Family 101

by Kail

First Day Pt. 2

Quicksilver left Scootaloo at school and headed back into town to look for a job.

Quicksilver sighed. What would I even be qualified for? I doubt any of these ponies need my skill set. Not much call for a siege drone with nothing to... siege.

As Quicksilver was wandering town, thinking about what she could possibly do for work, she bumped into someone. The collision knocked the pony to the ground, a pony Quicksilver knew.

“Sorry about that, Twilight. I’m a bit distracted.”

Quicksilver offered a hoof to the unicorn who shook her head and gave Quicksilver a confused look.

“Have we met? Or are you one of the other changelings living here?”

Quicksilver dropped her disguise. “Remember me now?”

Twilight nodded. “Shiv, right? You’re the changeling that came back with Lightning.”

Quicksilver nodded and continued walking, followed by Twilight. “Actually I changed my name to Quicksilver.”

Twilight glanced at the changeling. “Why change it?”

Quicksilver sighed. “Well I figured it’d cement the fact that I’ve got a new life. Also, Scootaloo said it would be more pony-ish and help ponies get used to me.”

Twilight hmmd in agreement as she listened to Quicksilver.

“Anyway, now I’m looking for a job to help Lightning in the finance department. Problem is I’m not sure where to go.”

Twilight smiled. “Well I think I can help with that. Follow me.”

With that statement, Twilight broke into a fast trot, Quicksilver followed, not far behind.

===============================================

Quicksilver rose a brow as she watched Twilight dart around her personal study. The unicorn had led them back to the library that served as Twilight’s home and work area, but when Quicksilver questioned Twilight, all she’d said was, “You’ll see.”

After a few more minutes of Twilight running around, the unicorn stood in front of the changeling with various writing materials and a large smile.

Quicksilver’s brow stayed elevated as she eyed the papers, journals and quills.

“Are you going to tell me what all this is or are we gonna play twenty questions?”

Twilight chuckled. “Well ever since Lightning became a friend I’ve been more interested in the changelings. So when I heard you needed work I had an idea. If you’re willing, I’d like to ask you questions about the changelings as well as do some experiments on you.”

Quicksilver tilted her head. “What kind of experiments?”

Twilight perked up eagerly, happy that Quicksilver seemed to be interested in being a test subject.

“Oh, nothing invasive. I just want to do some magical scans of your body. It’ll help me see at what level various stimuli affect you and your mana absorption rate. Oh and maybe we can even see if I can tap into the same frequency as the hive mind! This could be a scientific breakthrough!”

Quicksilver chuckled at the look on Twilight’s face. The unicorn looked like a foal on Hearths Warming day, complete with a huge smile and eyes that seemed to sparkle.

“Well I guess that could be interesting. But how will you pay me?”

Twilight cleared her throat and adopted a more professional tone. “I get a stipend from Princess Celestia for scientific research. It’s all part of being her student.”

Quicksilver nodded. “What about after you do all the science and ask all the questions you want? Where do I go for work then?”

Twilight grinned. “Well I am in need of an assistant. I have spike, but he’s not suited to help me with scientific research. You on the other hoof are perfect for that.”

Quicksilver tilted her head. “How so?”

Twilight grinned wider. “With what I learned from Lightning, I know changeling bodies are resilient and because you can shift into a unicorn I can use you as a magical focus for more advanced research.”

As Twilight spoke she began heading downstairs, followed by Quicksilver and her note taking materials.

“Also I’d assume you’re very detail oriented, given you were a commander of an attack cell. Am I right?” Quicksilver nodded and Twilight continued. “Add all that up and it makes you a perfect research subject and research assistant. So, you on board?”

Quicksilver grinned. “Sounds easy enough. Where do we start?”

Twilight smiled and dipped a quill in an inkwell, bringing the inked utensil above a fresh sheet of parchment.

“First we’ll start with some questions. Now these questions will get a little invasive, so be prepared for that.”

Receiving a nod Twilight began. “Lightning once mentioned the changeling lay eggs. Would you say you’re more insect or mammal?”

“The changelings aren’t either one. We’re more of a hybrid.”

Twilights quill scrawled the paper as she went on. “A hybrid? How so?”

Quicksilver tilted her head in thought. “I heard from some of the older commanders that we probably evolved over time from something called Breezies. Some forgotten race of ponies I think. It’s probably why we resemble ponies.”

Twilight gasped. “Breezies? Celestia mentioned that they just disappeared when I asked about them. Apparently, though they preferred living apart from us, they would trade knowledge with ponies until one day they vanished. This explains one mystery, but do you know anything else about the possible evolution?”

The changeling shook her head. “No. Like I said, the older commanders would talk about our history, but it’s been so long I think it’s mostly speculation.”

Twilight nodded. “Well at least that’s something of a solution to an Equestrian mystery. Moving on, how do changelings reproduce?”

Quicksilver rose a brow. “Twilight, we may be hybrids but we breed like regular ponies. There’s no ovipositing if that’s what you’re getting at.”

