//------------------------------// // 12 Feathers // Story: For science - Book three // by Znegil //------------------------------// We walked through the snow towards town hall where Pinkie had prepared the party. It must have been below freezing and little clouds of vapor appeared every time we exhaled. “How is the improvised clothing working so far?”, I asked Chrysalis. “Quite good.”, she replied. “My head and neck are freezing but the rest of my body is surprisingly cozy.” We kept walking through the white powdery Ponyville. After a few more minutes I heard some humming from Twilight, it sounded a lot like a Christmas Tune. It was a simple melody, so I just joined in after a moment, humming along. When she noticed what I was doing she turned her head towards me and smiled but kept on humming. “Right, it's just about two weeks until ‘Hearth's Warming Eve’.”, Chrysalis remarked. “It should be your favorite holiday since it's all about love.”, Twilight commented. “Oh yes, it is.”, the changeling princess agreed. “Every town is so overflowing with love, gathering is a breeze. In fact, it's so much it's hard not to absorb more even after you're already full. I tend to gain around six pounds to my true changeling form when I'm near large amounts of ponies on Hearth's Warming Eve, it takes me forever to lose that weight again.” I heard a giggle from Twilight and I laughed as well. “There is nothing funny about that.”, Chrysalis complained. “You know how much I need to train to get into shape again?!” “Sorry about that.”, I replied. “It was just so unexpected to hear the ‘changeling warrior princess’ worry about her figure.” She blushed and muttered: “I don't see what that has to do with anything…” “I'm pretty sure you and Lavender can do some things together to burn off this extra energy.”, I said with a lewd smile. I received a kick from my marefriend for this, but Chrysalis was nodding to herself. “I think you're right, that's a great idea.”, she agreed smiling. We continued our way through town and I noticed some ponies had already put up their holiday decorations. This all looked quite familiar to the little town I grew up… well apart from the talking ponies of course. I couldn't wait to see how our shared holiday here would turn out and made a mental note to get a present for Twilight soon. … We arrived at town hall pretty much on time. Through the windows I could see there were already a huge number of ponies inside and more were coming from all sides, walking towards the hall. “As to be expected from Pinkie, I looks like nearly everyone in Ponyville will attend.”, Twilight pointed out. “Let's go in and wait there for a few more minutes, then you can introduce yourself to everypony.”, I said and walked to the door with them. Suddenly I noticed Chrysalis wasn't with us anymore. I turned around and saw her standing back a few feet looking quite nervous. “What’s the matter?”, I asked and walked back to her. “I’m not sure I can do this…”, she whispered subdued. “To be in front of this many ponies without my disguise… it feels so wrong to me, decades of training and blending in are telling me not to do this.” “There is no reason to fear them. They have been very welcoming to this strange bipedal creature. “, I told her pointing at myself. “I… I don’t fear any of them.”, she replied and straightened her posture. “It just goes against my instincts to be outnumbered like this without my disguise.” “Outnumbered… sounds like your warrior instincts to me.”, I told her. “But these ponies are not your enemy, believe me. I’m looking much more alien to them then you do. Of course, some of them will fear you for how you look and will keep their distance, it was the same for me, but the more they got to know me this number diminished.” She took a few deep breaths. “I know all you said is true. Let me have just a few moments to calm down and convince myself.” She closed her eyes. While other ponies passed us, many looking curious at our changeling guest, it was quite visible how she slowly relaxed. “Hi there!”, a high pitched voice shouted next to us. It made Chrysalis jump and she got into a defensive stance. “I told you not to appear out of nowhere.”, Chrysalis shouted at Pinkie. “But I just walked out of town hall.”, she answered with a confused look but her mood lightened up pretty much instantly. “I came out to tell you it's almost time to introduce yourself to Ponyville, come on in.” “I was just about to.”, Chrysalis replied and straightened her pose again. She tried her best to look unaffected by everything she had worried before. She took another deep breath and walked towards the entrance of town hall, Pinkie following her in her typical bouncy way. “Let's try to stay close to her.”, I told Twilight and we followed them swiftly. Pinkie led the guest of honor towards a lectern on a podium in the front of the hall, many heads curiously turned as they passed. “Oh no! What a crime against fashion.”, we heard from the pony we had expected it from. She turned around and spotted us in the crowd. “Why haven't you visited my shop?”, she addressed us in an accusing tone, sounding like we had killed somepony. We ducked down