How Change Love

by Skylight77

Love Finding

Carrots, darts, flowers, hearts! Miley Heart had been shifting through the pages of her List of Cutie Mark Pictures book. Each Cutie Mark in the book was also given a short description as to what they had represented once before. She noted that they hadn’t all meant the same thing. Some of the pictures also came in triplets, making her wonder if that represented a family.

She looked at the description of one of the heart Cutie Marks. And it wasn’t what she was expecting.

Baking Box of Chocolate Hearts. Although it wasn’t what she was looking for, she pondered on it for a moment. She thought about what her parents told her.

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”Well kid, sometimes your Cutie Mark could be something you’ve never tried before. Why don’t you tell her about your experience, Fluttershy?”

Fluttershy nodded. “On the day I got my Cutie Mark, I didn’t know anything about animals. The first time I came to the ground was when I discovered them. I could communicate with them, sing with them, and take care of them.” Fluttershy brushed Miley’s mane with her hoof. “Sometimes your special talent just comes naturally.”

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Miley made sure to remember that. Her talent could come from something related to what she likes, but not in the most direct way. It made it more difficult to choose what type of Cutie Mark her form should have. It could’ve been anything related to love. But the only way she would figure out is if she tried something new herself.

Miley closed her book with a smile. She knew what she was doing today. But she also knew that she was gonna need a little bit more energy for this. Since the night was still early, and she was supposed to be in bed, she decided to sneak out of her room to get to where her parents slept.

Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were usually still up at this time, having one of their little moments together. And sure enough, when Miley was close to their room, she could already feel the spreading of their love.

Inside the room, Fluttershy was looking around in the dark, wondering where her Rainbow had gone off to. Rainbow Dash continuously appeared behind her, upside down, with a smirk smile. Every time, Fluttershy felt her Rainbow, but every time she looked, her Rainbow vanished, only to appear behind her again.

One time, she didn’t look. Because she knew that once she looked, Rainbow would just vanish again. Seeing that Fluttershy was losing interest, she decided to pick up the moment. The next time she appeared behind Fluttershy, she snuck a kiss on her cheek. That made Fluttershy turn around again, only to see nothing, again!

And then, Fluttershy yelped when gravity left her. Rainbow Dash had picked her up in the air, making sure Fluttershy saw her Rainbow eye to eye. In the air, she took Fluttershy’s hoof and extended it out. She worked her kisses along that hoof from the bottom to top, making Fluttershy giggle with each kiss.

But then, another tease. When she was about to reach her cheek again, Rainbow stopped. As soon as she looked, her lips were captured by Rainbow Dash’s.

Miley couldn’t see anything that was going on in there. But the strength of their love was strong enough for her to feed off of from being outside. Laying her head against the wall, she decided to rest there until their affections for each other had ended. She didn’t mind how long it lasted. The more they acted, the more her energy was fueled with love.

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Class was about to begin. Cheerilee took note of all of the fillies and colts who were entering the schoolhouse, keeping track of who was absent and who was present.

The last filly to arrive again was Miley Heart. Cheerilee’s ears drooped. After yesterday’s conversation with her parents, she wasn’t sure what to make of with Miley. She wanted to be in good spirits with all her students. But with Miley’s… unique traits, and other things she didn’t want to think about, she just didn’t know what to do.

“Hey Miss Cheerilee?” Cheerilee gasped. She didn’t realize Miley was already in front of her. “Has lunch already been delivered to our class?”

Whatever was on Cheerilee’s mind left her to focus on the now. “Oh… It’s a little early to be thinking about food now, right? Just be patient. It’ll come.”

Miley smiled. “So it hasn’t come yet. Great!”

Miley just walked in after that, leaving Cheerilee baffled. Focusing on the now wasn’t easy already.

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Trying to keep an eye outside and on the clock was quite difficult to do. Pretty soon it was gonna be lunch time for the class and there was still no sign of its delivery. It didn’t help that paying attention to the lectures was also important.

