//------------------------------//
// Chapter 2:  Meet the Family and Feeding the Hungry 
// Story: The Melding of Two Worlds Pt. 2: Home and the Battlefield 
// by Luckless 
//------------------------------//

Zlat
The weather finally cleared up after the 7th day, and with that, our moods drastically improved.  Unlike how it would be back home, the mud quickly turned back to hard packed dirt, and the water drained away from the fields.  Our march quickened, and we managed to finally let the curious changelings ask their questions, though most of them were directed at me about what I was, where I was from and what it was like.  It was then that they were extremely surprised to learn what blindness was, and that I had been so.  
Of course, being the only one in the unit who didn't know what a changeling was, I had my own questions.  If I were to bet, I was even more surprised to learn that they fed on both emotions that could last them for several days between feedings, and regular food which would only last them most of the day until they got hungry again.  
It was then that a very small changeling asked me, "You wouldn't happen to be willing to give me some would you?  I haven't had any emotion in a long time, and it would be a lot better than the gruel we've been eating."
I didn't really know how to react to this, "Uhh, how would you eat my... uh, emotion?  Will anything bad happen to me?"
He smiled sheepishly, "It's through a little magic.  Aside from feeling a little uncomfortable and a little tired, you'll be fine.  I won't be taking that much, honest!"
Rainbow Dash's voice piped up behind me, "Don't let him!  You can't trust a changeling!"
The Changeling flinched, genuinely looking hurt, "That ain't true, you can trust me!"  It didn't take my super-hearing to feel the hurt in his voice, as distorted as it was.
AJ grunted, "Rainbow, you should know better!  'Sides, he's tellin' the truth."  The unnatural glow of the changelings' eyes went to Applejack, and he smiled gratefully.  I almost could've swore I heard a "thank you".  
I chose to trust AJ's judgement and the Changeling, so I gave him a friendly smile, "Kay, go ahead little man."  The changelings' face lit up with a bright fanged smile, and his... ears?... raised.  He looked kinda cute actually.  His horn lit up with a green energy.
He wasn't lying when he said it felt uncomfortable.  It felt like a small fire was lit in my head, and I generally felt nauseous. But once his horn died down, the feeling vanished, a weak headache remaining.  When I looked back at the changeling, he was a little bigger, and smiling widely. 
"Thank you so much!  I won't have to eat for another week thanks to you!"  My heart surged with the joy of making him so happy, and I wanted his happiness to continue.
I smiled back at him, and pat his shoulder, "Sure thing.  If you want, you can feed again once you're hungry again.  By the, what's your name?"
"Arid!  Yours?"
"Zlat, nice to meet you Arid."  We shake hands, and Arid left back to his unit, waving happily.  I watched him go, still feeling pretty good.
AJ slapped me roughly on the shoulder, "That was mighty nice a' you Zlat!"
"Yeah, kinda reminds me of my brother, and how he looked after me for all those years.  If he thought it helped me, he did."  I sighed reminiscing in the memories, "Damn, I miss him."
"Well, hopefully this war will end soon, and you can go see him again."  Bouncer said as comforting as he could manage, which wasn't too well with his rough voice.  But it was the thought that counted.  
I muttered a thanks back to him, but I still missed him.  I hoped my letter was going to reach him soon, and that he was writing me back.  Unfortunately, mail was going to be slow, seeing as how we were constantly moving.  So I'd just have to wait.



Wolfgang
I found myself on the recliner once again, sipping on some water from the tap while I asked them about the rest of their stay here in Chestia.  Steel bemoaned his struggles over his projects, unable to make any headway with the designs.  The kids thoroughly enjoyed tv, but they could never agree on what to watch, and many of the truly good ones, their parents forbid them to watch.  "Too barbaric", "Far more mature for your age", "You're not watching it because we said so" were common responses to their pleas to alleviate their boredom with the shows.  I found myself in the unique position to be looked up to with hopeful eyes, seeing as how to them, I was an adult, and therefore had some potential sway with the parents decision.
Damn, they want me to take a shot at convincin' their parents.  Just to play with them, I made a show of thinking it over, raising my eyes to the furthest they could go, and tilting my head.  On one hand, they could learn a good deal about our culture and mature a little on their own.  Plus, it might good for Steel and Lucky's ear drums.  On the other, it really wasn't my place to decide how they wanted to raise their children as long as they were trying to raise them as best they could.