and tried to blend in with the crowd. We reached the first row and found some free seats there. I saw Pinkie was talking to Chrysalis who was slowly nodding while she took off her makeshift clothing. “Honey, is Pinkie Pie coaching Chrysalis what to say?”, Twilight asked me looking a bit panicked. “It looks like it…”, I replied. “Suddenly I wished we had talked to her about what she should say.” I thought about going to her, but in that moment Pinkie started to speak out loud, focusing everypony’s attention on her and the changeling standing next to her. “Hello everypony! Thank you all for coming tonight so we can welcome our newest friend.” She pushed Chrysalis in front of her. The guest of honor just stared at the crowd for about ten seconds before she finally started to speak. “Hi, my name is Chrysalis and I'm a changeling.” “Hi, Chrysalis!”, about half the crowd shouted back and the changeling suddenly wasn't visible anymore. A moment later she reappeared from behind the lectern. “I dropped something… found it.” She coughed and continued. “I want to tell you about me and my race today, so you don't have to be afraid of us.” She looked at Pinkie for a moment who showed an encouraging smile. “We don't eat ponies.” I instantly facepalmed. How could anyone have thought something like that? But as I looked around to see everypony's reaction I found some of them actually looked relieved to hear that, Lily, Daisy, and Rose in special. I also saw a few ponies were late and entered silently, Fluttershy and Dashie were among them. Chrysalis continued: “We gain power and nourishment from positive emotions of advanced races like ponies, zebras and so on. Love it by far the most powerful source for us. We are able to absorb this energy just by being close to the creature having these feelings. None of you is losing anything when we do this, if we don't absorb it, it just dissolves anyway. We change our forms and appearance to blend in and stay hidden, but we want to get to know each other now, so we can find a way to live together without hiding. If there are any questions left, you can come to me and ask them within the next few hours or whenever you see me in the future.” There was the stomping sound ponies used as applause and Chrysalis stepped down from the podium looking very relieved. “That was much better than I had expected.”, I addressed Twilight who nodded in agreement. Since there were instantly a lot of ponies surrounding Chrysalis to ask their questions, I decided to go the other way to greet Fluttershy and Dashie to see how they were doing. It took me a while but I made it all the way to them without getting to close to Rarity, they still stood near the entrance and looked a bit nervous. They were wearing simple but beautiful dresses that matched together quite perfectly, the work of Rarity for sure. “Hey, my friends.”, I greeted them. Smiling they bumped their hooves with me, then I noticed something special. “Wow, you are wearing each other's feathers in your mane, that looks so cute.” The whole room became quiet in an instant while both of them blushed. I was confused and looked around, unsure what had happened. “Could somepony tell me why everypony is looking this way? Did I say something wrong?” “The feather-thing means we are engaged.”, Rainbow told me surprisingly bashful. “I asked her yesterday." I felt so happy for them… but in addition I felt a huge wave of happiness from the ponies behind me, I almost felt high from it… or maybe I was only imagining things. I drew the two into a firm hug and kissed their cheeks. “I'm so so happy for you, you are such a great couple.” “Without you, I may never had brought up the courage to confess my feelings to her.”, Fluttershy whispered to me. "I would like you to be my best mare.” I was confused for a short moment but I quickly realized it's meaning from the context. “I gladly accept.”, I replied. I noticed a line of ponies who wanted to congratulate the couple on their decision was quickly forming behind me. “We have to talk more about this later.”, I said. “Sure, maybe you could visit us for tea tomorrow.”, Fluttershy suggested. “I’m looking forward to it.”, I replied and made room for others to speak with them. I passed Twilight on my way back, she was standing in line to get to her friends so she could give them her best wishes too. I brushed my fingers through her mane and gave her a little kiss. I still was in an extremely good mood and I knew exactly what I would give her as present now… I needed to visit the jewelry within the next few days. I pointed towards Chrysalis as I continued my way, she nodded. As I arrived next to the guest of honor there were just a few ponies left talking to her, it looked like our friend's announcement had given her a bit more space. I stood close enough so I was able to hear the easy everyday questions she got asked, nothing I didn’t know already and some ponies just wanted to chat with this unfamiliar creature. Although she did her best to smile and be polite to everyone, I felt how tense and nervous she was, she relaxed a little bit as she noticed I was back. I just waited close to her in case she needed any help.