But finally, Miley saw what looked like a carriage that was heading towards the school. Her wings started fluttering, making her float off her seat. They carried her towards the window as the carriage started deploying.

“Miley, please sit back down,” Cheerilee said. But Miley didn’t respond. She kept looking at the carriage to make sure it was the one that delivered their lunch. And sure enough it was.

“Miley!” Cheerilee called again. The rest of the class had their eyes on her as well.

“Sit down Miley,” the voice of Scootaloo called.

“You don’t wanna get in trouble do you?” Sweetie Belle’s voice. That was when Miley turned to the class.

“I got it!” she beamed, leaving the rest of the class confused.

“Got what?” Apple Bloom asked.

“A lead on what I’ll find to enjoy!” Miley responded while flying towards the exit.

“Miley, please. There’s-” Cheerilee was interrupted.

“It was just like everypony here was saying.” Miley stopped at the door and turned around. “I wasn’t talking about myself because I didn’t know what I enjoyed. I never found that because everything I did was with my family. Now I found a chance, and it all starts out there!” She pointed a hoof outside, to nowhere in particular. Some of the students believed she meant to point at the carriage, which was already leaving.

“Miley-” Cheerilee was interrupted again.

“And besides, my parents talked to me yesterday, and they said everypony here needed some space away from me. It’s always good to listen to your parents, so here is your space!” Miley’s words sounded mad, but her tone sounded pleasant. She left the school with a single ‘bye’, taking flight towards the direction the carriage headed.

Cheerilee gave an exhausted sighed. “Stay here class. I have to do something.” And now Cheerilee was leaving the school. The fillies and colts were confused. Some of them looked to one another, discussing what just happened and why. But none of them were as ashamed as Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo. They hid themselves under their seat with their ears flat on their heads.

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”Go on, Miley, try it out.”

She looked at the cloud Rainbow Dash was jestering to her. She hadn’t flown this high by herself that many times, so keeping herself airborne for long periods of time was exhausting. She did as Rainbow Dash told her and let herself land on the cloud.

A bit of fear was still on her mind even after landing. Looking down at the cloud, she could see that it was slowly changing color. The fact that she could also see the ground far below from the corners of her eyes didn’t help either.

“Just relax,” Rainbow spoke again and flew up to her. “The clouds out here can feel your emotions. As long as you don’t cloud your mind, you’ll be safe around them.”

Looking at Rainbow Dash helped clear her mind of the fear of falling off. She knew that even if she did fall, there was somepony here to catch her, somepony who was always there for her. And as long as her mind was filled with happiness, this cloud wouldn’t harm her.

Rainbow smiled seeing the cloud brighten back to its normal white color. “Remember, clouds have emotions too. So treat them right, and they’ll carry you anywhere.” Rainbow backed herself further away from her and the cloud. “Now let’s see you use that cloud to come to me. Just hang onto it and gently flutter those wings. Come on.”

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Miley allowed her cloud to carry her in the skies of Ponyville, using it to keep track of the carriage she was following. It was always pleasant whenever moments like these brought memories to her. She sometimes wished she could feed off of her own love. But having those memories was enough for her.

Now, she wanted to make them proud. This is why she’s following this carriage. She felt she already had a lead on what her talent was. But she wasn’t sure how it could be expressed, yet.

Seeing that the carriage had stopped and reached its destination, Miley stopped her cloud. She made sure to note which building it was stopping to. Leaving the cloud behind, she let herself flutter down to the opposite side.

Taking a few sniffs, Miley noticed the flowers that had been growing in the back of the house. But those flowers were a bit strange to her. Although to another pony, they would probably look just like any other flower. After landing, she moved closer to the flowers. She could already feel how different they were. They weren’t expressing any sort of love around them, yet they looked healthy.