"Well, I can certainly understand why yer parents want ya to not watch a lot of shows.  My culture an' social values are a farsight from yer own.  I still think that you'd enjoy them an' learn a good deal if someone were to explain things out an' guide you along why things 'r portrayed, but if yer parents think it's a bad idea to expose you to them, then that's 'ow it'll be.  It's ther decision."  I could see Steel's approval towards how I worded my opinion, and grateful towards my respect towards his decision.  It was probably going to have a good effect on our relationship.  
However, I was going to give the kids something to hope for with a sly smile, "But maybe someday when yer older, you can watch 'em.  Who knows."
The kids didn't really look too happy about the lack of support, but they still had some of that hope in their eyes.  Hopefully, they'd be able to stay from being bored to death.


Lucky Singer

The shift FINALLY ended.  Working as both entertainment, and as a waitress, I had been given one of the shapeshifting necklaces that had been getting pumped out on-mass for the past few months to help me with the work.  Apparently, not only was I attractive as a pony, but also as a human if the constant wolf whistles and all the men hitting on me was anything to go by.  I tried to ignore it most of the time, but I found my cheerful demeanor falter towards the ends of the shifts.  I mean, they tipped generously, but today had been extremely taxing.  It being the weekend, it had been extremely busy, so it there had been more advances than normal.  Thankfully, no one had gotten "handsy" with my this time.
I went to the back of the restaurant, punched the time card, and took off the necklace, hanging it up on the hook next to the time machine.  I sighed wearily as I collected my saddle bags that the cooks had filled with leftovers and a spare newspaper, and left out the back.  Everything about me ached as I trudged down the block to the apartment building.  Absentmindedly, I wished none of this had ever happened.  I wished that Equestria had stayed as it had been, and that me and my family could have lived its' happy life in Apploosa.  But wishing couldn't do anything.  All I could do was enjoy being with my family as much as possible, harden myself against my burdens, and watch the war unfold through the newspapers. 
I hauled myself up the stairs, forced a smile on my face, and opened the door... to hear a voice I didn't recognize.
"Well if ya 'ave a problem with the weight, why dontcha add more support wheel sprockets?  You could spread out the weight, an' you don' even need tuh run crankshafts to 'em as long as they're attached to da tank.  Only downside is that ther's more parts an' you need tracks to keep the sprockets on something solid."  The voice sounded damaged, worn, and to my keen ears, weary.  Whoever it was, was very tired and in need of a long sleep.
Then I heard my husband, "Interesting!  Any idea of how to get the crankshaft to work right?"
"I ain't exactly a mechanic.  I'd think you'd just use 'em on the rear an' front sprockets to apply the torque right."
"Wonderful!  Now our only issue is how to get the turret to turn.  Right now we're looking at hand cranking, but hopefully we can figure out how to apply some hydraulics instead."
Before they could go down that rabbit hole, I jumped in, "Honey, who's that?"
My husband turned towards me with that spark in his eye that he got whenever he tinkered with machines, "This is Wolfgang Piatek!  He lived here before the war, and he's come back to live with us for the foreseeable future."
The human slowly stood up and out of the recliner that Steel normally relaxed in, and settled himself into a wheelchair I hadn't noticed.  I easily noticed the reason he needed the chair.  He was missing everything from around the knee down, his pant leg folded up and pinned just below the joint. Once settled, he looked at me with tired, but friendly eyes, "Afternoon ma'am.  I take it yer Lucky Singer?" I nodded, and he smiled a little more, though forcibly so, "Pleased to meet you."  He reached out with a hand, which I'd long since became accustomed to greeting bipedal people.  I shook it friendly enough.  Despite how worn and tired he looked, his grip was strong.
"Likewise.  Any news I might not have heard from the front?"
He shrugged, "Probably not.  I mean, we defeated the Fed army stationed at Ponyville, an' now the Militia is headin' off towards Canterlot with the Changelin' army.  I only know their marching cuz of the paper, but I don' know how far they've gone."
Now was as good a time as any to pull out the paper, which had the daily progress reports on the war, so I dug it out and offered it to him.  His eyes immediately focused on the paper, and hastily thanked me as he grabbed it out of my hoof.  He flipped through a few pages, looking for the war section.
In a distant tone, he began what I assumed was summarizing, "Allied troops have made it halfway to Canterlot, and all other enemy divisions have been shoved out of western, and central Equestria.  They've made some real good progress.  What's this?  We've started the invasion already?"