The unicorn chuckled. “Just making sure. Well then what about if you and Lightning wanted to have children? Would one of you, change the plumbing as it were?”

Quicksilver sighed. “You weren’t kidding about these questions being invasive. Anyway, yes one of us would be the giver and the other the receiver.”

Twilight nodded. “Ok let’s change gears now. Can you describe how your changeling magic works?”

Quicksilver nodded. “There’s the transforming part, which you know about, but there’s a few other things we can do. One of them is that flame up we can do. Another is our body alteration.”

Twilight shot the changeling a confused look. “Body alteration? Like how you can make your forelegs into a blade?”

Quicksilver shook her head. “That’s only part of it. We can change little things about ourselves too. Our skin strength, bone density, things like that.”

Twilight wrote furiously as Quicksilver spoke. “Fascinating. Now what about nourishment? Can you eat regular food or are emotions the only thing that sustain you?”

Quicksilver folded her forelegs in thought. “It’s not as cut and dry as that. We can eat regular food and it does give us some energy but emotions are our main food source. It’s a sort of secondary failsafe when we can’t get emotions.”

Twilight nodded. “Like if I ate nothing but junk food, it’d fill the need for sustenance but wouldn’t be the best thing for me, or is there more to it then that?”

The changeling nodded. “You’re almost right. We can live of regular food for a while, but we need emotions to live. And from what I’ve learned with living with Lightning and Scootaloo, emotions directed at us specifically are more then enough to keep us going.”

Twilight rose a brow. “What about all the other changelings? The ones who don’t have friends or relationships yet?”

Quicksilver waved a hoof dismissively. “They can survive on the residual positive emotions around here. You ponies have a lot of indirect positive emotions that just float around.”

Twilight chuckled. “We are pretty friendly. I think that’s enough for now, let’s move on to the tests.”

Twilight set aside the notes she’d taken and rose from her position on the floor and began walking to the back of the library. Quicksilver followed as the unicorn led her down a set of stairs and into a room with all types of machinery and chemical tables. Twilight trotted over to a large machine and used her magic to levitate several electrodes.

Twilight turned to Quicksilver with a grin. “Now let’s strap you in and get to testing!”

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After several hours and various tests, both magical and non, Twilight was satisfied. For today anyway.

Twilight unhooded the helmet on quicksilvers head. “Well you’ve got some very interesting brain waves. It’ll take a while to compile all this data so tomorrow you can help me with that.”

Quicksilver nodded. ‘Sure, but when do I get paid?”

Twilight chuckled. “You’ll get paid every two weeks. That sound ok?”

“Yeah, that’s fine. You need anything else?”

Twilight shook her head. “No, you can go if you want.”

The changeling nodded and headed for the door. “See you tomorrow then.”

Quicksilver left the library and headed home with a smile on her face. I’ve got a job and it only took me all of ten minutes to find it! Talk about luck.

Quicksilver trotted through town happily until reaching her home. Walking through the door, she was met with an upset Lightning. Suddenly her good mood then took a severe nosedive. “Lightning, what’s wrong?”

Lightning huffed, a grimace set firmly on her face. “We’ve got trouble.”

Quicksilver rose a brow. “What kind of trouble?”

Lightnings paced exasperatedly. “There’s a group of ponies in town that don’t want us here, and from the day I’ve had, I think they’re going to be a problem.”

Quicksilver shook her head. “Is Scootaloo home yet?”

Lightning glanced at the stairs before looking back to Quicksilver. “Yes, but she doesn’t know about it. She’s been with her friends since school ended.”

Quicksilver nodded. “Ok. Let’s try to keep her out of this.”

Lightning scowled and lowered her head, her eyes narrowed in annoyance. “How’ll we keep her out of it? The town she calls home doesn’t want us.”

Quicksilver used a hoof to lift Lightning’s head, giving her a small smile. “Hey, we can figure it out. Like you said, when they get used to us, it’ll die down.”

Lightning nodded, smiling a bit herself. “Ok. So how’d your day go?”

Quicksilver’s smile widened as she began to tell Lightning about her job with Twilight. The news Lightning had given her weighed heavily on Quicksilver’s mind. So soon after coming to Ponyville and already things were getting tense. But for now she knew the only thing to do was wait. And hope things didn’t get any worse.

Comments

[Perteks]

Waiting for more :D

[Gabriel LaVedier]

The plot thickens and things get more interesting. Also, good to know they can have children.

[Cloud_Surfer]

Those last few words should be all we need to know what happens.

[theRedBrony]

Meh, they'll fix it somehow. The elements are on the changelings' side, and everypony know the elements run that town.

[DEMADNESS13]

interesting. witing for more

[NightmareKnight]

1057541Yes. I want to see Scootaloo get a sibling.

[brony323]

The unicorn chuckled. “Just making sure. Well then what about if you and Lightning wanted to have children? Would one of you, change the plumbing as it were?”

Oh Twily....... X.x