Miley took a few glances around her surroundings to make sure nopony was around, then looked at the house. She moved under one of the windows and hid her head beneath the window sill. After placing a hoof over her changeling horn hidden beneath her mane, she closed her eyes and sparked her changeling magic with as little strength as she needed.

Thanks to the use of her magic, she could now see what was inside the building. But because of the strength she put into her magic, she wasn’t able to move around much. If somepony were to see her, it would look like she was just staring at a wall. Instead, her vision was seeing through that window.

What she saw was a pretty complex set of decorated furniture. Some sofas held handles that looked like it could change their shape. There were shelves packed with supplies and vases that looked pretty expensive. There was even a display of diamonds near the front door. The walls held picture frames of bags of bits and some of them with a pony receiving them.

It was everything she could describe as a rich place. She was sure there was more to it, but she couldn’t get a clear focus on them. The atmosphere inside the house was making her too nervous to try and focus better. What she was looking for wasn’t its design, but rather, its feel.

But Miley found nothing. There was no love surrounding this house. She could see the pictures of a developed family living here, but the love was missing. A family without love, it was almost like…

Miley turned off her magic and moved away from the house, shaking her head. She suddenly felt like she was out of breath. Something was trying to enter her mind, but she shook it away.

Whatever it was, she wasn’t gonna let that stop her from finding what she was looking for. She decided to stop delaying and move to the front of the building. Clearing her mind with a smile, she knocked on the front door. It didn’t take long before an answer was made. The answerer was a female pony who she believed was the wife of the family.

“Hello Mrs. Rich!” Miley said while fluttering her wings. But the mare didn’t respond back. She just shut the door on Miley’s face. Her ears fell flat. She tried knocking on the door again. There was no answer.

Miley looked down in shame. There was no love in presence or action here. Whatever she was looking for was not going to be found here.

But as soon as that crossed her mind, her magic sensed something else. The magical spark made her body jolt. She quickly tried to hide it with her hoof, then jumped to a nearby bush. Keeping her hoof to her horn, she tried to check what it was.

She could feel love coming from somewhere else. But this sort of love was different. Not one that she would call lovely, but it was still there. Peaking out of the bush, she looked in the direction of where it was coming from. But with how many ponies were walking around, she couldn’t pinpoint where it was.

Thankfully, it looked like none of the ponies noticed her when her horn sparked, so she was able to come out of hiding. Her horn wasn’t shining anymore, but she still kept her hoof on it while moving closer to the source she felt.

It seemed to be coming from a green coat and black haired female earth pony sitting on a bench just on the edge of the town roads. She seemed to be staring at a photo, allowing Miley to sneak behind the bench to get a better feel.

The love that Miley was feeling from this pony felt familiar somehow. It felt empty, yet it was there. All she knew was that the pony on that bench seemed sad.

Deciding to figure out what was causing this, Miley activated her changeling magic again. She released a small ball of light and gently floated it in the air. With sweat dripping along her head, she glanced toward the pony and the light to make sure it was in the right position. When she was sure she was aiming properly, she quickly zipped the light straight at the photo.

The photo shined as soon as the light touched, making the pony gasp while Miley gasped inside. She fled the scene before the pony could look around to find the cause. Miley was already behind a building, sweat dripping down her forehead. She waited there for a few seconds. Nopony came to her, making her sigh in relief.

“I wish I could’ve had more time to learn about that. My parents are really good teachers.” She wanted to think back at the memory that taught her how to sneak around, but she needed to keep something else in her mind.

For that split second where her magic made contact with the photo, she was able to feel what was causing that strange love. She could only describe it as untapped love. There was somepony that this green pony had special feelings for, but they either didn’t have the same feelings, or didn’t know she felt that way about them.

That sort of feeling felt very familiar to Miley for some reason. It was not something she could feed off of though. But maybe she could do something about it. Keeping herself attached to that untapped love, she used her magic again to search for the source.

Author's Note:

I hope those flash backs aren't too annoying because they're kinda important. I wanted Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy's influence to be shown in many ways.

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