• Published 29th Jun 2016
  • 5,183 Views, 269 Comments

I'm no Mother, right? - Sense of Humor



In which Starlight discovers a filly taking shelter from a storm and changes her own life forever.

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Page 8

"She just had to extensively use the bubble bath, didn't she?" Starlight somehow said to the empty chair in front of her, her cheeks bulging with rather scrumptious cupcakes. Her expression didn't seem all that happy with this, though. "I said make as many as you like but NOT literally. Is that too hard to understand...?"

Her had been sent to bed ten minutes earlier, without a single cupcake to sleep on. Starlight didn't like the idea of punishing her by taking away something she helped to make, but she didn't have much other choice. The unicorn cringed when she remembered how long it took to clean up the bubbles. Aqua was lucky she didn't have to clean it up, right? Even so, Starlight worried she was being too harsh towards her daughter about what happened today. She had to remind herself that while fillies made mistakes, they also had to learn from them.

"*sigh*..."

She groaned after swallowing the cupcake and let her head fall onto the table, smashing her snout in the crystal surface. Her head only shot up again when she heard a brief knock on the door of the castle, her mane slightly undone due to the swift movement. The unicorn eagerly trotted over to the main door in anticipation of seeing of her teacher arrive home, and swung open the giant doors to reveal someone else there. It was somewhat like a pony, but his black shell that worked as his body nearly camouflaged him in the night and his leathery aqua colored wings glinted. Her eyes peered into his entirely blue eyeballs, until she actually recognized him. " Thorax?"

"Heh heh...In the Flesh." The introduced Changeling waved nervously at her, a forked red tongue flickered past his visible fangs briefly. She remembered seeing him while she was with Twilight in he crystal empire, and never officially spoke with guy. Partly because he was being hunted most of the time, and was only accepted near the end of her stay. To be honest, he was the first changeling she'd ever seen in her life. " You're, er...Nightlight Shimmer?"

Starlight snorted on a laugh, biting her bottom lip for a moment. "No...thankfully. I'm Starlight Glimmer. It's great to actually be talking with you. We didn't get to do much of that in Canterlot, did we?"

"Unfortunately not. Sorry to arrive here at such a weird time of night, but my train was kinda weird and I didn't want to cause trouble by flying into ponyville, y'know? I don't know if everypony actually knows I'm not..." He trailed off and made something akin to a coughing sound. "...gonna suck their love out or anything like that." After a bit of silence, he politely added: "Bet ya wanna know why I'm here."

Starlight sidestepped to allow him entry, and he hesitantly walked inside. Maybe he was touched by her...minimal kindness or something. "kinda, yeah. Come inside while you're explaining it all. I don't know if you feel coldness or not, but it definitely bothers me."

"You've never really heard or seen of changelings, have you?" Thorax asked.

"heard, yes. Seen...not so much. Am I missing something?"

He checked his hooves for signs of any mud he might accidentally have gotten in the castle, speaking all the while. "Well, my kind are a little like...snakes! Yeah. We're pretty good when we have a source of warmth for a while, especially when traveling. But almost like a snake, we would eventually need a source of warm blood to heat our cold blood and sustain us a while longer...Not that you would have anything to worry about, cuz I'm learning to make my own love and all that to keep from doing anything snakey." He finished with a simple shrug and another flicker of his tongue. Starlight eyed him for a moment.

"Are you gonna randomnly do that all the time?"

"Do what?" Another flicker.

"That...that tongue thing. Do you always do that?"

"Yeah...It's kinda like when a pony flicks his or her ear to swat a fly. A natural thing I do...I-I can try toning down on it if you want?"

"No! You don't have to change anything about yourself! It's just new to me..." Starlight gasped and blushed visibly. "D'oh! Here I am talking too much! Distracting you and all."

"Uh, that's okay! I like hearing you talk!" Thorax smiled abruptly, commencing the fourteen second long silence between them. "...But, on another note, I came here because of another weird changeling quirk of mine. See, if we're born and our queen isn't immediately there we have this sense that detects strange entities of dark potential...which is usually our Queen."

She raised an eyebrow, as he expected. "That has to do with this castle because..?"

"I came here mostly because Ponyville is the friendliest place, or so I've been told. I might stay here for a week to test that." Thorax looked around the gloomy castle with an equally gloomy frown. "There's another reason, though... either I'm dying, or there's another changeling Queen in this castle."

"What?"

"I know it sounds crazy...but I don't feel fatally ill, and there's definitely a weird entity of...bad stuff in this place. But it has to be a changeling queen, because nothing can be bleeding that much negativity!"

"Thorax,Buddy, Pal..." Starlight placed a hoof on his shoulder, much to his confusion. "I may be stupid, but I'm pretty sure I would know if there was a Queen changeling in this castle. But, you're welcome to check."

"Great! I can actually track it down easily now that I know you won't kick me out." Thorax let his tongue flicker out longer than before, his head turning towards the stairs before starting to walk up it. Starlight curiously followed her non-pony friend as if he were a bloodhound following a trail, even if he held his head up instead of down. She frowned deeply when he stopped before an all too familiar door. "Looks like it's in here."

There was no way that Thorax could have known where Aqua's room was ahead of coming here, so the unicorn's heart began to hammer in her chest. Could there be a changeling queen inside with her daughter? "I...Uh.." She hesitated worriedly and pushed open the door to the room. From the glow of the moonlight, she could see that Her daughter was sleeping soundlessly in her bed...partially obscured by blankets. "Oh...Oh thank goodness...."

"That's weird! The entity is gone now." Thorax whispered to keep from awakening the unknown filly. "But who's that?"

Starlight gently closed the door so they could talk louder, but not before giving a soft smile to her sleeping baby...well, Aqua was a baby to her. " That is my daughter, Aqua Sprinkle. I sent her to bed earlier after a little...problem she caused... She's also adopted."

"Oh, so you're not married? I assumed you were for some reason." Thorax muttered more to himself than her. "So...I'm sorry about making such a fuss. Maybe I really am dying and I just don't know it."

"Or you could just be having a bad senses day? Ever think of that?"

"Meh...That's a happier thought."

Starlight giggled a little, starting to lead him back down the stairs on instinct. "Where are you living by the way? Some motel I bet."

"I'll have to earn bits first." Thorax explained to her, his odd hooves clunking on the stair steps like old wood stilts. " Get a job somewhere and get the bits that way. then I'll have a place to live. For now, I can deal with the outside."

The unicorn stared at him incredulously and stopped to stand in front of him. The changeling swallowed at such an odd stare being placed on him. " No, you will NOT be dealing with the outside!"

"Really, I can-"

"You can't and you won't! We have a thousand rooms in this castle." She commanded with a sneer. "And you're gonna stay in one until you get enough bits! And that's final."

When she smiled jokingly with him at last, Thorax rolled his eyes...not that she could see it. "Fine. Why not?"

Author's Note:

Random cameo from Thorax is random.

Hope you liked this page too! I recently drew a picture for it:

Yes, behold my bad art skills. While you're at it, please please pleeeease check out my new horror story! Yes, I'm giving horror a try, it's fascinating isn't it? :

https://www.fimfiction.net/story/345095/periculum


Oh! And to avoid any confusion, The villain is not a changeling at all!