Invasion?  "What?  Where?"
"The Federation.  That island nation off the mainland.  We've landed in the north, Scotland.  The Feds 're so alarmed, that they're pullin' most of their troops out of Equestria to defend the island.  Except for their Canterlot contingent.  I'll bet you 50 bucks they're still hoping to win the war by taking the capitol."
"That won't work!  They'll just make Stalliongrad a temporary stand in until we could've retaken Canterlot."  Wrought put in.  Hmm, never figured Wrought would be so astute in strategy.  Heck, even I didn't think of that.  Maybe he's been reading the papers without me knowing.
Wolfgang clicked his tongue, "Exactly.  This is jus' a desperate gambit to try an' hold out.  Alright, let's see what else.  Yadda yadda yadda, and... Hm!   The Japanese have joined the war on our side on the condition they git favourable trade deals an' can take some land from the some of the aggressors.  Ooooh, crap.  China's in on it too.  They want... Griffonstone, Dragon Lands, Prance, and Germania.  The Pacific territories.  Thaaaaat's jus' great."  Wolfgang was scowling now.  What was so bad about China?  I asked him.
"They're the most densely populated country on the planet, an' they ain' afraid to throw troops at ther problems.  Even with Japan comin' in on our side, we're gonna need to take the Federation of Trade quickly an' rapidly switch over our troops to defend allied territory.  Even then, we might not be strong enough to survive their onslaught.  The Pacific countries are mobilizin' as fast as they can with the new equipment an' weapons, but I'm afraid that they still not be enough.  The Griffons are gettin' the most troops ready, practically every bird there that can hold a gun is gettin' ready.  The dragons are bein' the most impressive with their troop weaponry.  They're carryin' cannons around with them.  Problem is, there's not a lot of them, an' I don' know if they're bulletproof like one dragon I know."
"You know a DRAGON?!  Who?"  Warm Wind cried in disbelief.  It wasn't misplaced.  Dragons rarely resided in Equestria, and the were apt to cause trouble wherever they went.  To know a dragon, and refer to them without any malice or curse to their kind hardly ever passed in conversation.
"Spike, he's thee... uh... I don' know what 'is role is, but he lives with Princess Twilight.  Can't tell if their siblings, mother an' son, or what.  But from what 'e's told me, he's a baby.  Could've fooled me, seemed more like young teenager."
"I met a dragon traveling with his daughter once.  I asked him why he let his daughter get into all sorts of physical danger, and he said that the younger and smaller a dragon is, the stronger their scales are.  The way their biology works, is that once they have enough physical mass, they can absorb more hits, so the scale strength eases up to suck up less nutrients in maintaining them.  The babies having strong scales is more of a survival tactic if I'm to understand it."
Well, that's smart.  
"Anything else falling in our favor?"  Wrought asked, hoping for a miracle.
Wolfgang grinned wolfishly, which I found extremely unsettling on a human, no less a human with a mangled face, "We've got yer dad designin' a tank an' wonder weapons!"
"What'll more weapons do?  We've got plenty."  Warm asked.
"Tactical advantages.  Tanks, fer example, will scare the crap outta any infantrymen, an' they rarely have the arms to disable 'r destroy 'em.  From what I've heard, we've been tryin' to make handler safe flamethrowers, which scare infantry even more an' can clear trenches like no tomorrow.  Submarines were used a lot before the world tore itself apart, an' 'as been a lost wonder for forever now.  Those could hide from enemy ships an' could attack from underwater, dealin' loads of damage an' run before the enemy can do anythin'.  Lightweight armor could protect soldiers from incoming fire, an' keep the casualties down.  The rest is up to the imagination of the engineers an' scientists."
"No, I mean, wouldn't it be better if we just talked out our problems?  Maybe we made the angry or something."  Warm clarified.
Wolfgang shook his head, "Sometimes people can't be reasoned with.  The Europeans declared war simply outta greed an' want of more land.  I wouldn' be surprised if they wanted the land jus' so they could get closer to Chestia fer a later invasion.  In recent years, they've gotten more an' more hostile towards us, so it isn' that far fetched."
All this talk of war was beginning to unnerve me, so I changed subjects, "Well, it's getting late.  Why don't we have dinner?  I brought some leftovers from the diner!"
"Whatcha bring?"  Wrought asked, trying to hide his disdain of cold diner food.
"Vegi-burgers."