As I opened my eyes Twilight was already looking at me smiling.
“Morning my love.”, she greeted me with a kiss. “Let’s hope we have a normal day for a change.”
“I actually have something interesting to tell you.”, I replied and got a curious look by her. “I believe I can sometimes sense others feelings as well.”
“You do?”, she was excited instantly.”When? How? Tell me everything about it!”
I smiled at this sight, I loved seeing her like this, so full of energy.
“Well, you do know how we talked about these strong feelings of friendship back when I visited Fluttershy after I had…”
I told her all the stuff I told Chrysalis yesterday but followed her suggestion not to notice I had talked to her first.
…
“That is so fascinating. There are so many experiments we can do to learn more about this.”, Twilight told me in a slightly high pitched voice while she was bouncing on the spot in a Pinkie-like manner.
“I think we should have breakfast first.”, I replied with a warm smile.
“Sure, sure, but after that we can…”
“Don’t forget we haven’t finished our list with Chrysalis abilities.”, I reminded her. “And there is chemistry, my ‘magic’ hand…”
“So much to learn, so much to learn…”, she repeated with a huge smile on her face.
“But first I will visit Rarity with Chrysalis after breakfast, we urgently need more winter clothing.”, I told her. “You know, with so much different stuff to research… it would be great to have a list or a time schedule organizing all of it.”
I felt an arousal through our connection as if I had proposed to make love for the next hour.
‘She really LOVES to organize complicated stuff.’, I thought to myself.
“I will start doing it right now.”, she answered and looked like she was about to drool.
“After we had a proper breakfast together.”, I said and literally had to drag her towards the breakfast table.
“But I want to start right away.”, she complained and tried to escape my grip.
I already regretted mentioning this before breakfast. I saw Chrysalis coming down the stairs as well, smiling at our behavior.
“Well, I can't stop you if you really want to start right now.”, I said and let go of her. “I guess this a good opportunity to show our guest the family album your parents have sent me, you looked sooo cute as a filly.”
“Oh, I would love to see this.”, Chryssi said grinning as she reached us.
“You wouldn't dare…”
“You know I'm only joking, right.”, I told her with a warm smile. “I won't show such things against your will and I don't want to pressure you doing anything. But please let's have breakfast together before you start, you need the energy and you will totally forget anything around you once you start making this list.”
“Fine, fine. I know you're right.”, she gave in and followed us to the breakfast table.
Spike had already been diligent, there was a huge array of breakfast items on the table. Pancakes, waffles, fruit, oatmeal, apple and orange juice… I felt he was feeling a bit guilty, probably for staying up late and what happened afterward, that’s why he made so much food for us. He… wait… I could feel his guilt, this wasn’t an assumption, I could actually feel it. I wasn’t sure what had activated my ability or how to focus it. At the same time I understood this gave me a new kind of responsibility, I couldn’t just tell everyone else how Spike felt right now.
“Wow Spike.”, She addressed him. “You don't have to prepare us so much stuff for us, one item would have been enough.”
“I just felt like it today, maybe it’s the holiday spirit.”, he answered while he avoided looking directly at her but instead concentrated on getting the fresh bread out of the oven.
“Or maybe you're hoping to get a bigger present this way.”, Twilight speculated smiling.
“Wow, a bigger book.”, he mumbled, I only heard it because I stood right next to him.
…
Chrysalis and I were on our way to Rarity’s boutique, I was quite stuffed because I had insisted on eating something of every item Spike had prepared for us. Chrysalis had only sampled some of the food for its taste and wore the makeshift thing I had made to keep her warm.
“I felt Spike’s guilt earlier, but I don’t know how I did it.”, I told her while we walked along a nearly empty path.
She looked at me surprised and took some time before answering me.
“Without using the magic of someone else, your own magic is still pretty weak and the amount of energy needed for a spell is based on the proximity to the target.”, she mused.
“Based on how you used magic so far… I guess it happened because you wanted to know how he felt, he was close to you and this kind of magic doesn’t seem to use much energy from you. I guess noticing feelings is pretty easy for you, just like shapeshifting is for me… well, without this clamp on my horn it is.”
I was impressed by her analysis of what had happened, it sounded quite possible to me.
“But how do I control this ability?”, I asked.
Again we walked silently next to each other while she thought about a response. We had nearly reached the boutique when she finally replied.
“I believe you should actively try to use it next to others, if you do it often enough you will get the hang of it. Once you can activate it willingly you should also be able to keep it from happening by accident.”
I thought about it for a moment. “This too makes a lot of sense, I'm really surprised by all that good advice you're giving.”
“Well if you live as long as me you learn a lot of stuff, no big deal.”, she replied.
I wondered... I felt it would be okay to ask now.
“How old exactly are you?”
“What do you think how old I am?”, she asked smiling.
“I'm not falling for this trap.”, I answered. “I have no point of reference I could use to guess your age.”
“Ohhh, you're no fun.”, she replied and blew a raspberry.
It was nice to see her joking around a bit, it felt like she was warming up to me.
“I am 204 years old.”, she told me. “That's young for a changeling princess, we can get up to 1200 years.”
I was very impressed to hear that. “Wow, that's such a long time… doesn't life become boring after such a huge time span?”
She chuckled. “Well if I stayed in one place maybe, but I meet new individuals and situations all the time while gathering.”
“But now that you have lavender and the need to gather might go away this might change.”
She stopped walking and looked perplexed.
“I haven't thought about that yet.”, she replied after a moment. “I guess since ponies lifespans are unfortunately short, I will have a happy fascinating time with Lavender and… afterward there will be other interesting things I can find or do in this world.”
My stomach formed to a knot as I heard what she had just said. “What do you mean by ‘unfortunately short lifespan’?”, I asked.
She looked at me surprised; others tend to forget I lack much of the common knowledge of this world.
“Only around a century.”, she said with a sad voice. “I wished Lavender could accompany me for all my life.”
I had been really scared for a moment, I had imagined something like a few decades from the tone she had used.
I saw the door of the Boutique slide open and Rarity appeared in the doorframe.
“Good morning my dears. I saw you two through the window, come on in. I can't wait to put her into something decent.”, she said looking at Chrysalis.