comes in and he jumps onto her back like a scared cat and tries to hide behind her mane going "saaaaave meeee!" all child-like.
But even if not, I'm sure it'll be hilarious. Can hardly wait to see what you got!
He's been dreading meeting Twilight for so long and now he's going to wake up with an angry Twilight standing over him. I can hardly wait for that freakout. I'm picturing a lot of screaming, whimpering, crying and begging.
oh Mr Tolliver, he puts all the mares in heat. To bad he is not interested.
5544613 Nah, he's just gonna wake up strapped down to a table, only to discover that instead of feeding off of love, he's emitting love. Or, at least, lust.
I don't know why but I think the blast turned him to a half pony for some reason or another but I'm not sure if it did the same to the others... They could have reacted differently though... Any ways because he's half pony and doesn't need the love or at least most of it he is now giving it off him to the closest ponies
so Cheeriliee, and Pinkie, and AJ are all in heat....and all after running into Tolliver....
Oh sweet Luna, the blast didn't break him, it rewired him, didn't it? He has a harem field now.
5544613 I'd change it to where he hides IN her mane, then comes out shocked and quiet.
"I've just seen the universe, and it is pink."
I would be lying so hard if I said the scene with Dinky did not bring tears to my eyes.
5544578
well damn, no wonder he can talk so well, but then gets screwed by everything else...ah silly changeling, L2FO.
Huh, it's almost like there was a party explicitly mentioned last chapter and that a party cannon has other uses than blowing up changelings. I can't believe that nobody (at least in the comments I remember) caught on to that. Edit: Scratch that, 5540328 called it.
Oh god my heart!
Hmn. I wonder if Cadance and Shining's little love blast of doom also had the effect of sending everypony within range into heat. I don't remember if Cheerilee or Red Heart were at the wedding, but said range might just have included Ponyville. Or maybe the entire country. Or planet.
Ahh, library antics, always fun.
I remember a bit I did in a story:
Everything is relative, man.
5544587 I miss that show!
Finally! About time he encountered his worst nightmare.
You're darn right it is.
Oh, Dinky...
georg y u do dis
Hmm. A changeling on the fritz and an inexplicable wave of estrus. I'm sure those have nothing to do with one another.
Also, mutual attraction? Huh. I admit, you're making this pairing work in ways I never anticipated. Nice job.
The end bit was inevitable, but no less hilarious because of it. I do look forward to seeing what happens next. Presumably "Tolliver" survives; someone has to narrate the next chapter.
Looking forward to more.
5544512
Yeah... Maybe... But you have to face Frau Doktor Twilight and Spikeavarious if you are getting tardy with the return...
awwww!
And then the twilight encounter happened.
So thats why they were so into him......I wonder what their foals would look like.....oh its Twilight Sparkle, this will be fun.
5545094 I like the emotional roller-coaster.
5544987 Ah, no. The Nightmare comes later.
5544748 That would be... all of Canterlot. Talk about a crowd at the maturnity ward in eleven months.
5544682 Nope, he's all changeling.
5544677 I've already done the tied to a table gag.
5544587 I didn't want to drag the gag too far...
5544452 Mac is presently.... detained.
5544434 He's still alive.
5546213
he still has negative luck.
Man, I've never seen anyone knocked unconscious as much as Tolliver. Mr. Sandman must be making a killing off him.
This made me read back for where a small pony had become stuck on his horn.
5547483 Whoops. Corrected. You're right, that's a poor turn of phrase. Turned it into this:
Each of the little ponies was now wearing a little paper hat, almost exact duplicates of the silvered paper cone topped with a sparkly pom-pom stuck on his own horn.
5546219 I don't know about that. He seems to have attracted Pinkie Pie's romantic attent-- Oh, I see. Yeah, he's doomed.
5546658 Well, Don King is his boxing promoter...
Now don't you worry lads, it is more scared of YOU, than you are of it!
Goes to shows that every monster race has it's own conceptions about what monsters are.
Yeah... they grow up. Usually.
Ah. The good ol' "in heat" plot device
NOT SUNK YET, THAT SHIP! Hah!
Nevermind. MAN THE LIFE BOATS!
Dude... chamomile tea is made from the flowers. It's herbal tea. Heck, the chamomile plant doesn't really have leaves.
Unfortunately, the changeling was?
Okay. That scene with Dinky went like this:
"Okay, so it's a person she knows and-... oh no, don't tell me its-... oh... ow, my heart."
That kicked me right in the gut. Good work.
5544748 5557167 If you think that ripped your heart out, just wait.
5551890 "Ah. The good ol' "in heat" plot device " Oh, you went there. And I thought I was low...
Petals/Leaves Fixed! You darned tea purists. Just for that, I'm tagging a tea section in The Traveling Tutor and the Royal Exam here:
“Oh, she’s upstairs in her room,” said Velvet, stacking the dirty dishes in the sink and running some warm water. “As soon as the cookies are done, we’ll take them up with some tea and have a little mother-daughter-princess talk.”
“I suppose I could get the tea,” said Celestia, looking around for the kettle.
“It’s in the icebox.”
The sounds of scrubbing filtered back from the sink as Celestia opened the icebox and regarded the tan plastic container with healthy skepticism. “I could make some fresh,” she volunteered.
“I just mixed up a fresh pitcher this morning,” called out Velvet over the sound of cleaning dishes. “Is it gone already?”
Celestia levitated the large pitcher of amber liquid from the icebox and took a sniff. There was the distinct odor of tea, but there were also a great number of other ingredients that did not belong anywhere around proper tea, such as the distinct tang of lime, the faintest hint of cinnamon and more sugar than water ought be able to hold.
5562000
Oh, actually, the yellow core of the flower contains most of the taste, hence why whole flowers are used, and not just the petals. I'd just say "dried chamomile flowers"
(not to mention, chamomile flowers are kinda really small, so I don't see why anyone would waste time pulling just the petals off them)
He, poor chap...
So many imagine spots of all the gruesome ways he could end up snuffing it....
But the far more relevant and likely death by starvation doesn't seem to bother him...
Ow.
Ow. Ow. Ow.
I was smirking so hard I think I just pulled a muscle.
6050446 Well, she did ask if he wanted a piece just a few sentences earlier...
5563246 Oh, good grief it took me forever to get back and fix this one. But I did.
That scene with Dinky was touching.
Also, poor Toli! D:
Cya
Raziel-chan
Pinkie didn't tell Twilight, did she?
*wheeze*
*WHEEZE*
Edit 8/1/2019:
pinkieeeeeeeee stop no stop
His skull most be as sturdy as a nuclear protection Bunker. How could his skull otherwise not have spilled anything inside...